Extreme Recruiting

In May, 2010, Nashville was hit with devastating floods that caused billions of dollars in damage and destroyed hundreds of homes across the region. A cornerstone of the community, Lightouse Christian School’s preschool was wiped off the map. Rather than rebuild the facility, the staff plunged into serving others, helping their community rebuild first.

The producers of ABC’s hit show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” heard about this and decided to act.

The Challenge
The very premise of the show is to rebuild a home for a deserving family… in under a week. In this case, however, the producers had decided to rebuild a 6,500-square-foot preschool in the same time span. This would require more than 3,000 volunteers to work around the clock in a construction setting.

Implementation

Morgan Creative Services was called in by the lead marketing agency to assist with the advance work, heavily related to volunteer recruitment, of The Nashville Build.

Duties included writing press releases, social media, blog
writing, help with video and photography footage, and on-site assistance with the pre-build pep rally, which involved the show’s producers, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, local sports and radio personalities, and other celebrities and notable dignitaries.

Post-event work included the writing of magazine articles, case studies, and a speech about how the project came together.

Results

The producers of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition estimated that 3,000 volunteers, ranging from cheerleaders to skilled craftsmen, would be needed to complete the project in under a week.

The combined efforts of marketing agencies, suppliers and builders resulted in more than 4,000 volunteers.

However, the most important result is that the heart of the
Antioch community saw its preschool rebuilt, in one of the show's largest "makeovers".

The project was highlights on the Nov. 14, 2010 episode, viewed by more than 12 million people.