H&R Block: Downtown Comes Alive Campaign

Challenge

After years of starts and stops in Kansas City’s downtown revitalization, the public was growing skeptical about the future of proposed projects, including H&R Block’s new downtown headquarters. What’s more, ongoing construction efforts were adding to frustrations by causing traffic delays and creating a general eyesore. H&R Block needed to ensure that the new building wasn’t perceived as a failure before its doors were even open.

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Alternative Views

Insight

Rather than downplaying the construction. We celebrated it. Construction equals progress. Progress equals excitement – and we needed people to feel a renewed sense of pride and anticipation for the cultural and economic opportunities coming to life in their city.

Uncommonsense

Reaching key opinion leaders was critical in helping H&R Block to overcome negative perceptions and generate a positive buzz for what it would mean for the city. For this reason, we orchestrated a big splash in the Kansas City Star to capture the attention of this audience and cast a large net within the public eye. The ad communicated excitement and, most importantly, progress. It highlighted the contribution it would have to the business, entertainment and arts communities in downtown Kansas City in way that also paid honor to the hard-working individuals that were helping this exciting opportunity take shape.