Dear Host Family
Integrated Marketing Campaign | Concept Development | Art Direction | Video Production
An emotionally driven recruitment campaign built around authentic exchange student testimonials, transforming personal stories of gratitude into a compelling invitation to become a host family.
CAMPAIGN IMPACT
200,728 impressions · 12,325 clicks · 21 deals closed · $20,573 revenue
The campaign reached prospective host families through coordinated digital advertising and generated measurable engagement and recruitment outcomes.
By pairing authentic student storytelling with a consistent digital recruitment experience, Dear Host Family connected emotional brand messaging with tangible marketing results.
Project Overview
Dear Host Family is an integrated recruitment campaign developed for Youth For Understanding USA (YFU), designed to inspire prospective host families through the authentic experiences of international exchange students.
Rather than relying on traditional promotional messaging, the campaign places students' voices at the center of the story. Personal reflections about belonging, cultural discovery, and the relationships formed during exchange become a collective message of gratitude to the families who open their homes.
The campaign extended across video advertising, paid social media, digital landing pages, and an interactive host family quiz, creating multiple opportunities for prospective families to engage with YFU.
Objectives
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Increase awareness of YFU's host family program and encourage prospective families to consider hosting.
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Build emotional connections through authentic student experiences rather than traditional recruitment messaging.
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Address the motivations and uncertainties of potential host families through relatable storytelling.
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Create a cohesive recruitment experience across video, paid advertising, landing pages, and interactive content.
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Generate qualified interest and support host family recruitment conversions.
Creative Strategy
The Dear Host Family concept was inspired by the emotional authenticity of testimonial-driven campaigns, including Apple's Dear Apple storytelling and the heartfelt approach of animal welfare advertising.
Recognizing the power of real student experiences, I developed the idea of presenting existing exchange student testimonials as a collective letter to the families who welcomed them.
The campaign uses personal expressions of gratitude, memories, and emotional connections to illustrate the lasting impact of hosting. By allowing students to speak directly to prospective families, the creative approach shifts the message from simply asking people to host toward showing them what becoming a host family can mean.
The visual and editorial direction emphasizes genuine emotion, intimate storytelling, and minimal distractions, allowing each student's voice and experience to remain the focus.
This central concept was extended across coordinated video advertisements, supporting digital creative, and landing page experiences that guided interested audiences toward learning more about hosting.
Campaign Assets (Meta & Google)
Developed testimonial-driven video creative for Meta and Google advertising, adapting the central Dear Host Family narrative into audience-appropriate formats.
The videos maintained a consistent emotional message while using different student voices and excerpts to communicate the impact of international exchange.
Process & Storyboarding
Developed a visual storyboard to establish the campaign's narrative structure, testimonial sequencing, and creative direction.
The planning process connected the video concept with supporting digital experiences, including campaign landing pages and an interactive host family quiz designed to encourage exploration and capture interest.
Together, these elements created a cohesive journey from initial campaign exposure to deeper engagement with YFU's hosting program.
My Role | Campaign Concept, Art Direction & Video Production
Led end-to-end creative development — from campaign concept and storyboarding through video editing, platform optimization, and stakeholder alignment across Meta and Google.
