Creative Approach: To motivate in-person attendance, we needed to answer two fundamental questions: Why in-person? And why now?  Based on the foundational positioning that our presence makes a powerful statement, we developed a suite of messages that conveyed the urgency of being in the room to show up, speak out, and fight antisemitism and hate at this critically important time. 

Paid Media Approach: We spread this message through a paid media plan that revolved around finding the audiences in the tri-state and east coast areas most likely to purchase a ticket and attend in person. Knowing that audiences still consider and purchase tickets for in-person events later than they did pre-pandemic, we began with impression-driving programmatic placements and YouTube bumper content to generate awareness 2-3 months before the event. We doubled down on ads with historically high-performing Jewish publications to drive awareness in key markets and then built on those messages with dedicated emails that educated audiences about our programming and speakers. These conversion-driving tactics were deployed periodically during the 2 months leading up to the event and were supplemented by targeted video ads on paid social that told the story of our event and drove audiences to the site to learn more and buy tickets. We also incorporated digital out-of-home ads and TransitWireless wifi sponsorship in strategic neighborhoods in New York City where we knew we could reach our target audience while elevating the ADL brand. 

Our work extended beyond marketing and branding into the production of the virtual event, the creation of the hero video, and management of the event website.  

• Virtual Event Production: Town Hall supported ADL in the virtual production of the first-ever hybrid Never Is Now. This involved pre-production & planning, effective collaboration & execution with the in-person event and Javits Center teams, load-in and technical rehearsal, and seamlessly live-streaming sessions throughout the day. 
• Hero Video: Town Hall created the hero video that opened the summit for in-person and virtual audiences. This video captured the urgency of ADL’s mission to fight antisemitism and all forms of hate and highlighted a selection of ADL’s many accomplishments in this fight over the past year.

• Website: We maintained the Never Is Now website we built in 2021 and made structural updates to ensure it could clearly communicate key details to in-person attendees while offering a smooth streaming experience for virtual participants. This included the development of a brand new agenda page, a reimagined homepage for the day of the event, and a range of new pages to host virtual sessions that streamed throughout the day.