I served as the research analyst for a strategic communications plan for our client, The Refuge, a non-profit in Austin, TX. My team utilized Simply Analytics to identify the pivotal zip codes we needed to target to increase donations. As a team, we increased awareness of the brand by utilizing influencers, social media branding, SEM, partnership events, and a vulnerability analysis, which allowed us to prepare a crisis simulation for the team.

1. TheRefuge
BY SPE MEDIA

2. Agency Credentials
Mission Statement
The Refuge Research
The Issue
Product Analysis
Brand Building
Target Market
Competitor Analysis
Social Media Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Critical Issue One
Critical Issue Two
Critical Issue Three
Questions
Agency Agenda

3. Agency Credentials
Sharing our beliefs at Spe/Spé/ (n.): hope, expectation & aspiration
TRISTIN SAPP
Research Analyst
STEPHANIE GOMEZ
Copywriter
MACK WHITTENBURG
Social Media Analyst
CLARISSA RUIZ
Art Director
ELLEN WARREN
Project Manager

4. Sharing our beliefs at Spe/Spé/ (n.): hope, expectation & aspiration
Spe Media is a leading full-service agency located in Austin, Texas. Here at Spe, we
promote individualized strategic communication strategies to protect and build our
clients' brand. We believe in building the foundations required to create something
truly special. Our mission here at Spe is to provide the client with a valuable outcome.
Each of us at Spe Media has a passion for giving back to the community. We picked
the Refuge as our client for the compassionate nature of the organization. We hope
to grow with you and aspire to be a start to the solution of minor sex trafficking.
Through narrowly refined research, careful analysis of critical issues, and our agency's
determination to provide our clients with a media plan that reaches far beyond the
clients original goals, we are able to achieve measurable objectives in order to
increase brand awareness, donor revenue, and complexity of the issue The Refuge is
combatting; Minor Sex Trafficking.
Agency Credentials

5. The Refuge, a non-profit organization, provides trauma-informed, long-term
restoration for young women, through the age of 19, who have exploited through
sex trafficking. Brooke Crowder, Founder and CEO of the Refuge, has always had
a passion for helping victims of sex trafficking through proper care and
therapeutic services. After moving to Austin in 2010, she met others who shared
her passion and empathy. With the help of churches and local leaders in the
Austin community, Brooke launched the Refuge for DMST in 2013. The Refuge
provides the “broken-hearted, the weak and weary, and the ones who feels
forgotten” a sanctuary free of violence and exploitation.
At Spe Media, we understand the difficulty in providing residency and care for
young girls while also having to worry about the outside world looking in. In 2019,
having been open for only one year, The Refuge had already served 17 young
women, with three earning high school diplomas through The University of Texas
Charter System. We know mirroring the pivotal success of The Refuge will be a
challenge, but we have stepped up to the plate. Through an updated, fresh media
plan, we will be able to provide The Refuge with all the materials and
communications necessary to advance the mission to further minors who need
sanctuary.
Mission Statement

6. Our Findings
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How many people do you think are
being sex trafficked in Texas?
Have you ever heard of
The Refuge?
no
92%
yes
8%
items
58.3%
money
41.7%
Would you rather donate
money or items?

7. Child sex trafficking is the fastest growing
crime in the world.
Texas has the second most reported number of child sex
trafficking cases in the United States. According to the
Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault (IDVSA) and
The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, there
are 79,000 young adults and minors who have been victims.
Despite these large numbers, there are only 600 beds
available for victims, nation-wide.
The Refuge for DMST's mission is to provide a trauma-
informed, long-term restoration community with on-site services
for girls, minors through age 19, who have been exploited
through sex trafficking.
Problem At Hand

8. Psychiatric services from Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin and the
institute for Early Life Adversity Research
Education through the University of Texas-University Charter School (UT-UCS)
Medical services from community partners
Various therapeutic programs designed for the development of a child survivor
The Refuge carries out its mission of helping survivors by providing the following services:
Product Analysis
Developed by The Refuge for DMST™ (Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking),
they are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Their services are
free of charge for survivors.
Currently, The Refuge uses Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
and LinkedIn to promote their services. Despite having a large
following on Facebook and Instagram, their Twitter and LinkedIn
accounts have the lowest traffic.
In addition, their events have low turnout.
The Refuge Ranch is located outside of Austin, TX on a 50 acre plot.

9. The Refuge is the only healing center in the greater Austin area that is located on a
50 acre ranch and offers state of the art services and tools that are catered towards
the healing of the girls.
The Refuge is respected across the Austin community, and has received donations
and partnerships from brands across the nation, such as Dell and Kendra Scott.
Along with partnering with many churches in Austin, The Refuge has garnered a
considerable amount of esteem, not only in the Austin area but across Texas as well.
Child Sex Trafficking is a persisting issue throughout the state of Texas, with around 79,000
young adults being trafficked. The Refuge offers services that are relevant to healing the
trauma that these young adults have experienced.
The Refuge employees and caretakers are professionals in trauma-informed healing, and
have extensive knowledge on how to help these girls heal from their traumatic experiences.
Brand Building
Differentiation
Relevance
Esteem
Knowledge

10. THE DONORS
Donations are essential to keep
the Refuge in business. We
have identified that women
over the age of 35 in the
78746, 78733, and 78789
area codes will be our target
donor market.
THE CLIENT
The Refuge serves all
women who are under
the age of 19 and have
experienced any kind if
sex trafficking.
Continuing the Hope
The Refuge will target young
adults (16-25) through social
media to increase knowledge
of the organization which will
lead to an increase in earned
media and greater revenues
Target Market

11. Our target donor markets are the 78746, 78733,
and the 78789 area codes because, on
average, the households in these
neighborhoods donate the most money to
charities and nonprofit organizations and have
some of the higher average annual incomes in
Austin.
Source: SimplyAnalytics
93% of high-net-worth women gave money to charity last year
(2018), compared to 87% of high-net-worth men.
Women were also more likely to volunteer their time: 56% did so,
compared to 41% of men.
We will be targeting women over the
age of 35 who live in affluent
neighborhoods. Women are more likely
than men to donate to charity due to their
"empathetic concerns."
Source: BrandWatch, MarketWatch
Target Market
WHO
WHERE

12. The 78746 area code is one of the most sought after areas in all of Austin. The majority
of this zip code is in the Westlake neighborhood. Westlake is an affluent and majority
white neighborhood with a median household income of $169,948 a year. The average
annual salary in Austin is just $71,124. The Westlake neighborhood also donates the
most money to charitable organizations which is the reason they will be our primary
target market. On average each family donates $523.87 a month.
Source: SimplyAnalytics
Geographic Profile

13. The Westlake average contribution
to charity is $523.87 a month
WESTLAKE
AUSTIN $71,124
$169,948
Median Household Income
Source: SimplyAnalytics

14. SJRC provides a range of programs including, emergency placement,
therapeutic residential foster care, pregnant and parenting teen
services, parents as teachers program, community-based foster care
services, training, and adoption services.
Have been serving victims of minor sex trafficking since 2009.
They have multiple campuses which specialize in different healing
methods.
Located on a 10-acre campus in Bulverde, Texas and serves school
aged youth who are in state custody through the therapeutic residential
foster care program.
The campus is a 38 bed facility, is very home-like and teaches youth
life skills and recovery through therapeutic relationship building.
They utilize the trust based relational intervention model (TBRI) as
a primary program model, which is “a holistic intervention that meets
the needs of the whole child. It is an approach to caregiving that is
developmentally respectful, responsive to trauma, and attachment-
based.”
St. Jude Ranch for Children (Comal
County, TX)- SJRC Texas
Competitor Analysis
Source: SJRC Texas

15. Provides care to and housing to youth ages (0-24) who are experiencing
homelessness.
They have an array of programs: Residential, Outreach, Trauma
Informed Care.
Residential programs include
Transitional living program that allows homeless youth ages 18-21
shelter and care for up to 18 months
Emergency Youth Program that provides a short-term sanctuary for
38 youth ages 6-18 every night for up to 90 days
Wesley Inn Program, which provides sanctuary for pregnant and
parenting youth ages 14-20 for up to 2 years
Frannie C. Harris youth center, which uses a collective impact
approach to bring together a cross-sector group of public-private
partners towards the same goal of promoting self-sufficiency and
stable housing among unsheltered high school youth ages 14-21.
Trauma-Informed Care: Promise House utilizes the Sanctuary
model of care which is a theory-based, trauma-informed, trauma-
responsive, evidence-supported, whole culture approach to
organizational transformation
Holiday Engagement Plan: https://promisehouse.org/holidayhub/
Promise House (Dallas County)
Competitor Analysis
Source: Promise House

16. Mission: “Jonathan’s Place provides a safe place, loving homes and
promising futures for abused and neglected children, teens, and young
adults.”
Jonathan's Place provides a variety of programs including: Foster care
training, emergency shelter, girl’s therapeutic program, transitional living,
national safe place, and reset.
Jonathan's Place has all of their audit reports listed on their website
which lets donors know where their money is being allocated.
Provide long-term care to young girls ages 10-17 who have suffered from
various forms of abuse. The girls receive support from program staff,
case managers, psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists.
Jonathan’s place in an affiliate agency for National Safe Place, a 37-
year-old national youth outreach program that educates thousands of
young people, families and community agencies every year about the
dangers of running away, child sex trafficking and other threatening
situations
Safe Place offers a 24-hour crisis hotline, emergency counseling
services, and provide prevention and outreach services by offering Safe
Place presentations in local high schools and middle schools
Jonathan’s Place (Dallas County)
Competitor Analysis
Source: Jonathan's Place

17. Social Media Analysis (Competitors)
Biggest following is
on Facebook with
about 9700 followers
Biggest following is
on Facebook with
about 4400 followers
Biggest following Is
on Facebook with
about 7900 followers
Biggest following Is
on Facebook with
about 5300 followers
Idea: Share Amazon
Wishlist
Idea: Diversify
content between
platforms
Idea: include
LinkTree In bio of
social medias,
Including a link to
Safe Place.

18. Facebook is The Refuge's largest
social media platform with over
7000 likes and followers.
Twitter is the smallest of their
social medias, with only 583
followers.
By using the data collection tool
Brandwatch, we can see that an
overwhelming majority of
conversations surrounding child
sex trafficking occur on Twitter,
with over 69,000 mentions since
September 1st of 2019.
While The Refuge has a significant following on Facebook and Instagram, we believe that it is
critical to create an initiative to boost followers and interactions on Twitter.
Digital Persona

19. Situation Analysis
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS
The Refuge website is easy to use and visually appealing,
allowing inexperienced internet users easy navigation
The majority of Americans who have heard of QAnon
believe it’s bad for the health of the country. Of those
who have heard of the conspiracy, 57% say QAnon is
“very bad,” 17% say it is “somewhat bad, 20% say it is
“somewhat or a very good thing.” 6% of respondents did
not answer (Pew, 2020).
The Refuge has the lowest following on Twitter and
Twitter holds a majority of conversations surrounding
sex trafficking (The Refuge, 2020).
The Refuge social media channels are not well known
and don’t have a very high following (The Refuge,
2020).
The Refuge has a low turnout rate for new virtual
events, which may be causing less donations.
95.9% of Austin-area residents say they would donate to an
organization that helped women under the age of 19 who
have been sex trafficked recover (Spe Survey, 2020).
Of Austin area residents, 58.3% would rather donate items
rather than money, therefore The Refuge should promote
care packages on social media.
Generation Z and millennials set the tone for trends in the
digital space, therefore, The Refuge should target this
audience (Bader, 2020).
Through targeting Gen Z and millennials, we will able to
target their parents (Gen X and Baby Boomers) through
earned media (Wood, 2020).
The Refuge is unable to showcase testimonials by the
women who have partaken in the program due to
privacy reasons.
QAnon and dangerous conspiracy theorists, are a
danger to The Refuge mission and the girls in
rehabilitation.
Americans’ awareness of the QAnon conspiracy is
increasing dramatically. During February to March
2020, only 23% of U.S. adults had heard about QAnon
compared to September 2020, that number had
increased to 47% (Pew, 2020).

20. Critical Issues
The general public has
insufficient knowledge on
the issue of domestic minor
sex trafficking in the state
of Texas
General Knowledge
The Refuge has very low
brand awareness
Brand Awareness
Organizations such as
QAnon are a threat to The
Refuge's reputation and
security
Brand Protection

21. The lack of knowledge surrounding minor sex trafficking is
troubling and must be addressed. The aim is that increasing
public understanding of the problem will provide more significant
interest in the programs that combat it.
General Knowledge

22. Strategy
The Refuge will utilize social media as well as print
advertising to fill the insufficient information vacuum

23. Tactic #1
The Refuge will create a QR code that
directs the public to an interactive fact
sheet allowing for a spark of interest in
digital natives.
QR Code Fact Sheet
Awareness
As the QR code is sent out and
reposted, the greater the number of
consumers that will participate in the
interactive fact sheet, increasing the
awareness of the issue exponentially.
Exposure
The ease and usability of the QR code
will allow the code to be quickly sent to
others and posted on social media
channels, creating a large space to
increase knowledge and engagement
with the issue.
Placement
The QR Codes will be placed in religous
settings such as worship services,
religious education, retreats, confession,
study groups, counseling, and other
special ceremonies.,

24. Tactic #2
Influencer Marketing
Influencers will promote the Refuge
during big events through all social
media channels.
Who
Sam Ehlinger
Matthew Mcconaughey
Ashton Kutcher
Emily Herren (Top influencer in
Austin area)
Influencers will be well known advocates
for sex trafficking or influencers well
known in the Austin area.
Social media influencers will be utilized to
create high exposure on the issue on
personal social media platforms (Twitter,
Instagram, and Facebook).
Engagement
Apparel
Influencers will be encouraged to wear
Refuge apparel in sponsored posts.

25. Tactic #3
Facebook Branding
The Refuge has the highest following on
Facebook, therefore, promotions must be
high on this platform. We have created a
Facebook frame for our supporters to
utilize in month of January.
Hope in January
The Refuge will launch an advocacy
campaign in January (Human Trafficking
Prevention Month) and be highly active on
social media this month. The goal is to
spread knowledge of the issue while leading
into our next critical issue - Brand
Awareness
Info-Session
To reach our 'continuing the hope' target
market, we will have an info-session for
students at UT. This info-session will be
virtual and promoted in classes by students
(such as ourselves). This presentation aims
to inform students on the issue and how
they can be a part of the solution.
Weeklies in Newspapers
The Refuge will run weeklies in Newspapers
such as The Daily Texan, KVUE, Texas
Tribune to educate the public on the
amount of girls sex-trafficked every year.
This will increase viewership and therefore
increase engagement and awareness of the
issue.

26. The second Critical Issue is to increase the awareness of
The Refuge. Positioning The Refuge as the solution to the
problem and the expert at handling children sex trafficking.
Brand Awareness

27. The Refuge will utilize social media and search engine marketing (SEM)
therefore increasing both earned and owned media
Strategy

28. The QR code mentioned in critical issue #1 will take you through a
questionnaire about child sex trafficking, which will then take you
to a fact sheet about the real statics of children being sex
trafficked. THE REFUGE website will pop up as the solution to the
problem with information about what they do and how they can
help. There will be two buttons LEARN MORE OR DONATE TO
THE REFUGE.
Tactic #1
LEARN
LEARN
LEARN
MORE
MORE
MORE
DONATE
DONATE
DONATE

29. Through Search Engine Marketing (SEM) utilization, The
Refuge will drive website traffic and increase donations.
donate, donation,
human trafficking,
trafficking,
sponsor,
sponsorship, and
support.
Tactic #2
Keywords

30. The Refuge will create a partnership with
middle schools in our identified target market
zip codes and have classrooms "Adopt a
Survivor" this will allow both children and
their parents become more familiar with The
Refuge. This will create greater awareness
and knowledge.
This program will be posted on
Twitter to increase their
content stream
Tactic #3
Adopt A Survivor

31. Tracking website traffic from QR link
clicks and SEM clicks
Continued tracking conversation on
social media and brandwatch
The desired result from these tactics will be more knowledge
and esteem which will result in more donations!
Measurement and Results

32. The third Critical Issue is to protect The Refuge's brand.
With false news and conspiracy/terror groups, such as
QAnon, precaution must be taken in order to secure The
Refuge's image and reveal their true purpose.
Brand Protection

33. Various tactics will be implemented to create awareness and
safety.
Strategy

34. A Fact vs. Fiction sheet will be created and
dispersed on social media about The Refuge and
the issue as a whole.
There are many misconceptions about The Refuge and we want to
make sure that everyone knows the truth. The fact vs. fiction sheet will
be distributed at any Refuge events, posted on social media, and
readily available on the website.
Tactic #1

35. Create a Crisis Simulation for various cases such as
terrororist attacks, injuries, and false information towards
The Refuge.
By implementing a crisis simulation, we can ensure that the
employees of The Refuge are well prepared and equipped to
handle any crisis that may occur.
Tactic #2

36. To emphasize and honor The Refuge's purpose, we can
collaborate with art students from the University of Texas at
Austin to create artwork that champions their vision and mission.
The artwork will be displayed at art galleries such as
Women & Their Work and The Contemporary Austin. Funds that
are generated from sold tickets will go directly towards the girls
at The Refuge. In return, the artists involved will receive earned
media via The Refuge's social platforms and news media.
Tactic #3

37. Budget Breakdown
Spe Media Consulting service
rates = $150/hr X 30 hrs
Flyers
46.8%
Spe Media
46.8%
SEM
6.2%
Item 3
0.1%

38. At Spe, we are committed to the success of
The Refuge and believe in its mission. We
will strive to increase general knowledge,
brand awareness, and brand protection to
help take The Refuge to new heights.
Call To Action

39. SAFE PLACE

40. Questions