Homelessness is Not What You Think
The Challenge
In early 2025, the Masterworks creative director team was tasked with developing a brand-neutral, national CTV ad campaign that could be adopted by rescue missions across North America. But there were challenges: The creative needed to work across vastly different geographies, climates, and demographics, from Tampa Bay, FL to Vancouver, BC. It needed to balance emotional storytelling with fundraising impact. And it had to resonate in a different political and cultural climates (without alienating local audiences).
The Approach
As the lead Creative Director on the project, I guided our internal teams through a high-speed concept refinement process. Two different ideas emerged from our creative directors. Instead of choosing one, I strategically merged both concepts into a single emotionally resonant narrative arc.
From there, I led:
- Narrative development of the campaign’s visual concept — including the final storyboard titled “Birthday”, a moving metaphor showing a girl aging over the years without ever getting the home she’s wishing for.
- Creative direction for video production and voiceover tone.
- Messaging architecture for the full cross-channel campaign, including landing page headlines, UX flow, and calls-to-action.
- Wireframe design for the modular, brand-neutral landing page that could be localized for each mission.
This CTV campaign was designed to challenge public perceptions and drive top-of-funnel awareness while giving space for each mission to adapt messaging to their own city.
Our team delivered a full suite of assets, including:
- 15 and 30-second commercial-grade CTV spots
- Localized end cards and calls-to-action for each mission
- A ready-to-deploy, CMS-driven landing page wireframe with dynamic fields for custom stories and city-level data
- Messaging framework and donation prompts
- A major donor appeal template to help missions secure local match funding
Clients only needed to provide minor brand assets, and we handled the rest. Eight rescue missions opted into the campaign...some for organic distribution, others through paid CTV managed by our team.
Participating Missions:
- Metropolitan Ministries (Tampa, FL)
- Star of Hope (Houston, TX)
- Atlanta Mission (Atlanta, GA)
- CityTeam
- San Diego Rescue Mission
- Durham Rescue Mission
- Union Gospel Mission (Vancouver, BC)
- Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission
Why It Worked
This campaign was more than a standalone video ad. It was a turnkey creative ecosystem that blended high-quality storytelling, localized UX, and integrated media planning.
The approach lowered the barrier to entry for clients who wanted powerful video fundraising tools but didn’t have in-house capacity. And because of its modularity, it scaled effortlessly across cities—without losing emotional punch or local relevance.
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