The Trust for Public Land: From Hollywood to Save The Peak
The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a national, nonprofit, land conservation organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, community gardens, historical sites, rural lands, and other natural places, ensuring livable communities for generations to come. For the past several years, The Trust for Public Land has sought to acquire Cahuenga Peak, a 138-acre parcel of land located directly adjacent to the Hollywood Sign in the Santa Monica Mountains, from private land developers whose aim is to build luxury housing on the peak. Through an agreement with the land owners of Cahuenga Peak, TPL was given an exclusive option until April 2010 to purchase the land for $12.5 million. If the campaign failed, the land would be sold to the highest bidder. If successful in raising the funds, Cahuenga Peak would be donated to the City of Los Angeles and made into an extension of Griffith Park.
In mid-2009, with less than one year until TPL's exclusive option expired, Atomic was brought on board to drive media and public awareness to Cahuenga Peak, as well as TPL's integral involvement in the campaign to save the land from development.
A ComContext analysis of historical media and blog coverage of TPL and other land conservation related non-profits clearly identified the most important journalists covering the space, surfaced the topics most actively being followed, profiled the media dialog around various land conservation projects, and suggested gaps in coverage and content that TPL could potentially fill. Armed with that information, Atomic sought to raise the campaign's profile by driving awareness through a multi-tiered media program across the local and national level, leveraging partnerships with notable figures to maximize the urgency of the campaign, educating local communities and the general public about Cahuenga Peak, driving visibility and recognition for campaign donors through creative events and broadening recognition of TPL's tenure as the leading non-profit organization conserving public land nationally.
Atomic's Digital Ops team sought to raise Cahuenga Peak's online presence during the campaign with the creation of a microsite, SaveHollywoodLand.org, intended to feed up-to-date information on the campaign and accept donations from the public.
The microsite also hosted blog posts from various celebrities and political supporters of the campaign, including Dame Elizabeth Taylor, LA City Councilman Tom LaBonge, James Kyson Lee (NBC's Heroes) and many others. Additionally, Atomic utilized social media networks by setting up a "Save Cahuenga Peak" Facebook page, Twitter page and Flickr page.
Within one week of the campaign launch, over $1 million dollars were received via the microsite and directly mailed donations. Within two weeks, the "Save Cahuenga Peak" Facebook page had gone from several dozen fans to over 19,000 fans.
Atomic, in conjunction with TPL, realized that the best way to garner attention to the plight of Cahuenga Peak was to utilize its iconic neighbor: the Hollywood Sign. With the support of Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge, Atomic and TPL came up with an eye-catching stunt that entailed covering the Hollywood Sign with a banner that read, "Save The Peak". The banner unveiling coincided with the campaign launch date.
The campaign launch announcement, along with the covering of the Hollywood Sign, sparked a media frenzy. Within a week of the launch, the campaign received coverage in all the major media outlets including: the Yahoo! launch page, The Ellen Show, Associated Press, USA Today, New York Times, BBC, CNN, NPR, Access Hollywood, all major national morning shows and over 780 additional broadcast and print placements.
Atomic drove partnership efforts with Tiffany & Co Foundation, which donated over $ 1 million dollars to the campaign as well as the Getty family, which contributed an undisclosed amount. Lastly, Atomic solidified celebrity campaign ambassadors such as Julia Louis-Dreyfus (CBS's New Adventures of Old Christine), John Slattery (AMC's Mad Men), Julian McMahon (FX's Nip/Tuck), Aisha Tyler (FOX's 24), Tippi Hedren, Katherine Morris (CBS's Cold Case), Bryan Cranston (AMC's Breaking Bad), Beau Garrett (Fantastic Four) and many others.
On April 26th, 2010, The Trust for Public Land held a press conference announcing a $900,000 donation from Playboy Founder, Hugh Hefner and that it raised the $12.5 million needed to save Cahuenga Peak from development. The announcement and press conference received coverage in a diverse array of large media outlets including: CNN, National Public Radio, Extra!, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian (UK) and the cover of Variety magazine.
In total, the "Save The Peak" campaign garnered over 8,000 online and print articles and 5,939 mentions on broadcast television and raised a total amount of $12.5 million.
As a result of this campaign, Cahuenga Peak will be donated to the city of Los Angeles, which will in turn, make it a part of Griffith Park.
