National Fair Housing Alliance: Using multi-year conference marketing to carry a campaign through changing formats

Overview

NFHA needed conference marketing across multiple years and formats, from its first-ever virtual national conference through subsequent in-person and hybrid events, with each year requiring its own campaign strategy while maintaining organizational consistency. The transition to virtual came during COVID, and Black Digital was foundational to that pivot, then stayed on through the return to in-person convenings in the years that followed.

For the first virtual conference, Black Digital designed the conference branding, built the digital content strategy, and ran the Facebook advertising that drove registration on a $13,000 budget. For 2022’s “Advancing Fair Housing to Build an Inclusive Economy,” the team designed the full program book and event assets around marquee sessions, including a fireside chat between CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and NFHA CEO Lisa Rice, plus roundtables on COVID-19 safety and the pandemic’s K-shaped recovery in communities of color. For 2023’s “The Fair Housing Act at 55: Advancing a Blueprint for Equity,” the team produced event assets and promotional materials around a keynote from HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, a discussion between civil rights lawyer Ben Crump and Lisa Rice, and plenary sessions on equitable COVID-19 housing policy and AI’s role in housing discrimination, featuring senior Biden administration officials including FHFA’s Sandra Thompson and the DOJ’s Kristen Clarke. Each year built on the last rather than starting from scratch: branding and visual systems carried across web, print, and social; paid social and search campaigns targeted advocates, policymakers, and corporate partners; and registration landing pages, email sequences, and speaker-spotlight series ran the same disciplined promotional calendar every cycle.

Results

• 600+ registrations, 1.1 million impressions, and 44,669 link clicks at $0.29 cost per click from a $13,000 budget for the first virtual conference
• 24 verified conference assets produced for 2022, 13 for 2023, and 15 for 2024, spanning strategy and planning, brand and promotion, email, sponsorship, and onsite experience
• Full program books, environmental signage, stage graphics, and sponsor recognition materials delivered for every conference year

A national conference needs marketing that evolves with the event’s format while staying recognizable year over year. This relationship gave NFHA that continuity across a genuinely eventful multi-year stretch, from a pandemic-era virtual pivot through a return to full in-person programming with some of the most prominent names in housing policy on stage.

Related Services

• Conference Branding and Event Marketing
• Campaign Strategy and Creative