How Havas Chicago launched an installation during the pandemic.  The tremendous thought that was put into how the installation was constructed - from the materials and colors used, to choosing the person who crafted it.

 

 

Many service members sleep in a sleeping bag during their deployment. Tonight more than 37,000 Veterans will be back in one on the street.

 

To raise awareness of Veteran homelessness, Havas Chicago created The Battle Home, an experiential art installation in partnership with the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and Veterans Community Project (VCP). The exhibit recognizes the pioneering work of Mark Solomon, a Veteran and NAR realtor who founded VCP, which built a village of 49 tiny homes in Kansas City, Missouri, and provides support and services to homeless Veterans. Solomon was the recipient of NAR’s Good Neighbor Award in 2019 for his positive impact on his community.

 

The Battle Home is a replica of one of VCP’s tiny homes and was built with bricks made out of Veterans’ actual sleeping bags. Every detail serves to educate the public about Veteran homelessness, create empathy and awareness of their experiences, and show people how they can help by supporting VCP.

 

The installation is outfitted with QR codes that allow visitors to experience the true stories of 11 Veterans’ journeys from living on the street to living in a tiny home provided by VCP.

 

One month after debuting in Kansas City’s Union Station, John Norman, Chief Creative Officer at Havas Chicago, sat down with two creatives on his team to go behind the scenes and discuss the creative point of view that guided the project.

 

 

Brett Terblanche, Creative Director: Deployed service members spend three fourths of their time in sleeping bags and too often end up back in sleeping bags on the streets when they return home, due to a lack of understanding and support from society as they try to re-enter civilian life.

 

Lewis McVey, Group Creative Director: When a human truth comes as a bit of a surprise, has some sense of “Yes, of course, but I never thought of it that way before” – that’s when you know you’ve got something special. Brett and the team uncovered an insight about deployed service members and their sleeping bags, and how too many homeless Veterans end up living out of sleeping bags on the street. That truth about the sleeping bag was the building block for the idea, and those bags became a literal building block for The Battle Home.

 

 

Brett: We were struck by some estimates that over 37,000 Veterans are homeless on a given night in the U.S. It was important to us to create each brick of the house using real Veterans’ sleeping bags. We created a design language drawn from the fabrics, textures, badges and fonts of the Military. The A-frame angles of the structure resemble the chevron shape of ranking badges. This language also comes to life when users scan the QR codes to reveal true stories in video that could be shared on social media.  

 

 

 

 

 

Brett: The VCP village is comprised of tiny houses, so it was important to create a physical structure for people to get a sense of the community that Mark has helped build for Veterans. When you’re asking people to donate, I find it most meaningful to offer people the chance to interact with the solution, making them more inclined to help. It was also important to humanize the installation, so we created scannable codes for the public to hear true stories and watch videos to learn more about specific Veterans’ involvement.

 

Lewis: The house itself is the medium and every creative decision the team made is in service to the message. There are QR codes embedded into the bricks that unlock first- person stories on the phone in your hand, all shot in a documentary way with these amazing immersive soundscapes. To step into The Battle Home is to walk a bit in someone else’s shoes, to feel their pain, their hope and their pride.

 

 

 

Brett: Creating an installation in another state while overseeing the physical build through photos and FaceTime had its challenges – particularly when making sure each brick was crafted correctly and the scale was large enough to stop people in their tracks. But thanks to FedEx and the shorthand that comes from working with a cohesive team, we managed to get it done.

 

 

Brett: Being new to Havas Chicago, this project exposed me to new people in the agency who I got to know really well. It also showed me how strong and resilient of an agency Havas is when faced with challenges like a global pandemic and looming deadlines. We pulled together as a team and found a way to always be kind to each other while creating a great piece of work. What more could you want from a workplace?

 

Lewis: I’ve always known this, but this project was a terrific reminder: advertising is truly a team sport. Everyone had a role to play in nurturing this idea and making this work come to life. Amazing effort and commitment across the board made this one great.

 

Closing:
After debuting in Kansas City this summer, The Battle Home will travel around the country to future VCP site locations. Meanwhile, the Veterans’ stories can be viewed at thebattlehome.com on a mobile device.

 

 

For more information about NAR and the Good Neighbor Awards, visit nar.realtor/GNA.