FutureHAUS Dubai is Virginia Tech’s revolutionary team responsible for building the homes of the future. FutureHAUS previously won the 2010 International Solar Decathlon in Spain for their project, LumenHAUS. Before representing the United States in the International Solar Decathlon competition in November 2018, FutureHAUS approached PRISM to assist this award-winning team in promoting their work. PRISM’s efforts focused on marketing and social media strategies promoting the organization’s work in preparation for the competition in Dubai.

Funding FutureHAUs

In November of 2017, PRISM was tasked with the goal of raising $10,000 to be used for the planning and construction of the 2018 FutureHAUS building. PRISM executed a crowdfunding campaign through Virginia Tech’s crowdfunding platform JUMP. A team of PRISMites designed and implemented a social media strategy and strategic marketing plan for the crowdfunding campaign on the Virginia Tech campus. With the help of PRISM, FutureHAUS exceeded their crowdfunding goal by raising over $11,000 in only a few short weeks. PRISM’s innovative marketing strategy not only helped push the FutureHAUS project forward, it also created a great deal of attention, labelling FutureHAUS as a project to watch.

At the end of the Fall of 2017, PRISM tapped into the world of experiential marketing to find a way for FutureHAUS to thank the Virginia Tech community for their support in the crowdfunding campaign and celebrate the team’s upcoming competition. PRISM planned and orchestrated the unique event, Lights on at the LumenHAUS. At this event, the Virginia Tech community was invited to tour Virginia Tech’s LumenHAUS and learn what to expect for the upcoming FutureHAUS project from current FutureHAUS members. As a result of PRISM’s marketing efforts, a couple hundred Virginia Tech students, faculty, and community members were able to explore the LumenHAUS and learn more about FutureHaus’ highly-anticipated next project.

“Digital Natives” Video:

Always looking to the future, FutureHAUS wanted a way to connect their work with the next generation, so PRISM got to work on a creative digital marketing strategy. PRISM’s multimedia team created the four-part video series “Digital Natives” in which children were asked open-ended to use their imaginations to describe how they envision homes will look like in the future. By engaging with the youngest members of the community, PRISM hopes to inspire children to maintain a lifelong interest in FutureHAUS projects, as they will likely be living in FutureHAUS creations in their lifetimes. In the summer of 2018, PRISM created and implemented a digital marketing plan centered around the “Digital Natives” video series. This campaign broke through to a previously untouched market of future consumers and helped to stimulate FutureHAUS’ social media throughout summer break to keep followers engaged.