Raising Awareness

1. Raising Awareness Joseph LaMountain President, Sparklight Communications

2. Raising Awareness (with no $) Joseph LaMountain President, Sparklight Communications

3. Today’s Session... Examine today’s communications landscape Discuss new approach to awareness raising Communications pyramid 5 Characteristics of an awareness campaign Group exercise.

4. A little background… President, SparkLight Communications Communications, advocacy and marketing consulting, mainly health groups. VP of Vision Council National Director of Advocacy American Diabetes Assn G’town professor since 2009, attended Wake Forest, raised in NJ, live in Alexandria www.SparklightCommunications.com

5. Background… Some of the health groups we’ve represented and worked for since 2006. We’ve worked in collaboration with many more.

6. And a little more… Founder of MV Big Flea charitable event ($93,481) (www.mvbigflea.com). Campaign manager, Mimi Carter for School Board electoral campaign. Both are successful campaigns that rely on grassroots networks. You can learn a lot from a political campaign

7. Communications Today

8. The Changing Landscape Major transformation from 1900-2000 Candidates - From “front porch” to 24/7 news cycle. Companies - From catalogues to user generated content Causes - From churches and unions to identity politics In 1980…7 TV channels in NYC, no internet, VCR/DVD, email, etc…

9. Harder and harder… We are swimming in messages and communications Much more difficult to reach people using traditional vehicles (mass media) Social media and internet reduce barriers, but they also increase volume of communications How do you reach someone in our media saturated environment?

10. The Power of Personal Connections There are plenty of advertising executives who think that precisely because of the sheer ubiquity of marketing efforts, word-of-mouth appeals have become the only persuasion that most of us respond to any more. Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point

11. Put another way.... The widespread availability of [information] has taken America back more than 100 years to a time when “influentials” ruled. Americans feel more of a need to have someone help them wade through all of this data and then let them know who or what they can trust. Matthew Dowd Political Consultant

12. But it’s a small trend... Grassroots is still a small focus for companies, candidates and causes. Navigators are 10-15% of population and help influence the choices of their family members, neighbors, and colleagues Navigators are powerful, and companies and political campaigns continue to underutilize them (Dowd).

13. What does that mean for you? To reach a lot of people, you don’t need an advertising budget. And advertising isn’t very effective anyway. You already have an asset that can reach thousands, if not millions of people. But most organizations are not using that asset to their best advantage.

14. Your volunteers!

15. The Power of Volunteers Volunteers can reach thousands by taking simple actions in their community. Their communications are also more powerful than advertising. Best of all, they’re FREE! Extremely powerful, few nonprofit organizations take advantage of. Politicians have honed it to an art and science.

16. Getting Started… More Proof that Grassroots is Best A high impact recommendation - from a trusted friend conveying a relevant message, for example - is up to 50 times more likely to trigger a purchase than is a low-impact recommendation. Only factor that ranks among the three biggest consumer influencers at every step of the decision-making process

17. Joe’s Communication’s Theory

18. A Real Example

19. Case Study: MV Big Flea Charity flea market fundraiser to benefit local PTA. Raised $93,481 in 5 years. Nominal advertising. More than 95% word of mouth. Hundreds of donors and volunteers each year, more than 1,000 attendees Website has 69,947 visitors since January 2008 Followed same principles of electoral campaign

20. National Epilepsy Awareness Month • EF represents 3 million people with epilepsy • 50 independent affiliates • November is National Epilepsy Awareness Month • 30-second SWOT analysis: • Strength (credibility) • Weakness (decentralized) • Opportunity (leadership) • Threat (competition) • The “NEAM Team”

21. National Epilepsy Awareness Month How can we raise awareness? Began in earnest in July. Goal: Make 1 million Americans Seizure Smart! Strategy: (a) Mobilize people to distribute Seizure Smart! Quiz and (b) generate media. Then we developed tactics for implementation in Nov. Facebook, 2 email lists of 50K, affiliates, Twitter, website, eCommunities.

22. Did we Reach Our Goal? • Goal: Make 1 million Americans Seizure Smart (quiz and media coverage) • Distributed 1 million quizzes through notepads • 5,000 downloads of PDF version of quiz (@100 distributed per = 500K) • 15 media placements @50K each = 750K • Total: 2.25 million people made Seizure Smart

23. Please remember this... People will spread the word if you give them meaningful, actionable things to do. Put volunteers to work! An initiative like this is also an excellent donor prospecting tool. Stop asking for money on the very first date! Engage them first.

24. 5 Campaign Principles

25. Top 5 Characteristics... Every awareness campaign should have: Message platform “Mass” contacts with individuals “Better” contact with individuals Identify supporters Manage & Use Data

26. #1: Message Platform Why are you saying? Make your messages sticky. If you don’t get someone’s attention, you’re done. Distill to key points, commit to memory and repeat Make as personal as possible. Touch someone emotionally and logically. Use proof points to buttress your claims.

27. Six Steps to Stickiness Sticky: Understandable, memorable, effective in chaging thought or behavior Simplicity Unexpectedness Concreteness Credibility Emotional Stories

28. Six Steps to Stickiness Sticky: Understandable, memorable, effective in chaging thought or behavior Simplicity Unexpectedness Concreteness Credibility Emotional Stories Pretty clever, eh?

29. #2: More Contacts • Goal is to reach maximum number of people with your messages • Helps increase name recognition; does not persuade people to take action. • Low impact, low persuasion, low cost • Examples include:

30. #2: More Contacts • Goal is to reach maximum number of people with your messages • Helps increase name recognition; does not persuade people to take action. • Low impact, low persuasion, low cost • Examples include: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, website, blog, PR/earned media, PSAs

31. #3: Better Contacts Who are you talking to? Target the specific audiences you want to reach. The more narrowly you target your messages, the better. Educators vs School Board Focus on the connectors in a community, those who are active and know many other people. Influentials is a great book on finding connectors in your midst

32. Case Study: The Influentials Roper ASW research and polling firm developed questionnaire to ID influentials. Those answering “yes” to 3+ questions were considered influential in their community. How could this be used in real life to find influential volunteers?

33. #3 - Better Contacts How are you communicating with your audiences? Goal is to use very personal “high impact” communications to reach key audiences. Personal communications are far more persuasive and can convince people to act. Examples:

34. #3 - Better Contacts How are you communicating with your audiences? Goal is to use very personal “high impact” communications to reach key audiences. Personal communications are far more persuasive and can convince people to act. Examples: Phone calls, group meetings, individual face-to-face meetings

35. Joe’s Communication’s Theory

36. #4: ID Your Supporters Goal of ID efforts: • Ask people if they will take action and spread the word and help raise awareness. • Track who says yes and takes action, says no & does nothing • Those who take action become your worker bees. • Great way to begin cultivating leaders in your group.

37. Universities are doing it too! UCSD engagement aims to secure support from alumni (time, talent and treasure). 5 step engagement model: Communicate Touch (reaction) Acquire (action taken) Cultivation/Cross-Selling Leadership You can’t just keep asking for $

38. Tactic #5: Manage Data Data is Coin of the Realm: Managing data can be intensive or as simple as an Excel spreadsheet. Ideally you track all activities a person takes, base future requests on past levels of support Keeping a list of people involved in the campaign is better than noting.

39. Case Study: MV Big Flea Interesting Message - Logo, name, “Get the Bug,” videos More Contacts - Website, Craigslist, Ebay, Listservs “Better” Contacts - Connectors and personal conversations. ID Supporters - MVCS Parents. Give them something to help spread word, give, volunteer Manage & Use Data Any group can do this! Few do!

40. Case Study #2: Mimi Carter • Mimi Carter School Board campaign did each of the following: • Message Platform • More Contacts w/Voters • “Better” Contact w/Voters • Identify Supporters • Manage & Use Data • Won election (2nd place of 5 where top 3 win).

41. Building a Campaign

42. Getting Started… Getting Started Where do you begin when you’re starting (or inheriting) a campaign??? Analyze existing efforts and recommend where to go Must develop a strategic campaign to achieve objectives. Planning process results in campaign that can be implemented

43. Getting Started… Remember the GOST Goals Objectives Strategies Tactics

44. Definitions Definition of terms… Objective: WHAT you specifically want to achieve Strategy: HOW you plan to achieve your objective. Tactics: WHAT you are going to do (and ask others to do?) First step in an effective campaign is to create this framework. Make them SMART!

45. Definitions Let’s Design a Campaign! Objective: Educate 1 million people about DS and acceptance by 12/31/12. This was a goal established by Down Syndrome Assn of Northern Virginia Strategy: Recruit and mobilize supporters to deliver information to audience. Group exercise to focus on each element of campaign.

46. Small Groups Discussion • Small groups discus and report out the following: • 1. Message platform - What will you say? Who can help you develop? How to make it interesting sticky and personal? • 2. More contacts w/public - How will you do it? What tools do you need? What can volunteers do to spread word?

47. Small Groups Discussion, cont. • Small groups discus and report out the following: • 3. Better contacts - Who are key audiences you want to reach? How can volunteers reach them? • 4. Better contacts - How will you “high touch” people? What can volunteers do? Who will they focus on?

48. Getting Started… Put the Pieces Together Bringing all this together, along with a timeline, is the campaign foundation. You can build out with even more more details, link to activities (Buddy Walk). Once you ID these key pieces, you have an integrated campaign to raise awareness. Recruit volunteers with marketing expertise to develop & implement.

49. Joe’s Communication’s Theory

50. Your volunteers!