PR Campaign Plan for Friends of the Earth UK - Essay Example

?PR CAMPAIGN PLAN FOR FRIENDS OF THE EARTH UK 0 Background Friends of the Earth (FOEI) UK is a member of the Global network of environmental organizations. The common goal is not only to advocate environmental conservation but also the issue of sustainability in economic and development areas, hence the claim of the "world's largest grassroots environmental network" that works on helping address "the most urgent environmental and social issues" (FOEI UK 2012). FOEI UK adheres to the overarching goal of the FOEI network by focusing on its four core priorities: socio-economic justice, protecting the forest and biodiversity; food; and, climate and sustainable energy. To this end, FOEI UK designed and implements four campaigns. These are: 1.1 Make it Better An advocacy targeted towards users of smart phones. The objective is to raise awareness in regard to how tin is being used in the screens of touch phones manufactured by companies like Samsung and Apple. Consequently, the campaign seeks to pressure these companies to reveal where their tin supplies are mined. By doing so, supply chains will be revealed as well. The tin is believed to be mined in Bangka Island, Indonesia and FOEI UK stresses that these companies must be called to task about how tropical forest and coral reefs are destroyed in the area. 1.2 Clean British Energy This campaign aims to contribute to the initiatives urging the British government to shift from fossil fuels and nuclear power to sustainable and renewable energy. This campaign touches on aspects of sustainability by emphasizing the achievement of British energy independence in such transition. Specifically, it targets policymaking, particularly, seeking to influence an emergent Electricity Market Reform Plan. 1.3 The Bee Cause In line with FOEI's food sovereignty platform, FOEI UK promotes the BEE Cause campaign, which is all about saving the bees because its extinction in the UK would supposedly lead to higher food prices and severely impacting environment, particularly the gardens, parks and the countryside. 1.4 International Climate This campaign is a response to the global warming phenomenon, widely seen as the cause of- or aggravating circumstance to calamities such as the flooding and hurricanes in various parts of the world. FOEI UK works to influence global policymaking and philanthropy by pushing for an increase in emission targets and increase in funding for relevant funding and initiatives. The current PR initiatives are confined to FOEI UK’s website. This is problematic because its exposure is very limited. In each of the campaigns, for instance, there is a form that visitors can fill, serving as a petition. While this approach may be acceptable its viability is suspect. For example, if one looks at the signatories to the “petitions”, the highest number did not breach the ten thousand mark. Clearly, there is a need to revitalize the current campaign. 2.0 The PR Campaign Each of the FOEI UK's campaign have existing public relations mechanisms that are independent of each other. This specific PR campaign plan will augment and support each of these in the context of the UK experience. In Billings, Butterworth and Turman's (2012, pp.106) work on the link between communication and sports, it was argued that culture provide a context on how products or messages are conveyed and received. Also, the campaign will provide an overarching campaign that would integrate them into a unique strategy that makes use of new media. The ultimate objective is to amplify the messages of each of these campaigns by taking advantage of the proximity of the public in the Internet platform, particularly in social media. The level of integration and access to these online communities as well as the commitment and emotional involvement of its users are important windows of opportunity. French and Runyard (2012, pp.325) accessibility and permeation of social media and the Internet news cycle in fanning the flames of an issue and this is especially true in the case of crises. It was pointed out that negative stories tend to spread faster over the web and this is an opportunity aligned with FOEI's PR objectives. In order to establish proximity and engagement, the following initiatives must be undertaken: 1. Definition and classification of social media. 2. Based from that information, identify users and analyze their demographics. 3. Create and contextualize messages based on the available data variables. The classification of publics in the Internet and social media is important so that reaching out to them are effective in terms of the variable of "context and "timeliness". The idea is to identify the proximity to opportunity. For example, it is important to know who uses Facebook and Multiply or who participates in a forum or in a blog discussion or who spends time in video sharing sites, and so forth. These information will be more effective in delivering messages that have impact. This is the reason why research should also be undertaken. Moreover, it is important to determine, which public needs the information now, a week later or a month after. Indeed, research plans, wrote Austin and Pinkleton (2006, pp.62) are crucial because they keep planning on track, within schedule and within the allotted cost. 3.0 Campaign Plan A systematic planning is important for this PR campaign. This plan follows the best practices marketing communication, it is an integrated and strategic process typified by components that can be created, coordinated and measured (Sheldrake, 2011, pp.13). It is important to note that this will effectively cover all four FOEI initiatives. The core content of the plan is to classify the public and develop a message based on the proximity to opportunity. The information, hence, should allow planners to tailor messages that will be effective among the group and their interests. For example, if a demographics of a specific public reveal a group of young teenagers, the campaign should be able to reinforce the "Make it Better" message. The information, hence, should allow planners to tailor messages that will be effective among the group and their interests. Effective narratives, according to Theaker and Yaxley (2013, pp.111), involve consistent statements consisted of predetermined keywords or phrases, transmitted to ensure understanding and empathy. This strategy will be implemented in at least three PR campaign initiatives: news releases, social media and YouTube. Brief descriptions of these initiatives are outlined below. 3.1 News Releases The target public for this initiative is the young adult group ages 21 to 30. Based from a preliminary survey, this agency was able to identify that this age group frequents online news websites such as techcrunch.com, theVerge.com, Engadget.com and digital versions of mainstream media such as BBC and CNN. News will be released in these outfits every Monday for the entire duration of the campaign. 3.2 Social Media Facebook, Google+, Multiply, Twitter and Instagram are just a few of the popular social media websites that can be tapped to deliver FOEI UK messages. Paine (2011, pp.42) stressed that social media is important to organisations because of its value in terms of social capital because it helps achieve an ease information flow, an increase in innovation and efficiency, while being cost effective at the same time. The agency will create accounts in these websites where news, pictures, resources and existing campaigns will be posted, updated and talked about. Particularly, this will work with the YouTube campaign in a strategic attempt to launch popular content based on the principles of the online viral phenomenon. The highly integrated and comprehensive network of these websites will ensure that messages reach as much public as possible. 3.3 YouTube Based on the in-house and industry reports, YouTube is popular among 18-24 year olds and that billions visit the site each month across the globe. The YouTube campaign will produce compelling videos and publish them in the platform and share in various social networking websites to further maximize exposure and interest. Videos will include documentaries, reviews, as well as testimonials from resource persons, preferably from celebrities or well-known personalities. An important variable in the PR campaign as executed in the previously cited channels is the established network of the Friends of the Earth. Numerous campaigns have been launched and implemented in different countries and their experiences could reveal examples of failures and successes especially in the creation of content and the use of the new media. The network can also help to jumpstart the campaigns since its success depends much on networked and viral communication. 4.0 Schedule The campaign will run for seven months. It will be launched in January 15, 2013. The PR campaign will involve simple tasks after that, since it will mainly involve the generation of news and content for submission or publication every Monday of the week. The campaign will end in August 15th of this year. 5.0 Evaluation In the course of the campaign, reception of campaign messages will be monitored. For example, do online news outlets publish the news releases? If no, what seems to be the reason? If yes, what are the reasons? Such monitoring will entail in-depth analyses in order to develop better coverage, content creation and strategic delivery. For this purpose, the publics’ response will also be monitored. The beauty of the online platform is that users can readily interact and responses are real-time. Once a message or a content is read or viewed, the web allows for immediate feedback. After the campaign, a survey will be conducted to determine the awareness of the public on FOEI UK’s campaigns. The questionnaire will include questions about the sources of information and knowledge, which should provide the framework of evaluation on the three channels used as well as the efficacy of content created. In addition, several analytical tools will also be used. For example, there is the case of Insights and Analytics and Google Analytics. These tools can generate the amount of hits and visitors to the produced contents. YouTube, of course, has its own hit counter. The focus on online channels made evaluation easier because all the processes involved are automated. All in all, there is a legal and ethical expectation on companies for specific kind of industries (Parsons, 2008, pp.152). This is more prominent in the case of the FOEI. There is an expectation of a high degree of social responsibility in its activities because of its nature as an NGO. This communication plan is significant because aside from the rudimentary PR strategy, it can help the organization in what Gregory called as the condition where the firm has to be reminded of its obligations and the direction that it must take (Gregory, 2010, pp.15). References Austin, E. & Pinkleton, B., 2006. Strategic Public Relations Management; planning and managing effective communications programs. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Billings, A.C., Butterworth, M.L., and Turman, P.D., 2012. Communication and Sport; surveying the field. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Friends of the Earth UK, 2012. [online] Available at: [Accessed 4 Dec. 2012]. French, Y., and Runyard, S., 2011. Marketing and Public Relations for Museums, Galleries, Cultural and Heritage Attractions. Abingdon: Routledge Gregory, A., 2010. Planning and Managing PR Campaigns. 3rd ed. London: Kogan Page. Paine, K., 2011. Measure What Matters; online tools for understanding customers, social media, engagement, and key relationships. New Jersey:Wiley. Parsons, P., 2008. Ethics in Public Relations; a guide to best practice. 2nd ed. London: Kogan Page. 45 Sheldrake, P., 2011. The Business of Influence. Chichester: Wiley Theaker, A. & Yaxley, H., 2013. The public relations strategic toolkit; an essential guide to successful public relations practice. London: Routledge Read More