Petrescue - Communication Plan - Report Example

Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecturer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Situation analysis 4 3.0 Target public 5 4.0 Key messages and campaign style 5 5.0 Communication objectives 6 6.0 Communication tactics 7 6.1 News media 7 6.2 Social media 8 7.0 Timelines 8 8.0 Budget 9 8.0 Evaluation 10 9.0 References 11 10.0 Appendices 11 PETRESCUE – COMMUNICATION PLAN 1.0 Introduction PetRescue is a not-profit-making organization in Australia whose core business is to provide support and care for lost pets. The company aims to give a voice to the rescue groups and independent foster carers to speak out their message to the public through technology and social media platforms. PetRescue has become Australia’s most popular charity website and has garnered massive support from pet lovers. Since its inception in 2004, PetRescue has always endeavored to provide pet seekers with cheaper means of owning a pet in addition to rescuing abandoned pets (PetRescue 2014). PetRescue was established after the shocking realization that 25% of dogs and 56% of cats entering Australia are killed due to lack of support and care. In order to change these statistics, the company has employed many powerful strategies to ingrain the love of pets in the hearts and minds of all Australians so that there is almost zero killings of pets. Their campaigns are also geared towards reinforcing their mission which is: “We are the digital natives harnessing technology and social media to give every independent foster carer, every rescue group and every single one of the community’s homeless pets a voice ­– to reach the public and spread their message” (PetRescue 2014). Despite the company’s undisputable success, there is an impending threat that seems to challenge its operations in future. Although the society today demonstrates considerable interest in animals and the environment, there is a possibility that this trend might change in future. The implication of this threat is that PetRescue and other animal welfare companies will lose relevance. PetRescue fears that its website might lose attention from its target clients in the foreseeable future. 2.0 Situation analysis PetRescue is in its 11th year of operation and so far its services have been accepted by many Australians as evidenced by the large numbers of people visiting their website. It is estimated that 6,000 Australian families adopt a pet from PetRescue each month. Essentially, these animals will require veterinary care, environment enrichment care, training, and food. PetRescue informs its clients on places where to get the best of these services in their website. The company invests heavily in raising awareness about adoptions. PetRescue is the pioneer of some of the most innovative awareness campaigns including PEDIGREE Adoption Drive, Interstate Rehoming, Secret Cat Society and Pet Foster. It is also a great supporter of the global movement dubbed No Kill movement. PetRescue wants Australia to be in the forefront in this global initiative whose goal is to save the lives of pets. There are several barriers to adoption of pets in Australia which have played a significant role in the reduced number of pet adoption. PetRescue wishes to remove these barriers by refining the current policies and procedures thus enhance the pet adoption process. In addition, the company needs to develop advice and help articles for people who anticipate adopting pets. Campaigns are basically meant to change public perception of restricted breed and rescue pets. PetRescue is categorical when it comes to passionate advocates of pet rescue. The company believes that the true heroes who will drive positive change towards attainment of their vision are the pet-loving public. As such, the company needs to widen its adoption options. For instance, it may involve young families, young children and retirees in their list of target audience. They should also promote adoption of cats, which are rarely adopted as compared to dogs, as well as other pets like rabbits. PetRescue has a well equipped library with free resources for pet seekers. The library provides valuable information about pet adoption and responsible ownership for pet owners as well as potential pet owners. Nevertheless, the company needs to increase awareness about itself. This should involve creation of new content detailing what PetRescue is all about and the help it offers to pets, pet seekers and per rescue groups. Currently, the PetRescue Facebook page has thousands of followers. The company is also present in Twitter and Instagram. Every pet has a Facebook and Twitter button to enable them to be located by as many people as possible on social media. Even with these efforts on social media, there is need for PetRescue to create better quality pet search tools for its target audience. The social media platforms should be used to educate the pet-loving public about legal issues associated with pet adoption and general care for pets. 3.0 Target public The target audience for the media, social media and other campaigns that PetRescue will utilize shall be homeowners, high school and college students and generally people between 10years and 50 years. Since there are no current laws restricting the adoption of pets by minor, they will be part of the target audience. Pet shop and pet farm owners shall also be targeted in the campaign. They will be encouraged to relay information to pet owners on ways of taking care of pets and encourage people interested in pets yet cannot afford to buy to adopt thorough PetRescue. Celebrity advocates of pet adoption will also be resourceful during the campaign. These will include a few homegrown celebrities such as musicians and actors to help pass the message about pet adoption and PetRescue. Veterinary officers will also be included as target audience. They interact with pet owners on a daily basis and they would be quite helpful in popularizing PetRescue in the places they visit. Besides the external audience, the campaign will also include the existing volunteers, donors and foster care participants. For the internal partners, the campaign will be used to reinforce the information they are already aware of and inform them of new developments within the company. 4.0 Key messages and campaign style The key messages that will be communicated in the campaign are: 1. Adopting a pet is not a difficult task; there are only few legal procedures involved and you are set to own a pet for free. 2. Adopting a pet means saving the life of pet. There are so many pets that are killed each year because they lack homes to care of them. 3. Taking care of a pet is as easy as taking care of your own children. Very little education is needed to learn how to take care of pets in terms of feeding, cleaning, general hygiene of their houses and medical health. 4. PetRescue is the place where pets are available for adoption at no cost at all and using the shortest procedure possible. 5. Restricted breeds of pets are also safe and can make wonderful companions. There are many pets other than cats and dogs to choose from in PetRescue. “Save a pet’s life” shall the campaign’s theme to be used by PetRescue. This theme has a broad meaning in only three words. The first thing is that it is making the target audience aware of the fact that our pets are ‘endangered’ thus need some people to help them. It is also prompting one to dig deeper for ways they can help to save the pets. 5.0 Communication objectives A critical part of developing a campaign plan is to identify communication goals and objectives. Goals are basically the outcomes that the company intends to accomplish. Objectives, on the other hand, refer to the behavioral actions by the targeted audience to achieve the stated company’s goals (Paul 2011) Goal: Increase awareness about PetRescue operations to the target audience Objective 1: To increase the number of PetRescue Facebook followers by 50% in one month. Objective 2: To publish the profile of PetRescue in one of the local newspapers or magazines before the completion of the campaign. Objective 3: To increase the number of PetRescue Twitter followers by 200 and Instagram by 100 by the end of four weeks. Objective 4: To recruit and establish more rescue groups especially pet sellers and veterinary officers. Goal: To establish strong relationships with foster parents, rescue groups and sponsors. Objective 1: Increase the number of adopted pets from 6000 to 8000 by the end of one month. Objective 2: Increase the number of pets rescued by individual rescue groups by offering them incentives. Objective 3: Increase funds from the donors by 20% by the end of the campaign and attract two new sponsors by the end of the campaign. Objective 4: To educate as many pet foster parents as possible on ways of taking care of pets. 6.0 Communication tactics 6.1 News media Traditional marketing strategies such as TV, radio, newspapers, fliers and billboards are very important in any marketing initiative. Unlike the newer marketing platforms, they have higher success rate. This is simply because anyone with a TV, radio or newspaper is able to learn about the company, its products and services. Besides that, it is able to real a large number of people beyond the targeted demographic groups (Patterson and Radtke 2009). PetRescue will send media releases to: TV: ABC, West TV, TVSN Newspapers: Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and Adelaide Advertiser Radio stations: Triple J, ABC-Radio National Brochures and posters: Brochures shall be sent to volunteers across the country. The brochures should be given to any person they meet with so long they meet the requirements of the target audience. Posters should be placed in local colleges, animal hospitals and veterinarian hospitals. 6.2 Social media Social media is an excellent way of marketing especially for certain groups of people who are internet-oriented. Social media platforms will be used for the sake of high school and college students and all the young people in the target audience. The greatest of suing social media in marketing is affordability. In actual fact, it requires no amount of money to sign up for a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account. Besides that, the advertisement or event is announced instantly unlike in traditional methods whereby one has to wait for weeks before their advertisement is published. Social media also creates loyalty among the target audience (Weintraub and Pinkleton 2008). The following tactics will be employed in the social media platforms: Facebook: A Facebook ad campaign shall be created. The process of creating a Facebook ad campaign which is basically a ten steps process provided in the Facebook page. Basically, Facebook shall be used to popularize/advertise the company. The page, therefore, shall be linked to the company blog. The company blog shall be dubbed “Reasons why PetRescue is the best Pet Rescue Company in Australia.” Instagram: On Instagram, we shall use photos of some local celebrities holding pets of special breeds and then engage PetRescue Instagram followers to guess the pet’s breed. The one who gets the answer right shall be awarded with the pet. 7.0 Timelines Stage Activity Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Preparations Gather all resources and support from sponsors Issue responsibilities to campaign team members Identify evaluation procedures Start the campaign and connect with target audience Launch Campaign Launch Facebook and Instagram campaigns Media release 1 Media release 2 Media release 3 Distribution of posters and brochures Follow-up Evaluation measures 8.0 Budget Resources Estimated quantity Estimated cost per unit Total Posters 1000 $1.5 $1500 brochures 3000 $1 $3000 Media releases 35 $0.5 $17.5 Facebook 60 $0.62 $37.2 $4554.7 8.0 Evaluation News media Maintain a media archive of TV and radio channels that mentioned about the “Save a pet’s life” campaign. Compile an archive of screen shots and clippings of websites that mentioned PetRescue. Publications Set up a library of all the publications that included the PetRescue campaign project. Keep a record of who received the publications (the regions that received the newspaper and magazine). This feedback can be obtained through focus groups or surveys. Social media Keeping track of the Facebook likes and the number of people who visited the PetRescue Facebook page each week/ Monitor the number of people who visited the company’s website after being enticed by the Facebook page. Take record of the number of people who took part in the Instagram challenge and the winner. Undertake an online survey to find out the experience of participants in the campaign. At the completion of the evaluation process, the classification table presented below will be filled to determine the most effective campaign strategy (Appendix 1). 9.0 References Patterson, S. and Radtke, J 2009, Strategic communications for nonprofit. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Paul, C 2011, Strategic communication: origins, concepts and current debates. Santa Barbara: Praeger. PetRescue, 2014, About PetRescue, Viewed on 13th April 2015 from https://www.petrescue.com.au/. Weintraub, E. and Pinkleton, B 2008, Strategic public relations management. New Jersey: Lawrence Erbaum Associates. 10.0 Appendices Compliance with campaign objectives Efficiency of management Efficiency of budget Effectiveness of targeting Effectiveness of distribution News media Social media Publications I – Satisfactory II – Room for improvement III – Unsatisfactory Appendix 1: 3-level classification table Read More