Fleishman-Hillard
Transcription
Fleishman-Hillard
Request for Proposal Response Fleishman-Hillard The Simple Facts of Fleishman-Hillard Name: Fleishman-Hillard International Communications Address: 4350 Lassiter at North Hills Suite 260 Raleigh, NC 27609 Phone: 919-457-0744 URL: www.Fleishman.com Parent Company: Omnicom Date Founded: 1946 Contact: Elizabeth Romero, [email protected]; 919-457-0749 About Fleishman-Hillard As one of the world’s leading strategic communications firms, Fleishman-Hillard (FH) has built its reputation on creating integrated solutions that deliver what clients value most – meaningful, positive and measurable impact. Our firm is widely recognized for excellent client service and a strong company culture grounded in personal commitment, teamwork and integrity. At the heart of FH is a thoughtfully developed inventory of core capabilities. Across any industry, with any audience, we bring insights and strategies that deliver results. Our services include strategic communications consulting, consumer education, new and traditional media relations, public affairs, marketing communications, multicultural communications, interactive outreach, crisis management, materials development, employee communications and creative and digital design. All of our counselors – at every level – are actively involved in client service, ensuring that our clients receive the full benefit of our experience and expertise. Throughout our 65 years in business, we have specialized in helping clients communicate through a variety of channels. That is why more than a decade ago, we created and nurtured a mindset that would enable us to capitalize on the rapidly evolving digital communications environment. Today we operate in a way that allows new and traditional media to blend into a single, open ecosystem. Whatever the assignment, digital media plays a crucial role in shaping and sharpening a voice for our clients, their brands and their issues. We embrace the new power of open conversations and audience engagement and believe the big idea must be multidimensional. Our philosophy hinges on two imperatives: be authentic in all of our conversations and listen intently. Proprietary & Confidential | 2 Where We Are The FH North Carolina team is comprised offices in Raleigh and Charlotte. Members of the Raleigh office, primarily charged with public relations efforts, will serve as the day-to-day contacts for the National Association of Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE). Our Charlotte office, which focuses on social media and digital strategy, will provide strategic support for those components of the SAVE campaign. Additionally, a partnership with FH offers the support of an extended network, when needed, for regional and national activities. Proprietary & Confidential | 3 The Company We Keep – Our Partners We serve more than 3,000 clients across a range of industries, including blue-chip corporations and nonprofits. FH has demonstrated its abilities to serve large multinational companies, as well as smaller local enterprises. Because we operate from a network of 80-plus offices, each client is served primarily by one office with support from other groups in other key offices as appropriate. When needed, clients have access to national and international expertise, strategy and execution, as well. Following are examples of some of the clients we represent: Our Culture Our ability to make a real difference in our clients’ performance is rooted in a culture of success. This culture is built on core values that we share throughout the FH network: An entrepreneurial philosophy that allows us to tailor our approach to precisely match our clients’ needs A passion for our profession and staying current on its evolution A commitment to our clients, to one another and to the highest ethical standards Proprietary & Confidential | 4 Our Strategic Approach We make it our business to understand our clients’ business. We work closely with them; challenge them to see their issues in a broader context, and offer best-in-class solutions that make a positive and measurable difference in their business. FH’s brand promise is summarized in two powerful words: “Performance. Impact.” It is the pledge we make to each of our clients – to use communications to deliver a meaningful, positive and measurable impact for your organization. Ultimately, we want to measure the impact programs have on business processes. Did we influence the opinions, attitudes and beliefs of the target audience, and what actions, if any, did the target take as a result of the program? We work in partnership with our clients to link their business objectives with tangible, measurable results as part of a true, integrated communications program. To that end, we measure and evaluate online and offline communication programs at multiple levels with the goal of understanding and quantifying awareness, perception and behavioral changes that are occurring as a result of our programs. As always, it is crucial to begin any program or campaign with measureable objectives, which will lay the foundation to evaluating communication efforts and results. Case Studies St. Baldrick’s Foundation – Mission to Conquer Childhood Cancers Since 2007, St. Baldrick’s has partnered with FH to build a dynamic media program that showcases stories of kids with cancer, head-shaving events, researchers and outstanding volunteers. Since the partnership began, St. Baldrick’s, a volunteer-driven charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives, has achieved year-after-year, record-setting fundraising success with media coverage growing along the same trajectory. In 2012, FH again created a successful media program that drew greater attention to local events, increased celebrity involvement and reinforced St. Baldrick’s position as the largest nongovernment funder of pediatric cancer research. Planning for the dynamic St. Baldrick’s media relations program focused on specific stories about outstanding kids and volunteers, as well as special events and partnerships. Coupling these stories with streamlined budget constraints, the team got creative and worked with the media to obtain solid leads and place stories. In total, local media coverage generated more than 321.4 million media impressions and national media placements totaled more than 1.1 billion media impressions. Aggressive media tactics helped St. Baldrick’s secure another record-breaking fundraising year of more than $33.8 million and fund more than $23 million in childhood cancer research grants. AT&T – Aspire AT&T took on the critical issue of high school success and workforce readiness with AT&T Aspire, a $100 million commitment to helping students achieve success in school and better prepare themselves for college and/or the workforce. The program represents AT&T‘s most significant education initiative in the company‘s nearly 140year history, and one of the largest ever corporate commitments to address high school success and workforce readiness. FH and affiliate, VOX Global Mandate, helped AT&T through all levels of program development: working with the AT&T Foundation to develop the overall strategy and rationale, engaging third parties, developing messaging and materials, and launching the program to key constituencies and media. Proprietary & Confidential | 5 The effort was built around strategic partnerships: $100 million in grants to schools and nonprofit organizations focused on education, such as Jobs for America‘s Graduates and the Harlem Children‘s Zone; job shadowing for 100,000 students over five years, with Junior Achievement; underwriting 100 community dropout prevention summits across all 50 states, with America‘s Promise Alliance; and commissioning the next chapter of major research on the high school dropout issue and solutions by directly engaging education practitioners, with John Bridgeland, author of The Silent Epidemic. The launch of the AT&T Aspire program garnered 27 million impressions through numerous positive print, broadcast and online stories across national, regional and trade media targets and influential blogs. Allstate – The Purple Purse: Let’s Talk About Domestic Violence With a long history of supporting efforts to end domestic violence through financial empowerment programs, The Allstate Foundation and YWCA USA partnered to strike a national conversation around the issue during Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. Allstate’s main goals were to educate target audiences about The Foundation’s support of survivors, create a national symbol to raise awareness, and establish a place where individuals can safely access information, financial tools and self-empowerment plans. FH envisioned and implemented an entire program in only seven weeks. Based on the research findings, the team designed a program that would help people talk about domestic violence and created the concept of the “Purple Purse.” The Purple Purse would become The Foundation’s new symbol for domestic violence and the code word that would launch a campaign to build a collaborative community of people. The campaign included the launch of an informative “secret” website and widget, nine TweetUps across the nation, employee education, and comprehensive traditional and social media outreach. During the month of October, the results from the Purple Purse campaign outreach showed that people were talking. There were more than 32,500 page views for PurplePurse.com and more than 1,530 Tweets with a reach of 5.2 million. The widget produced more than 115,000 impressions and more than 1,200 shares on Facebook or Twitter. Nearly 1,300 news stories, blog posts and event postings resulted in nearly 86 million impressions. More than 1,000 people attended Purple Purse TweetUps in nine cities across the United States which resulted in a $90,000 contribution from Allstate to YWCA. The campaign also educated nearly 10,000 employees and guests, 6,500 Allstate Ambassadors, and 12,500 members of Agency Gateway, through ads on Allstate’s campus. Program Ideas FH is recognized in the industry for building award-winning campaigns for a variety of clients. We do it well by first listening to our clients’ needs and thinking strategically about how to reach the appropriate targets. We applaud SAVE for its commitment to preventing violence in our schools and promoting student involvement. SAVE’s mission is more important than ever, and we are excited about the opportunity to be your partner. SAVE’s FH team is comprised of thinkers and strategists who always have their client’s best interests in mind. In just one week, we have researched and brainstormed exciting opportunities. We are the ideal partner for SAVE during this critical time because we understand the need to develop an impactful and meaningful program that showcases the critical work that SAVE and its chapters are bringing to life in communities nationwide. SAVE has a great story to tell and corporations are always looking for causes that inspire hope. Recently, this nation has experienced tragedies that are difficult for anyone to bear, bringing the importance of prevention to the forefront. SAVE offers intervention and solutions before problems arise. As SAVE’s public relations partner we will look to showcase those positive stories – glimmers of hope – to help demonstrate the important role SAVE plays in today’s youth. FH will work closely with SAVE to increase visibility and spread awareness about its mission by bringing to life its efforts and results that make schools and communities safer and more secure, free of fear, and conducive to learning as a result of students being actively involved in meaningful violence prevention effort. Proprietary & Confidential | 6 SAVE needs to spread the word about its impact fast. With this urgency, FH recommends initiating the planning phase of discussions no later than the week of Feb. 25 to further outline the details of the program for SAVE and kick off the awareness program on March 1. Ideally, during the one-week, pre-planning phase FH will work directly with SAVE staff, board members, volunteers, parents and students to develop a deeper understanding about the organization, including data on impact on kids and communities as well as anecdotal information showcasing positive stories, etc. These elements will be vital to build our story and pitch interesting, compelling angles to media. Since time is of the essence, we recommend an in-person group meeting in which we can have an open discussion. It may even be appropriate to capture some basic video testimonials from key members within this group to use on social media. Outlined below are initial ideas recommended to propel a fast-acting media relations program for SAVE. The goal is to increase visibility and awareness about SAVE’s mission among target consumer audiences, leading to potential interest from supporters. News Bureau FH takes a results-fueled approach to media planning, execution and measurement. It is critical that the SAVE media program be integrated across all channels and also maintains a consistent level of communications with key media. There are many tools that we will utilize to create and manage the SAVE news bureau, including: Media materials development and distribution Updating key messages as needed Updating the master media list Preparing ‘review ready’ news releases, pitches and rapid responses Media interview coordination and preparation Developing key messages for a specific announcement or topic Coordinating specifics for interviews between the media and key SAVE spokespeople Byline article support Preparing relevant byline articles that can be leveraged in media pitching and offered to chapter leaders for use by local chapters Consistent touch points with target media Monitoring for topics where rapid response outreach on relevant topics can help SAVE join the story and conversation Case studies Preparing relevant case studies that can be used in media pitching Monitoring Consistent monitoring will help to support social media engagement as well as the proactive and reactive media relations effort (i.e., if the team spots a story on a new school-age tragedy, the team will be able to respond quickly by crafting a pitch for SAVE to approve and then reach out to media immediately). SAVE Media Campaign A thorough media relations program is vital to the success of any public relations campaign. The FH North Carolina team knows how to develop robust, multi-faceted campaigns to help achieve established goals. In the case of SAVE, FH is confident that a multi-pronged approach offering numerous media touch points highlighting human-interest angles will best lead SAVE’s story into the media spotlight. A dedicated press release campaign, a focus on North Carolina outreach and an aggressive national media campaign will be executed to secure media placements in a variety of markets and outlets spreading awareness about SAVE and its mission. The FH North Carolina team maintains strong media contacts – both statewide and at a national level – that we will tap to offer human-interest stories about SAVE. Proprietary & Confidential | 7 News Release Campaign – To maintain a steady flow of SAVE media coverage, FH recommends a news release campaign focused on important events and dates throughout the March-June timeframe. By consistently bringing attention to SAVE through releases that kick-off with National Youth Violence Prevention Week and envelop milestone events such as high school prom and graduation, the media is regularly exposed to the group’s mission and impact in schools. In addition, the outflow of news releases featuring keywords will improve SAVE’s online search ranking. North Carolina – To pay homage to SAVE’s North Carolina beginnings, FH believes that a proactive media push within the state will allow SAVE to share local success stories and help honor Alex’s legacy. Reaching out to major print and broadcast outlets in Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro/Winston-Salem and across the region will allow the opportunity for North Carolinians to appreciate the value the organization has brought in our local communities. FH recommends identifying and focusing on local success stories across the state, particularly in Charlotte with nearly 90 chapters, and recognizing those local chapters that are truly making a difference in their schools. National – The safety of our kids is on everyone’s mind these days providing ideal timing to communicate SAVE’s message. FH will seek out major print and broadcast outlets with a short turnaround that would be inspired to tell SAVE’s story. The media will be moved by unique, compelling angles that showcase solutions being implemented in schools and chapters making a difference. Such stories will allow us to give the media a new twist on an existing story. The FH team will call on members of the National Youth Advisory Board to share their story and the SAVE mission on broadcast morning shows and in publications in top markets to provide the youth perspective that best exemplifies the organization. Also, identifying teen and young adult outlets, both traditional and online, will allow SAVE to reach its target demographic that will help support SAVE’s long-term presence in schools. Potential story angles include SAVE chapters across the nation working to eradicate the violence in their schools or selected individuals with inspirational stories who are taking a stand against violence. Byline/Op-Ed Campaign – Driven by the members of the National Youth Advisory Board, FH together with SAVE will develop a template op-ed that board members will be able to use in strategically selected markets. We know these students have powerful stories to tell, and hearing it from them rather than an adult spokesperson will have a greater effect on op-ed editors and tug at the heartstrings of readers. FH recommends targeting select markets where local chapters are very active and seeking out opportunities to place the op-ed in these markets. Additional media relations considerations are as follows. These activities will fall outside the scope of the news bureau. If SAVE is interested in these opportunities, the team can discuss further with SAVE to determine scope. Saluting North Carolina Beginnings – Since the organization was founded in Charlotte and it has such a strong presence in the city, SAVE should consider a public event to rally the community on a greater scale. Consider students from all 90 chapters gathering at the Bank of America stadium to join hands in an in-person pledge to help kick off the Twitter SAVE Pledge. Such an event has the potential to garner significant local exposure, national attention and generate social media buzz. SAVE in the City – In conjunction with National Youth Violence Prevention Week, FH recommends planning a New York City media blitz. New York area SAVE chapters will be enlisted to show their support for the organization’s mission by being present as audience members at one of the national morning shows. The FH team will work to secure on-air exposure prior by working with producers to notify them of the group’s presence and informing them of SAVE’s mission and the importance of the National Youth Violence Prevention Week. FH will work with spokespersons designated by SAVE to supply key messages and talking points, including the organization’s mission, positive statistics about SAVE’s impact and statistics highlighting school violence incidences in today’s world and the need for more awareness about SAVE’s mission. In addition to the audience approach, the FH team will work with SAVE to identify specific personal stories that may be shared with morning show producers. This will also Proprietary & Confidential | 8 be an opportunity to invite Allstate to stand alongside the SAVE representatives and show their support on a national level. Finally, the team will target key online and blogger media in New York City to secure interviews with relevant media while the students are available. The Role of Local School Chapters Timing is a critical component; we recommend an internal communications campaign to educate chapter advisors and student leaders about the risk SAVE currently faces while empowering them to take action and do something about it. In a well-crafted communication effort that focuses on SAVE’s positive impact, we will empower local chapters to ban together since each chapter plays a role in the success of this important organization. By encouraging SAVE chapters to become more involved and share their local efforts and successes on the national social media platforms, we will build a buzz that empowers youth to take control of their own safety in school settings and attract awareness of influencers. In addition, we recommend local chapters share their positive stories with the local traditional media under the guidance of FH. The FH team will create a basic toolkit that includes a media advisory, press release, interview tip sheet and tips for contacting the media that local chapters can utilize to support their media relations efforts. Additionally, upon request, we will include instructions on how to find contact information for local media in the tool kit. Elements: Letter to schools Toolkit Press release Media advisory Fact sheet on SAVE/statistics Important dates; ideas document Tips for working with the media Interview tip sheet Social media one-sheet How to find local media contacts Creating a Social Media Movement Social media is an important channel for organizations like SAVE that need to raise awareness and effect change within a finite period of time. There are a number of social media platforms to consider nowadays. We have focused our recommendations on those reaching the youth audiences that are most important to SAVE in order to elevate awareness and cause a ripple that will spread the word beyond. The FH team will work with SAVE to provide counsel to help enhance the organization’s presence on Facebook and Twitter among school-aged kids with an emphasis on middle and high school and their parents. For instance, an editorial calendar will help to ensure consistent messaging across SAVE’s owned social platforms to focus messaging depending on the day. YouTube Channel – The SAVE YouTube channel has received approximately 5,582 views and 37 subscribers to date. FH recommends an enhancement to the page to include branded visual elements, integration with other social channels such as Facebook and Twitter, ‘How to Get Help’ prominent page content and peer content to personalize the page. Video components can be some of the most compelling for online storytelling and advocacy efforts and making additional enhancements to the page will help to drive viewer awareness of the organization’s goals, share personal experiences that can further achieve those goals and tell the story of the history and mission of the organization. The YouTube videos also may be leveraged via SAVE’s website, Facebook and Twitter pages to drive more attention to all sources and create buzz about the organization and the stories being Proprietary & Confidential | 9 shared on YouTube. Local chapters and students will be encouraged to share their own experiences, in their own words, to increase the ‘shareability’ and personalization of video content. Twitter – Twitter efforts will focus around creating a SAVE Pledge, encouraging members to take the pledge against violence in any form. The pledge will be largely driven through a Twibbon initiative, which encourages members to add a visual “pledge” or badge to their Twitter profiles in support of the SAVE cause. Outreach will be performed via Twitter to key celebrities, asking them to join the SAVE Twibbon campaign (examples include: Perez Hilton, Ellen DeGeneres, Alisa Milano, teen celebrities Kendall and/or Kylie Jenner, model Brooklyn Decker, gymnast Gabby Douglas and others that will be identified). Users who pledge through Twibbon will also be encouraged to share word of the campaign through their individual social channels as well. An afterschool Twitter party involving a celebrity who supports SAVE’s cause will create another dimension for the awareness campaign. In addition to the Twibbon campaign, the team will work with SAVE to develop a SAVE Pledge hashtag to heighten attention and engagement during National Youth Violence Prevention week. Key content from Facebook, YouTube and other owned social media channels will be continually published to Twitter to support the cause as well. As a grassroots initiative, FH recommends organizing TweetUps in target markets across the country during National Youth Violence Prevention Week. These events will fuel media coverage and reach audiences to explain the story behind SAVE, discuss the issues involved and drive word-of-mouth awareness throughout communities. The TweetUps will be supported by local chapters and feature guest speakers at each event, allowing attendees the opportunity to hear from someone personally affected by violence. Instagram – Instagram, a mobile phone platform that is rapidly gaining popularity, allows users to utilize hashtags in a similar way to Twitter to aggregate content. FH recommends using the same hashtag mentioned for Twitter above to promote SAVE’s involvement in National Youth Violence Prevention Week and share the SAVE pledge. Users could take photos related to SAVE’s logo and use the hashtag when posting the photos, allowing them to be easily searchable and increasing their chance of becoming viral. Another way to leverage Instagram is to create an account for SAVE and have a celebrity take over the account for the day. This could include someone like Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, who would be ideal because her fan base is the right age demographic of potential SAVE members. Having a celebrity take control would also draw media attention to the hashtag and SAVE’s mission. FH recommends continuing the SAVE Pledge on Instagram as well. Once users sign the pledge, they will be encouraged to Instagram a photo of themselves with a picture of the SAVE logo or a sign that says “I am worth saving” and include the relevant hashtags. Blogger Outreach o Mom/Parent bloggers – As the social media campaign gets underway, the FH team will reach out to key influencers/mom bloggers to offer key statistics of hope that SAVE can share. A carefully drafted pitch will highlight the importance of SAVE in today’s schools for helping kids learn to manage a host of challenges they may encounter from bullying and relationship violence to diversity, gangs, weapon safety and internet safety, etc. In addition to a pitch, there may be resources SAVE can offer in terms of “what to look for” in various risk Proprietary & Confidential | 10 o o situations. Influencers will be invited to share information on their blog along with information on SAVE’s current outreach efforts. Target blogs include Momastery, From Dates to Diapers, Telling It Like It Is, Babble and others. Tween/young adult bloggers – SAVE’s supporting demographic audiences, the middle and high school kids in schools across the country, are essential to spreading viral awareness for SAVE. By developing targeted pitches, offering guest blog posts from National Youth Advisory Board members and providing personal accounts from affected students, the SAVE message is spread immediately to online users. Target outlets include HelloGiggles, Young Hollywood and HerCampus, which target tweens and teens with powerful stories each day. Visual – An infographic created by FH will help to package important statistics for bloggers to consider. Additionally, if the social media efforts go viral they may offer a timely hook for traditional media. Social and Online Advertising – Social advertising through Facebook and paid search ads through Google are essential to create additional lift in campaign visibility and awareness for SAVE initiatives. FH recommends initiating a low-cost Facebook advertising campaign to quickly increase visibility for SAVE leading up to and during National Youth Violence Prevention Week. Additionally, the team will be able to explore other important times to feature a low-cost advertising campaign on Facebook such as during prom season 2013. While slightly more of an investment, FH recommends also exploring high-impact Google Adwords campaign during key peak timeframes. Monitoring – There is a finite period of time to make an impact; the FH team will tap its monitoring resources in order to maximize opportunities to re-share social media content via SAVE’s social media platform as well as understand relevant conversation to aid in message creation, which will help engage the target audience(s). Understanding trends in conversation will help speak to what topics are top of mind for targets. The team will work closely with SAVE communications team members to share relevant information (engagement/mitigation opportunities, noteworthy conversation, etc.) for use on social media. Securing Support FH recommends closing the five month effort with a letter campaign to target corporations and individuals that SAVE would like support from. FH will assist by crafting a letter and visual print presentation that showcases the vital role of SAVE in preventing and managing violence while highlighting the recent media and online coverage received. FH will also provide outreach support. Measurement The hallmark of client service at FH is being a valuable resource when and where our clients need us. As part of our client service protocols, we prepare weekly and monthly reports highlighting activities, schedule weekly calls/meetings and utilize a variety of reporting tools. This can include daily media scans, social media monitoring, media clip reports, etc., which will be pulled using Google and online searches. Should a more formal report be needed, FH will provide an estimate for other reporting methods. Additionally, SAVE’s day-to-day contact is available to provide support and rally team members as needed. Access to senior leadership and management is also a unique part of our commitment to client service. Budget FH has a long-standing tradition of building lasting relationships with clients, and we strive to exceed expectations and goals. We value our nonprofit clients and the work they do nationally and in their local communities. We look forward to this opportunity that will allow us to raise awareness about the positive impact of SAVE in building safe school environments. Proprietary & Confidential | 11 We know that we have outlined a lot to think about in this proposal. We look forward to the opportunity to discuss our ideas with you in greater detail. We recommend an open discussion with the decision-makers to clearly understand which activities detailed above seem most appropriate. We can then hone in on the tailored approach that will work best for you, within your budget. To help illustrate programs within the requested budgets we have included the table below for your review. These are suggestions and may be tailored depending on your preferences. Counsel & Reporting News Bureau Local School Chapters $5,000 Budget (Focus on National Youth Violence Prevention Week Only) -Included -News bureau (excluding bylines and case studies) N/A Social Media Movement -Twibbon Blogger outreach -Tween/young adult bloggers Securing Support (post-campaign effort) $10,000 Budget (March-April) $25,000 Budget (March-June) -Included -News bureau (excluding bylines and case studies) -Abbreviated version of toolkit -Monitoring -Twitter, Twibbon -Included -Included -Tween/young adult bloggers -Included -Monitoring -Twitter, Twibbon -Insagram -YouTube -Outreach surrounding Tweetup is included -Tween/young adult bloggers -Mom bloggers -Included NOTE: Any event components i.e., Tweetup, Saluting North Carolina Beginnings, SAVE in the City, etc. will entail additional budgetary considerations. Additionally, social media advertising and a Google Adwords campaign will require additional agency fee and out-of-pocket expenses. Proprietary & Confidential | 12