2010 Public Relations Campaign Scoop Public Relations The University of Hartford
April 21, 2010
Scoop Public Relations University of Hartford
Danielle Palmer Phone: (347) 401-4106 Dpalmer@hartford.edu Lindsay Jaffe Tara Johnson
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April 21, 2010 Wendy DeAngelo, Vice President of Development and Public Relations Lisa Dietrichson, Public Relations Specialist Dear Ms. DeAngelo and Ms. Dietrichson: Enclosed is a copy of Scoop Public Relations proposed campaign for the Wheeler Clinic. Scoop Public Relations is certain that our proposed campaign will help you to achieve your ultimate goal of increasing unrestricted gifts by a total of $50,000 over the next three years. Scoop Public Relations has developed multiple ideas that we feel would be extremely beneficial to your organization. For instance, in order to increase awareness about the Wheeler Clinic’s services within the medical community, one idea we propose is developing a more personal relationship with other Connecticut health organizations. This requires the Wheeler Clinic to reach out to new organizations in the health service industry as well as civic groups through a mailing list. By doing this, the Wheeler Clinic can develop communication with other organizations that is essential to building stronger partnerships and increasing donations. In addition to the other ideas mentioned within this proposal, we are confident that our tactics will help achieve success for your organization. On behalf of Scoop Public Relations we want to thank you for your time and assistance in creating this campaign and furthering our educational experience. Your commitment to helping Connecticut families is a project we are proud to support. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Danielle Palmer at dpalmer@hartford.edu. Sincerely,
Danielle Palmer Scoop Public Relations University of Hartford
Lindsay Jaffe Scoop Public Relations University of Hartford
Tara Johnson Scoop Public Relations University of Hartford
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Table of Contents Position Statement……………………………………4 Situation Analysis………………………………….....5 Challenges…………………………………………….6 Goal 1………………………………………………….7 Objective 1-3 Timeline& Gantt Chart……………………………..11 Budget………………………………………………..15 Goal 1, Objectives 1-3 Appendix I: Social Media WordPress Blog……………………………………..16 Twitter Profile…………………………………….....17 Appendix II: Media Op Ed………………………………………………….19 Appendix III: Industry Database Business & Civic Group Mailing List………………21 Appendix IV: Branding Focus Group I………………………………………...23 Focus Group II……………………………………….24
Appendix V: Advertisement Awareness Posters……………………………………26 CSMS Advertising Cost Sheet………………….…....28 CSMS Contact Sheet………………………………....29 CSMS Quarter-Page Advertisement………………..30
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Position Statement The Wheeler Clinic is a private non-profit community organization that is supported by individuals, corporations, foundations, third party payers, client fees and public funding sources. The Wheeler Clinic is a unique provider of behavioral health services for children, adolescents, adults and families that include mental health treatment, substance abuse recovery, special education, early childhood development, prevention and employee assistance program and community education. Founded in 1968, the Wheeler Clinic is limited in what they can use from unrestricted gifts and donations for underfunded programs, currently does not receive much press coverage from anything other than local media outlets, and lack of sufficient social media. Ultimately, the Wheeler Clinic would like to build their brand in order to increase awareness about what they do. The purpose of the Wheeler Clinic is to work with parents, children, and schools to provide support and life-changing interaction to help improve the life for children and their families. The Wheeler Clinic faces certain challenges, but many opportunities exist for the Wheeler Clinic to build their brand and increase their unrestricted gifts.
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Situation Analysis The Wheeler Clinic is a behavior health service provider that includes mental health, substance abuse, special education, early childhood development, prevention, an employee assistance program (EAP) and community education that accommodates children, adolescence, adults and families since it was founded in 1968. Since then, the Wheeler Clinic has become the number one provider of these services to children and adolescents. The clinic provides cutting-edge human services that address a diverse range of needs and backgrounds, enhance strengths and provide the support that encourages recovery from challenges in order to lead a better life. Their staff has worked with parents, children and schools providing essential services that have produced life changing interactions and changes in over 30,000 clients a year. The Wheeler Clinic is a private not-for-profit community organization that is supported by individuals, corporations, foundations, and from third party payers, client fees and public funding sources. Public funders include the Connecticut Commission on National and Community Service, Department of Children and Families, Department of Education, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Department of Developmental Services, Department of Public Health, Department of Social Services, Judicial Branch and the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. As a health care provider, the main challenge that the Wheeler Clinic faces is the privacy issues that surrounds some of the services they provide to the greater Connecticut community, which prevents individuals from becoming aware and appreciating the value associated with their work. If they are not clients themselves or have family experiencing treatment, most members Connecticut communities do not see the importance of the Wheeler Clinic’s services. In order to raise money for the causes that they advocate against, the Wheeler Clinic holds their Annual Golf Classic where businesses and community leaders raise money by golfing. All of the proceeds from the event go towards a residential program that benefit children whose lives have been impacted be abuse or neglect. Also, as a direct chapter of the Prevent Child Abuse America, the Wheeler Clinic holds their Night of the Child Gala where Connecticut's heroes are honored in the campaign to demonstrate the Wheeler Clinic’s ongoing commitment to ending child abuse and neglect. Although their events are successful, the Wheeler Clinic is still struggling to raise their unrestricted gift donations to financially support their organization outside of the small supplemental fees collected from private and public sources. The main reason for their current position in attempting to increase community awareness of their brand and value is the hope that donations may follow. There are many mental and behavioral health clinics in and around the Connecticut area; however, there are none that provide the amount of services that the Wheeler Clinic does, while creating a comfortable rapport with clients and their families.
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Challenges The Wheeler Clinic faces many challenges, and an array of them deals with privacy issues, because of the nature of what their organization does. Protecting client privacy makes it difficult to give information out or solicit any information to clients. Although the Wheeler Clinic is very large and receives a lot of donations, the only ones that they can use to help the underfunded programs are the unrestricted gifts and donations. This makes it very hard to buy things they may need because they are very restricted to what they can and cannot buy. The Wheeler Clinic consists of 23 separate sites, different group homes, and outpatient offices. Yet, because of where their administrative office is located, everyone seems to think that the main site is located in Plainville, CT. Since this is not their main location, they feel as though this hurts certain fundraising efforts. A lot of the Wheeler Clinics main donors are older and would not understand all of the online based communication, but because this is how many people are communicating now the Wheeler Clinic’s method of communicating strictly through newsletters and mail-ins is an older technique that should be updated. The Wheeler Clinic currently does not get a lot of press coverage from anything other than local papers and stations. Although they do not want an increase in the demand for their services, this limits the exposure that the Wheeler Clinic brand has within Connecticut communities and because of this the size of their donor base has difficulty growing. Although the Wheeler Clinic is behind in social media, they are willing to use it and know that media outlets such as blogging can help them. The Wheeler Clinic does not want to expand their client base because they serve around 30,000 each year, but they do want to increase the knowledge and revenue of their organization.
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Goal 1: To successfully brand the Wheeler Clinic organization by further developing its relationships with the media, the professional medical community, the current donor base and potential donors within Connecticut communities. In order to achieve this goal, the Wheeler Clinic has to develop its social networking (targeting it towards the medical community and potential donors), generate more information for media release, and develop relationships with Connecticut businesses and civic groups that can help spread their value to potential donors. The relationships with the medical community, businesses and civic groups in particular play a large role in the success of improving the size of the Wheeler Clinics donation pool. Objective 1: To establish and develop additional relationships with multiple professionals and health organizations in the Connecticut medical community (who are included in the improved database we have provided) in order to increase unrestricted donations by a total of $50,000 over the next 3 years. Strategy 1: Social networking Tactic 1: Create a bi-monthly blog on WordPress.com as a means to communicate with the medical community. The individuals posting on this blog would be Wheeler Clinic doctors, employees, donors and patients willing to share their stories on how the Wheeler Clinic has impacted and changed their lives. With this blog, the Wheeler Clinic would be able to discuss the various programs and services that it provides as well as have discussions and share stories with medical professionals, who could later become potential donors. $0.00 Tactic 2: Create a Twitter account that would allow for the Wheeler Clinic employees, donors, patients and other health organizations to constantly access updates regarding the clinic and its events. The twitter account could also be linked to the blog (and vice-a-versa) which would alert individuals visiting one site to the other social networking account. $0.00 Strategy 2: Professional Mailing List Tactic 1: Purchasing a mailing list from USA Data would provide the Wheeler Clinic with the contact information for 3,219 different civic groups and health services business in the Connecticut communities. The list service provides information for Bristol, Hartford, Middletown, Plainville, New Britain, New Haven and Waterbury businesses. The purchase of this list service would result in the expansion the Wheeler Clinics audience but will not result in the demand for care. This would be a great opportunity for the Wheeler Clinic to develop relationships with businesses and civic groups within Connecticut and would help generate recognition and awareness with potential donors otherwise unfamiliar with the Wheeler Clinic. $289.71 Strategy 3: Organizational Relationships Tactic 1: The Connect State Medical Society (CSMS) is a federation composed of eight country medical associations with a membership of 6,200 physicians. CSMS issues a Connecticut Medicine Journal that is distributed to each of its members. Advertising a quarter-page ad for half of a year, (five editions), would be a perfect trial run for the Wheeler Clinic to decide whether their publications have been beneficial in branding the Wheeler Clinic within the medical community and increase unrestricted gift donations. $1,400.00 Total Cost of Objective 1: $1,689.71 7
Objective 2: To increase awareness about the Wheeler Clinic organization by pushing the emphasis on online media and working to increase traffic on the Wheeler Clinic website by July 1, 2010 Strategy 1: Advertisement Tactic 1: Create a clear and impactful slogan in order to better brand the Wheeler Clinic organization and its values. The slogan “Support with a family touch” which came out as the ultimate favorite in two controlled focus groups, would replace the current slogan “Fostering Positive Change” on the website, current direct mailing, invitations and other informational forms and brochures. Cost (to create): $0.00 Cost (to launch): TBD Strategy 2: Website Tactic 1: Contact Fathom to design a landing page on the Wheeler Clinic website which would include personal stories from employees, donors, volunteers and willing patients on the Wheeler Clinic and its impact on their lives. We suggest that the landing page is modeled after the blog, but is targeted towards the general population and potential individual donors instead of just the medical professional community. $800.00 Total Cost of Objective 2: $800.00
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Objective 3: Develop relationships and communication with different online, television and print media outlets in order to create better press coverage for the Wheeler Clinics annual events. Strategy 1: Media Tactic 1: Opinion-editorials should be written by different people affiliated with the Wheeler Clinic besides the CEO, such as other administrative employees, donors, volunteers and willing patients $0.00 Total Cost of Objective 3: $0.00
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Timeline and Progress Tracking Report Goal 1 Objective 1: To establish and develop additional relationships with multiple professionals and health organizations in the Connecticut medical community (who are included in the improved database we have provided) in order to increase unrestricted donations by $50,000 over the next 3 years. Tactic Create a bi-monthly blog Create and maintain Twitter account Increase mailing database to civic groups and health organizations through USA Data Connecticut State Medical Society Journal Advertisement
Scheduled Date of Completion Monday July 5, 2010
Completed
Notes
Monday June 14, 2010 Tuesday June 1, 2010
Monday April 21, 2010
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Objective 2: To increase awareness about the Wheeler Clinic organization by pushing the emphasis on online media and working to increase traffic on the Wheeler Clinic website to (TBD) hits per day by April 2, 2011. Tactic Replacing slogan on website, current direct mailing, invitations and other informational forms and brochures Create a landing page on current website
Scheduled Date of Completion Monday January 3, 2011
Completed
Notes Gives time to replace all material and Wheeler Clinic could bring in a new year, with a new slogan.
Wednesday June 30, 2010
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Objective 3: Develop relationships and communication with different online, television and print media outlets in order to create better press coverage for the Wheeler Clinics annual events. Tactic Generating more Opinion Editorials
Scheduled Date of Completion Monday June 14, 2010
Completed
Notes
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Gantt Chart
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Budget Goal 1 Cost: $0.00
Tactic 2: Create and maintain a Twitter account
$0.00
Tactic 1: Purchasing a mailing list from USA Data
$289.71
Tactic 1: Join The Connect State Medical Society, Advertising a quarter page for half of a year, placing in five editions
$1,400.00
Strategy 3
Strategy 2
Strategy 1
Objective 1: Tactic 1:Create a bi-monthly blog on WordPress.com
Strategy 2
Strategy 1
Objective 2: Tactic 1: Create a clear and impactful slogan in order to make it easier to remember the Wheeler Clinic organization and what you stand for
Tactic 2: Contact Fathom to design a landing page on the Wheeler Clinic website
TBD
$800.00
Strategy 1
Objective 3: Opinion-editorials should be written by different people affiliated with the Wheeler Clinic besides the CEO, such as other administrative employees, donors, volunteers and willing patients
$0.00
Total Cost Of Objectives : $2,489.71
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Table of Contents Appendix I: Social Media
WordPress Blog……………………………16 Twitter Profile……………………………..17
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WordPress Blog
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Twitter Profile
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Table of Contents Appendix II: Media Opinion Editorial …………………………19
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Sample Opinion- Editorial The Wheeler Clinic provides the same excellent services regardless of CT’s Budget Crisis By: The President of Wheeler Clinic The current state of our economy has left families and business the same, feeling the repercussions of this budget crisis. In the state of Connecticut it is particularly important to make the right decisions regarding the challenges faced during this time so that the right choices are made to make Connecticut stronger and help our families and communities prosper. Essential services geared to help the health and happiness of our community has become threatened by the lack of funding provided to aid those in need. The Wheeler Clinic which was founded in 1968, is a non-profit behavioral health agency which serves Central Connecticut and the Greater Hartford area with an array of mental health, substance abuse recovery, special education, early childhood development, prevention, an employee assistance program (EAP) and different community education programs. Although the Connecticut budget crisis continues to threaten the access to vital behavioral health services for children and families the need for our services will and still has been continuing to grow. We like many others have been faced with reductions in state funding that limits access to some of our services. We have been working closely with our state funders, legislators, trade associations and other advocates to maintain the current level of our services for children, adults and families still are fully available. We are working with state leaders to ensure that cost-effective, quality services that help kids thrive in their home community, that reduce recidivism among individuals involved with the courts and that enhance functioning and quality of life, remain easily accessible in each town that we help. Our goal is to ensure that our services are accessible to the most vulnerable families in our community. One can help by telling your legislator how important the community safety net is to you, your family, your neighbors and friends. The impact we have on Connecticut communities and families is not one that should go to waste and deserves to be funded properly so our services can continue to help the many people have been and potentially will have to one day.
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Table of Contents Appendix III: Industry Database Business & Civic Group Mailing List………………………21
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Business & Civic Group Mailing List
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Table of Contents Appendix IV: Branding Focus Group I………………………………………….23 Focus Group II…………………………………………24
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Focus Group I Since 1968, the Wheeler Clinic is a provider of health services including mental health, substance abuse, special education, early childhood development, and prevention and community education. The Wheeler Clinic is a private, non-profit organization that is looking to change their slogan from “Fostering Positive Change.” If you or a family member were in need of assistance because of any behavioral, mental or substance issues which of the following slogans would you find most comforting? Please check as many that apply: “Caring for Connecticut communities since 1968” “Your family is our family” “Rebuilding lives one step at a time” “Putting people on the right path, one step at a time (everyday)” “Changing lives one step at a time (everyday)” “A different kind of family service” “Our mission is your success” "You're ready for change, we're just here to help" “Support with a family touch” Please feel free to add your own ideas if you feel none of the above slogans are sufficient! Thank you for your help and insight! Scoop Public Relations Lindsay Jaffe Tara Johnson Danielle Palmer
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Focus II Since 1968, the Wheeler Clinic is a provider of health services including mental health, substance abuse, special education, early childhood development, and prevention and community education. The Wheeler Clinic is a private, non-profit organization that is looking to change their slogan from “Fostering Positive Change.” If you or a family member were in need of assistance because of any behavioral, mental or substance issues which of the following slogans would you find most comforting? Please check as many that apply: “Our mission is your success” "Support with a family touch” Please feel free to add your own ideas if you feel none of the above slogans are sufficient! Thank you for your help and insight! Scoop Public Relations Lindsay Jaffe Tara Johnson Danielle Palmer
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Table of Contents Appendix V: Advertisement Awareness Posters……………….26-27 CSMS Advertising Cost Sheet………………………..28 CSMS Contact Sheet……………..29 CSMS Quarter-Page Advertisement………………..…..30
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Wheeler Clinic Awareness Poster (1)
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Wheeler Clinic Awareness Poster (2)
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CSMS Advertising Costs
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Connecticut State Medical Society Contact Information Address: 160 St. Ronan Street New Haven, CT 06511-2390 Contact: Rhonda Hawes Position: Director of Marketing and Special Projects Advertising: Action Newsletter; Connecticut Medicine Endorsed Vendors; Sponsorship Telephone: (203)865-0587 (Ext. 122) Fax: (203)865-4997 Email: rhawes@csms.org
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CSMS Quarter-Page Advertisement
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