GPS IMPACT

c o m m u n i c a t i o n s + c a m p a i g n p l a n n i n g f o r c o n s e r v a t i o n m e a s u r e s

Mark LangginPartner

GPS Impact has a staff of over 25 professionals from the west coast to D.C. to service video production, media buying, creative, content creation and strategic support as necessary.

INTRODUCTIONS

Founding partner at GPS IMPACT

Managed Iowa’s 2010 Iowa Water & Land Legacy Amendment Campaign

Managed two (2) county-level conservaGon bond measures in Iowa, $80m+ in funding

Have worked with TPL/ConservaGon Campaign, TNC & others on over half a dozen measures naGonwide -

generally, and as a digital consultant

Live in Des Moines, IA with my wife, a 9 year old soVball player, a 5 year old obsessed with MinecraV

and an ankle biGng puppy

FUNDAMENTALSCampaign

• Formula for a Winning Campaign

• Defining Core Audiences

• Identifying Persuasive Messages

• Elements of A Communication & Campaign Strategy/Plan

FORMULAcampaign

FORMULAcampaign

The Basics

Clearly Identified Need & Opportunity Well Defined Plan for Expenditures Path to the Ballot Established & Scoped Leadership Organized - Ready to Move

Base of Support

Research based message (polling) Coalition Building / Outreach Fundraising & Political Support Strong Campaign Plan + Execution

Today, we are going to focus on the following elements:

1. Understanding Core Audiences that will matter to your campaign

2. Identifying persuasive messages

3. Strategies/Tactics for communicating with those Core Audiences

Focus in on Communication (making the formula actionable)

+

=

x

= Formula for Success

AUDIENCESdefining core

AUDIENCES• How do I (as an organization) stand to benefit from a winning conservation,

land protection or parks ballot measure?

• Who else stands to directly benefit from a winning measure?

• What organizations, groups or entities will indirectly benefit from your winning ballot measure?

• Who are my potential opponents? What motivates them?

• Who is my passionate and informed base?

• Who is my potentially strong, but uninformed base?

defining core

AUDIENCESdefining core

How do I (as an organization) stand to benefit from a winning conservation, land protection or parks ballot measure?

Organizational Mission Benefit

Public Relations Benefit

Financial Benefit

Answer the “What’s in it for me question?”

AUDIENCESdefining core

Who else stands to benefit from a winning ballot measure?

Answer the “What’s in it for OTHERS question?”

AUDIENCES

Voter Benefits

Indirect Benefits

Directly Benefit

AUDIENCESdefining core

Who are my potential opposition?

Answer the “How do I minimize their impact?”

AUDIENCES

“No” Voters (Polling)

Community Organizations

Political Organizations

Other Conservation/Enviro Orgs

Local Community/Political Leaders

Permanent “NO-ANTI-NYET” Voters

AUDIENCESdefining core

Who is my base of support? Informed? Uninformed?

AUDIENCES

Your Own Members

Related Interest Groups

Partner Organizations & NGOs

Political Organizations

Political Organizations

Local Government

Your Community Base of Support

Your “base” lays the groundwork to communicate with potential donors, influencers, volunteers and ultimately voters.

**REMINDER**Electoral Base is Discovered Through Polling

MESSAGES*identifying persuasive

**HINT: It’s about defining NEEDS vs WANTS**

MESSAGES• Important to use whatever quantitative data you can find - polling, census data, social media

insights

• Talk to people - all successful campaigns know what makes their base of support tick. What motivates your donors? What does the local city council need to accomplish?

• Always think about an audience and the connection to your project and try to answer the “What’s in it for them?” question - in a clear and simple manner. Too many steps to a net benefit = problem

• What are the messages that help capture the frame of your opposition’s message. A great example is “accountability vs. raising taxes”. Another is “focusing on needs vs. wants as a form of fiscal conservatism”

identifying your persuasive

Always be focused on answering the “What’s in it for me/them” question, and bring it back to the winning

messages identified through polling/quantitative research

TOOLS• Use your polling and understanding of your audiences to develop a

message triangle to outline the focus of the campaign, key supporting messages and strategic pivot messages

• Helps structure a presentation, give a speech, set-up an op-ed or used to answer questions from media/audience

• Intended to integrate with other presentaGon materials

• Not necessary to include all elements in EVERY presentaGon - but a way to inform key pieces

• UlGmately, it’s a tool to organize your message and focus your thoughts

messaging

TRIANGLEexample messaging

ProtectingSourcesofCleanDrinkingWaterforFutureGenerations

ProtectingNaturalAreasforFloodPrevention,Parks&Wildlife

ProtectingTaxpayers&HoldingGovernmentAccountable

TheLinnCountyWater&LandLegacybondwillimproveLinnCounty’squalityoflifethrough

protectionofournaturalresourcesforfuture

generations.

- TheStateofIowahasover500impairedwaterwaysthatneedimprovementthroughpartnershipswithfarmers,businessandgovernment.BondfundswillhelpLinnCountyleadonprotectingcleanwaterforfuturegenerations.

- Over50%ofLCWLLBondfundswillbededicatedtoprotectionofsourcesofcleandrinkingwaterandthelandthatnaturallyfilterswaterandbuffersLinnCounty’srivers,lakesandstreams

- BondfundscanonlybespentonprojectsthathavebeenpubliclydiscussedbytheLinnCountyConservationBoardandapprovedafterpubliccommentanddiscussion.ProjectswillbemanagedbytheLinnCountyConservationBoard.

- TheaverageLinnCountyhomeownerwillonlypay$2.25permonthinadditionalpropertytaxes.

- AllexpendituresauthorizedunderthebondwillbemanagedbytheLinnCountyConservationBoardandpubliclydisclosed.

- AllprojectswillbeguidedbyestablishedcapitalimprovementandparkmasterplansandsubjecttopublicdiscussionandcommentbyboththeconservationboardandtheBoardofSupervisors.

- Naturalareascanprovideimportantbuffersandlocationsforwetlandsfornaturalfloodwaterstorage.Thesenaturalareaswillhelpreducetheimpactsoffloodingandprovideimportantwildlifehabitat.

- Parkimprovementprojectswillhelpaddresstheneedsforincreasedpublicopenspaceandimprovingpublicaccesstoareastofurtherconnectpeopletonature.

- Protectionofnaturalareaswillpreservewildlifehabitatandareasforrecreationforfuturegenerations.

- TheLinnCountyConservationBoardwillusefundstopartnerwithcommunitiesthroughoutLinnCountytoimprovepublicparksandexpandandconnecttheexistingnetworkofhikingandbikingtrails.

#1PriorityisprotectingsourcesofcleandrinkingwaterforfuturegenerationsofLinnCounty

residents

Makingimprovementstoparks&trailsandprotectingnaturalareaswillhelpimprovequalityof

lifeinLinnCounty

TheLinnCountyConservationBoardwillbeaccountabletothepublicanddiscloseall

expenditures

W O R K I N G W I T H T H E M E S S A G E T R I A N G L E

• It’s a guide, not handcuffs

• Great way to structure a presentation, give a speech, set-up an op-ed or used to answer questions from media/audience

• Intended to integrate with other presentation materials

• Not necessary to include all elements in EVERY presentation - but a way to inform key pieces

• Ultimately, it’s a tool to organize your message and focus your thoughts

TOOLSDevelop a core set of talking points / outline for communicating with your core audiences:

• Your “Insider Base” - Donors, Activists, Leaders • Political Base • Supportive Likely Voters • Persuadable Likely Voters

• Use the message triangle + talking points to develop initial communication materials - one-page prospectus, Powerpoint presentations, basic handouts/flyers/palm cards, etc …

messaging

COMMUNICATION*

elements of a plan for

LEADERSSTAFF

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

ACTIVISTS

CONSULTANTS

DONORS

VOLUNTEERS

TEAMcampaign

UlImately, you will need a full campaign “team” of leaders driving a conversaIon with acIvists and your community. This team will be the base for communicaIng with donors, poliIcal networks, and voters.

COMMUNICATION

- Earned or “non-paid” communication tools

- Paid communication tools

- Building a campaign budget

tactics for campaignWinning campaigns use a wide mix of tools to reach their core audiences.

Always be sure to remember the basic questions:

1. Who is my target audience? 2. Why do they matter? 3. What action do I want them

to take?

Earned or “non-paid” communications includes:

• Internal communications (newsletters, staff meetings, etc…)

• Partner internal communications (supportive organizations sending newsletters, staff meetings, etc)

• Presentations & demonstrations to community groups, leaders and organizations

• Digital communication through your established and “free” channels (I know, staff time isn’t “free”)

COMMSearned or “non-paid

Example Internal Comms ◦ E-Newsletter ◦ Presentations to Staff / Board Members ◦ Training Sessions with Team

External Comms

◦ E-Newsletter / Print Newsletter / Magazine ◦ Social Media / Website ◦ Community Presentations ◦ Influencer Meetings ◦ Traditional & Non-Traditional Press

PA I D C O M M U N I C AT I O N TA C T I C S

• Direct Mail AdverGsing

• Paid Phone Calls

• Digital Media

• Broadcast Media

Less

Tar

gete

dM

ore

Targ

eted

Fully fund ONE strategic medium,

before funding the next

Direct mail is one of the primary forms of paid advertising in the majority of ballot measure campaigns for conservation funding. There are a number of reasons:

- It’s scalable, but can be expensive on a cost-per-piece basis

- Ability to target individuals / households

- Segmented messaging based on audience

- Ability to tell a story / deliver message over time

- Visual medium that combines images, text an color to connect with a voter

ADVERTISINGdirect mail

In addition to direct mail, we regularly include paid phone calls as a part of the strategy. They are beneficial for a number of the same reasons as mail:

- It’s scalable, and can be inexpensive

- Ability to target individuals / households

- Segmented messaging based on audience

- Ability to tell a story / deliver message over time

- Audio based medium that allows you to convey urgency, emotion and other messages through a natural/personal medium - your phone

PHONE CALLSpaid

TYPES:

- Robo/Auto-Dial Calls - IVR Message + Polling Calls - Telephone Town Halls - Live Calls

The majority of social media platforms are now pay-to-play. Although it is still very important to produce great, engaging content, we can no longer post and expect to see great results organically. They are also no longer a place when users go to just update their status, they are platforms where users go to get information.

Social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have grown their capabilities dramatically for advertisers over the past few years. Besides audience building tools like page fans and followers, we are also able to optimize for conversions (great for list building), video views, and reach and frequency.

Facebook is a primary channel for email list acquisition - both in-state, and nationally. There is unparalleled scale and micro-targeting functionality on this platform.

ADVERTISINGsocial media & digital

Facebook & Instagram (not all capabilities are applicable to Instagram, but Instagram is a great extension of Facebook to target A18-35)

◦ Page Fans ◦ Engagements ◦ Video views ◦ Reach / Brand Awareness ◦ Local Awareness/ hyper geo-targeting ◦ Conversions / Lead generation

Twitter

◦ Followers ◦ Engagements ◦ Video views ◦ Event targeting ◦ #hashtag targeting

Snapchat ◦ Geo-filters around events

ADVERTISINGtargeting and voter file

Targeting

Targeting is extremely important in the overall performance of a campaign, and there are a variety of different targeting approaches we are able to use based on the objective, audience we want to reach, platform, and ad type. More often than not, we use multiple different targeting approaches in a campaign to balance efficiency and scale.

• 1st party data (voter file matching) • 3rd party data • Contextual • Cookie, Device ID • Location / geo-targeting • Website remarketing / retargeting • Action remarketing / retargeting, such as

retargeting someone who watched a video with a different video or ad

We work with top of the industry data partners to match first party data to user cookies and mobile device IDs.

• We are able to match cookies and mobile device IDs off of first party data. Cookies are used for targeting across web browsers on both desktop and mobile. Device IDs are used to target in-app mobile inventory.

Voter File Matching (Cookies, Mobile Device ID, Micro-Targeted Location)

Forms of broadcast communication (less targeted) include:

- Newspaper & Magazine Advertisements - Billboards - Yard signs - Television & Cable Advertising - Radio Advertising - Any form of advertising that does not leverage actual voter data for purposes of targeting

COMMUNICATIONbroadcast

1. Clearly define what you want to accomplish, why it’s important to your organization, and to others (especially voters - call Lori, she’s a great

pollster)

2. Understand your audiences, what makes them take action, what makes them vote, and what makes them turn out at the polls

3. Develop a communications plan and campaign strategy that is poll-driven and focuses every day on the things that will put your winning message in

front of the right audiences

4. WRITE A PLAN & STICK TO IT UNLESS THE POLITICAL WINDS CHANGE (oh, and make sure it’s driven by research)

5. Raise the money, resources and energy to execute. These ballot measures will change the DNA of your organization, for the better - forever. The

ROI, both direct and indirect is significant

SUMMARY

DES MOINES, IA

100 E Grand Ave. Suite 380

Des Moines, IA

50309

515-244-3468

KANSAS CITY, MO

140 Walnut St. Suite 205

Kansas City, MO

64106

816-298-7571

PHILADELPHIA, PA

123 S. Broad St. Suite 1920

Philadelphia, PA

19109

215-534-6274

LAWRENCE, KS

901 Kentucky St, Suite 305

Lawrence, KS

66044

785-371-9499

Thank youST. LOUIS, MO

2333 S Hanley Rd, Suite 103

Brentwood, MO

63144

515-244-3468