The City Club Campaign

The Hope & Stanley Adelstein

Public Relations Campaign Plan

Forum Public Relations Presents

Free SpeechEssay Competition

Letter of Transmittal

The City Club of Cleveland Letter of Transmittal

Forum Public Relations2450 Euclid AvenueCleveland, OH 44115

June 24, 2011

James H. Foster, Executive DirectorThe City Club of ClevelandThe City Club Building, 2nd Floor 850 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44114

Dear Mr. Foster,

We are submitting the public relations campaign plan for The Hope & Stanley Adelstein Free Speech Essay Competition.

The main purpose of this document is to outline the means by which we plan to make the essay competition a success. We are proposing an integrated public relations campaign targeting primarily the high school juniors and seniors who attend schools in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Portage, Lake, Lorain, Medina and Sum-mit counties. We also describe how to create awareness among influential fig-ures in their lives – parents and teachers – as well as how to utilize The City Club’s members.

If you have any questions concerning our campaign plan please feel free to contact Meredith Horrigan at 440-823-9113.

Sincerely,

Meredith HorriganSenior PR Strategist

Executive Summary

The City Club of Cleveland Executive Summary

Executive SummaryThe City Club of Cleveland

Situational Analysis This year marks The City Club of Cleveland’s 100-year anniversary. The anniversary offers a stage on which to remind the public of The City Club’s mission, and to promote an understanding and appreciation for freedom of speech.

The Hope and Stanley Adelstein Free Speech Essay Competition is the first essay competition that The City Club has held. Awareness and participation among area high school students is important to the overall mission of the organization and this competition – to educate the youth of Greater Cleveland on the topic of free speech and to inspire them to exercise this right.

The City Club’s mission is, “to inform, educate and inspire citizens by presenting significant ideas and provid-ing opportunities for dialogue in a collegial setting.” Despite efforts to promote this mission across all gen-erations by hosting youth programs, the club still finds it lacking participation from the younger generations. However, if The City Club successfully inspires students to be socially aware of issues, then these students will grow into concerned and learned citizens. Engaging students by starting a dialogue on the importance of free speech, via the essay, will help to guarantee future relevance and membership of The City Club.

Audiences The primary audience for The City Club’s Free Speech Essay Competition is all high school juniors and seniors in public, private, parochial, charter and home schools in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Portage, Lake, Lorain, Medina and Summit counties. The parents and teachers of these students are a secondary audi-ence this campaign. The tertiary audience is The City Club’s membership population.

Objectives The objectives of this campaign are: to create awareness of the essay competition among students, teachers and administrators in at least 90 percent of high schools in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Por-tage, Lake, Lorain, Medina and Summit counties; to create awareness of the essay competition among registered home school parents and students and City Club members; and to have at least 200 high school juniors and seniors enter into the competition.

Strategies The message strategy intended to reach all audiences is to convey how writing an essay will augment the high school students’ studies by developing a deeper knowledge of and appreciation for freedom of speech. Our primary audience of students must be addressed with the message strategy of emphasizing the recognition that the winners of the essay competition will receive from The City Club. The potential scholarship money available to the entrants of the essay competition will be communicated to both the primary and secondary audiences of this campaign. The final message strategy, to appeal to The City Club members’ pride in their organization as a reason to share the information about the essay com-petition with those who are eligible to enter will address our tertiary audience.

Action strategies for this campaign include: Reaching the students through the social media channels of Facebook and Twitter; reaching the students, teachers and administrators of area schools by sending promotional and reference materials directly to the schools; reaching homeschooled students and their parents through direct mail; reaching the parents and teachers through daily and weekly newspapers in Greater Cleveland; reaching City Club members through the organization’s existing communication chan-nels.

Tactics To reach students on social media outlets, we will update Facebook posts on our page and tweet about the essay competition. Information kits sent to the schools will reach both the audiences of students and teachers. These kits include fact sheets, novelties, posters, fliers and a direct appeal letter. Home-schooled students will be made aware through home schooling newsletter articles. News releases will ad-dress parents and teachers alike. Finally, the existing City Club website and newsletter will be used to reach City Club members. Announcements at Friday Forums will also inform the members of the competition.

Evaluation We can easily evaluate whether we achieved our objective of having 200 essays submitted by tallying the submissions. Similarly, we can assess the awareness in schools by having a spot for entrants to list the school they attend. If a school had zero entries, we will follow up with a phone call to be sure they were aware of the competition. To judge if there was awareness among City Club members, we will conduct informal evaluations by seeing if there is any feedback from that audience about the competition.

Background on the Client

The City Club of Cleveland Background on the Client

“The City Club is the oldest continuous independent free speech forum in the country, renowned for its tradition of debate and discussion.”1 For 100 years, The City Club’s activities have earned a national reputation as a “citadel of free speech” and secured a place in history as an impartial, vital center for community debate. What makes The City Club’s century of success particularly noteworthy is its complete commitment to the principles of free speech – principles that have been challenged over the past 100 years.

The City Club’s mission is, “to inform, educate and inspire citizens by presenting significant ideas and providing opportunities for dialogue in a collegial setting.”2 It informs through its Friday Forums and Special Program Series. The Friday Forums are held each week and broadcast via radio and podcasts. Programs such as the High School Student Program, Debate Championship, and Youth Forum Series are all sponsored by The City Club to educate the youth. It hopes to inspire other such forums through its rich history of practicing and promoting free speech. The centennial is both a celebration of the past 100 years and an opportunity to promote the club’s vision.

The City Club was founded in 1912 by a group of concerned citizens as a response to the multiply-ing social, political, and economic problems that emerged in Cleveland as a result of the industrial revolution. By 1910 the city’s leadership was overwhelmed with the challenges of supporting the citizenry and resolution was becoming more difficult to achieve. The Founders of The City Club en-visioned an organization where these and other topics could be discussed in an environment that would not just tolerate but thrive on the differences of opinion among its members in the hope of confronting and solving the compelling issues of the day.3

The organization took the stance to be not only non-partisan, but also non-advocatory and re-mains neutral on all topics. A forum format was adopted whereby a presentation was given and impromptu questions were asked. The intent was for the audience to become better informed and make more educated decisions at home, at work and especially in the voting booth. Each year more than 50 different speakers bring to the podium an array of ideas and insights that form the mosaic of contemporary life.

More than 5,000 speakers have addressed The City Club about a vast array of topics – political and social issues affecting Cleveland, the U.S. or many nations. Their hall of fame represents its most notable guests: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, every president since Jimmy Carter, Geraldine Ferraro, Richard Cheney, Robert Reich, Jane Fonda, Henry Louis Gates, Margaret Mead, Lester Thurow, W.E.B DuBois, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sandra Day O’Connor, Robert Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, T. Boone Pickens, Ross Perot, Michael Milken, Rosa Parks, Lee Bolinger, John Kerry, Condoleezza Rice, Cardinal McCarrik, Henry Kissinger, Ken Burns, Henry Louis Gates, Francis Collins, and many more.4

Today, The City Club is a $1.3 million non-profit organization. Nearly half of its budget, roughly $550,000, comes from contributors such as grants. Membership dues constitute another $14,000 and ticket sales from the programs $22,000. The rest is comprised of Forum Foundation support, un-related business income, catering income, etc. After such fixed costs as salaries, taxes, and facilities and equipment, catering expenses are the largest expenditure at $166,000. The cost of putting on programs, which is primarily paying the speakers, comes to $114,000, and TV and radio production for these programs costs $39,000.

Just 20 employees put on all of the many Friday Forums and special events that the organization has. Under The executive director, James Foster, are the directors: director of operations, Gary Musselman; director of development, Christine Alexander; public relations and program manager, Carrie Miller, and the 100th anniversary director, Elizabeth Horrigan.

1 http://www.cityclub.org/AboutUs/tabid/162/Default.aspx2 http://www.cityclub.org/AboutUs/tabid/162/Default.aspx3 http://www.cityclub.org/AboutUs/History/tabid/163/Default.aspx4 http://www.cityclub.org/Programs/tabid/171/Default.aspx

Situational Analysis

The City Club of Cleveland Situational Analysis

The City Club of Cleveland is an organization that strives to fulfill its mission of informing, educat-ing, and inspiring citizens across every generation. However, it is also an organization that is un-derappreciated by younger audiences. The City Club recognizes this and, in an effort to ensure future success, offers programs particular to these audiences.

For young professionals, the New Leaders initiative allows for these “emerging leaders to develop dialogues with established leaders as part of the city’s ongoing business and civic growth.”1 The hope is that the New Leaders Committee will increase participation of younger members in its special programming and membership recruitment to support The City Club’s future.

Students at local universities are engaged through City Club on Campus. Having the Forum format on the respective campuses gives students, “accessibility to City Club programs, member-ship and outreach initiatives.”2

The City Club makes an effort to appeal to high school students through hosting the High School Debate Championships, and providing opportunities for involvement. The Youth Forum Coun-cil plans five Youth Forums a year, which allows both council members and attendees to delve deeper into pertinent topics. The Student Program at The City Club invites students from local high schools to attend a regularly planned Friday Forum, but to stay after and have a private question and answer session with the speaker.

Despite these efforts, the club still finds itself lacking participation from the younger men and women. However, if The City Club successfully inspires high school students to be socially aware of civic issues – locally to globally – then these students will become concerned and learned citizens. These traits mirror the audience that the club is most likely to attract. Therefore, engaging students by starting a dialogue on the importance of free speech will help to guarantee future relevance and membership of The City Club.

This year marks The City Club of Cleveland’s 100-year anniversary, and it is hosting a myriad of events to celebrate – some are new installments of previously successful programs, as is the case with Power of Ideas2, and some are firsts for the organization.

Each of the events, however, does not merely seek to commemorate this organization’s centen-nial. The anniversary offers a stage on which to remind the public of The City Club’s mission, and to promote an understanding and appreciation for freedom of speech.

The Hope and Stanley Adelstein Free Speech Essay Competition is the first essay competition that The City Club has held. Awareness and participation among area high school students is impor-tant to the overall mission of the organization and this competition – to educate the youth of Greater Cleveland on the topic of free speech and to inspire them to exercise this right.

Writing an essay is one of the best vehicles for such scholarship, and that is why The City Club chose this particular event.

Any high school junior or senior in Cuyahoga and the six surrounding counties is eligible. Each en-trant will submit a 300-word essay on what “freedom of speech in the U.S. Constitution” means to him or her by February 15, 2012. Twenty top essays will be chosen for varied award levels: first prize is a $1000 scholarship, second is $750, and third is $500. The top three essays will be read aloud at a City Club Forum, which is also broadcast on radio, television, YouTube, and The City Club web-site.

1 http://www.cityclub.org/NewLeaders/tabid/241/Default.aspx2 http://www.cityclub.org/CommunityOutreach/HigherEducation/tabid/250/Default.aspx

Audience Definition

The City Club of Cleveland Audience Definition

Primary Audience: Students

The primary audience for The City Club’s Free Speech Essay Competition is all high school juniors and seniors in public, private, parochial, charter and home schools in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Por-tage, Lake, Lorain, Medina and Summit counties.

Those who will choose to enter the competition are confident in their writing and communication abilities. They are interested in history and writing, and are likely in such clubs as newspaper or yearbook. They look at this competition as a chance to show off their abilities and to produce a writing sample for future use.

These students are highly motivated, competitive people. They want to achieve at high levels and, therefore, look forward to higher education opportunities. The scholarships offered help to fulfill the student’s need to pay for college, but it is the recognition as a top-twenty finisher and the chance to present their work at a Friday Forum that will entice these students to participate.

Secondary Audience: Parents

The parents of these students are a secondary audience of The City Club’s campaign. Although most of the entrants will be self-motivated, there are many students who will require extra con-vincing from their parents.

The parents want the best for their children and support them in all academic endeavors. They will recognize the value in participating in the competition, even if their children do not, initially. If the parents are well-educated and active citizens, then it is likely that they have heard of The City Club. They will support its mission to educate, inform, and inspire their children.

Beyond the inherent benefits of knowledge and personal growth, however, the parents will ap-preciate the opportunity for their children to earn scholarship money. Often, regardless of their so-cioeconomic status, parents’ hopes for their children’s educational future depend on their ability to pay for college. Therefore, the parents encourage their children to pursue any and all avenues for funding of college expenses.

Secondary Audience: Teachers

Teachers all share a common desire for their students to continually gain knowledge outside of the classroom. An essay competition is one such opportunity for their students to augment their resume and studies. Any teacher will be happy to promote the competition and support any participants. Another motivation, although distant, is the small cash prize for the teachers of the top three winners.

Tertiary Audience: City Club Members

A fourth, and much smaller audience, is the current group of City Club members and patrons. Although many of them are older, it is likely that they know someone fitting the eligibility require-ments – children, grandchildren and family friends. They know and support The City Club’s mis-sion and want to help celebrate its 100th Anniversary. They will encourage anyone they know to participate in the competition. This word of mouth promotion is invaluable.

The City Club of Cleveland Goals

Overarching Goal

To inform, educate and inspire regional high school students by providing opportunities for them to present significant ideas and for dialogue in a collegial setting.

Goal 1

To motivate high school students to participate in The Hope and Stanley Adelstein Free Speech Essay Competition.

Goal 2

To educate high school juniors and seniors on the history of free speech in this country so they might be better prepared to discuss the topic.

Goal 3

To inspire an interest in and appreciation for sharing complex ideas that might otherwise be ne-glected by high school juniors and seniors.

Objectives

The City Club of Cleveland Objectives

Awareness Objectives

To create awareness of the essay competition among students, teachers and administrators in at least 90 percent of high schools in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Portage, Lake, Lorain, Medina and Sum-mit counties.

To create awareness of the essay competition among registered home school parents and stu-dents.

To create awareness of the essay competition among City Club members.

Action Objectives

To have at least 200 high school juniors and seniors enter the competition.

Strategies & Tactics

The City Club of Cleveland Strategies & Tactics

Communication Strategies

Message StrategiesConvey to all audiences how writing an essay will augment the high school students’ studies by developing a deeper knowledge of and appreciation for freedom of speech.

This message strategy is intended for all audiences of this campaign – students, parents, teachers and City Club members.

Students who are particularly interested in history, government and/or writing will take the oppor-tunity to advance their skills and expand their understanding.

Parents and teachers will encourage their children’s/students’ participation in hopes that they will grow up to become learned and productive members of society.

City Club members, being advocates of freedom of expression, will appreciate the aforemen-tioned hopes because they believe in and practice their right to free speech.

Emphasize the recognition the winners of the essay competition will receive from a prominent Cleveland organization.

This message strategy is meant to reach the primary audience for this campaign – high school juniors and seniors.

Students who will be persuaded to enter the essay competition are more than likely strong stu-dents who strive to be recognized as excellent in every endeavor. The privileges of being named a winner include having their essay posted on The City Club website, being invited to a special, broadcast Friday Forum at which they will share their essay, and receive a one-year City Club membership and a Certificate of Recognition.

Communicate to each audience the potential scholarship money available to the entrants of the essay competition.

This message strategy is planned to reach the primary and secondary audiences of this cam-paign – students and their parents and teachers.

Students are often motivated by extrinsic incentives. Those who desire to continue on to higher education are often concerned about how to pay for it. Therefore, students will be inclined to write a 300-word essay for the opportunity to earn scholarship money.

Parents have their children’s best interests in mind, and these often include the pursuit of a col-lege degree. However, at every socioeconomic status, this audience must consider how to pay for higher education. They will encourage their children to apply for any and every scholarship opportunity available.

Teachers, although less concerned with each student’s finances, realize the importance of schol-arships. They will promote any prospect for scholarship of which they are aware. This audience has a chance to earn a small cash award, as an added incentive, if their student is a top-three winner.

Appeal to The City Club members’ pride in their organization as a reason to share the information about the essay competition with those who are eligible to enter.

Strategies & Tactics

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The City Club of Cleveland

This message strategy is meant for The City Club members.

The City Club members are proud to be a part of the longest running free speech forum in the country. They are not the only people who appreciate freedom of speech and the marketplace of ideas, but they actively exercise this right by attending weekly forums to become more edu-cated and effective community members. They want to see The City Club last another 100 years and they recognize that this requires new generations to become just as involved. Therefore, the current members will want to spread the word about this competition.

Action Strategies

Strategy Reach the students through the social media channels of Facebook and Twitter. Our primary audience, high school juniors and seniors, are well connected and tech savvy. The opinion leaders of this audience spend a lot of time disseminating their views via social media channels, Facebook and Twitter in particular. These sites allow for instant and informal dialogue between The City Club and the students, who are almost constantly online. Therefore, The City Club must also have a presence on these same channels.

TacticsFacebook PostsWe will create a City Club Free Speech Competition Facebook page on which all of the guide-lines for the contest will be available. Beyond information, however, The City Club will consistently post topical questions and facts to stimulate ideas and discussion surrounding free speech.

TweetsTwitter will be used in much the same way as Facebook. The same questions and facts can be shared on this channel; however, the information will have to be shared in small pieces and act more as reminders about deadlines and such. A “hashtag” (possibly #CityClub) will also be started in hopes of having the competition become a trending topic, and therefore be seen by more students.

Strategy Reach the students, teachers and administrators of area schools by sending promotional and reference materials directly to the schools.An information kit – consisting of fact sheets, novelties, posters and fliers – will serve to reach both area high school teachers and their students. These tactics will work well together in getting the attention of the audiences because it covers those who want all of the facts or those who pay closer attention to visual appeals.

Tactics Information KitIncluded in these kits will be a fact sheet, novelties, fliers and posters.

Fact Sheet The fact sheet will inform all audiences of the competition’s specifics: eligibility, essay requirements, deadlines and prizes. These will be distributed to the teachers, who will present the sheets as an introduction to the competition, and then offer to share them with interested juniors and seniors.Novelties The novelties, customized City Club pens, will be created. It is likely that the stu-dents will both appreciate the souvenir and keep it throughout the year, which will be a good reminder.Fliers The fliers will include much of the same information as the fact sheets, eligibility, essay

requirements, deadlines and prizes.Posters The posters will be simplified fliers, and include the name of the essay competition, prizes and deadlines.

Strategy Reach homeschooled students and their parents through direct mail.Because a mailing list is available for all registered homeschooled students, we can send materi-als to them directly through the mail. In the interest of conservation, we will only send information kits to those who ask for more information.

Tactics Newsletter ArticleThis article will be sent to a newsletter that home schools might subscribe to. The information included in the newsletter article will be much the same as that of the news release. It will an-nounce the competition and list the guidelines. It will also direct the reader to The City Club web-site for further information and/or contact information.

Direct Appeal LetterA direct appeal letter will fully inform the parents on specifics of the competition (eligibility, essay requirements, deadlines and prizes) and let them know that an information kit is available if they would like to have one sent to them.

Strategy Reach the parents and teachers through daily and weekly newspapers in Greater Cleveland.Parents of the high school students are more likely than their children to consume this traditional form of media, so it is another valid channel through which to appeal to our secondary audi-ence.

Tactic News ReleaseWe will write news releases for daily and weekly news publications in Greater Cleveland detailing the purpose and guidelines of the competition. There will be two sent: one when the competition is announced, and another as the deadline approaches, to serve as a reminder.

Strategy Reach City Club members through the organization’s existing communication channels.We do not want to overlook the influential audience that is The City Club’s membership. These members are likely parents, grandparents or family friends of someone who attends an area high school. In an effort to maximize exposure, The City Club’s current resources will not be wasted.

TacticsThe City Club WebsiteThere is a landing page on the club’s website specific to the 100th anniversary events. A link to essay competition details is will be created and maintained to provide further insights than the Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The City Club NewsletterThe current newsletter will be utilized. Each month, a small article on the competition will be pub-lished.

Friday Forum AnnouncementsBefore each Friday Forum, the host will announce the competition to the members.

Strategies & TacticsThe City Club of Cleveland

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Calendar

The City Club of Cleveland Calendar

August 2011 Aug. 1 Write News Release Create Flier Aug. 5 Create Poster Aug. 13 Create Art for Pens (Submit for Production) Aug. 15 Write Direct Appeal Letter Aug. 20 Write Fact Sheet Have Pens Produced Aug. 22 Duplicate Fliers Duplicate Posters Aug. 24 Duplicate Fact Sheet Duplicate Direct Appeal Letters Aug. 25 Create Facebook Page Create Twitter Account Aug. 28 Assemble Information Kits Aug. 31 Distribute Information Kits Distribute Direct Appeal Letters Distribute News Release

September 2011

Sept. 1 Write Newsletter Articles (Distributed Monthly) Sept. 1 Begin Friday Forum Announcements (Weekly)

December 2011

Publish Newsletter Article (Monthly) Make Friday Forum Announcements (Weekly) Dec. 1 Create Banner Dec. 15 Write Second News Release Dec. 20 Duplicate Banners

January 2012

Publish Newsletter Article (Monthly) Make Friday Forum Announcements (Weekly) Jan. 1 Distribute Banners Jan. 15 Distribute Second News Release

February 2012

Feb. 15 Deadline for Submissions

April 2012

April 1 Choose 20 Award Winners April 5 Notify Winners April 6 Begin Evaluations

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Budget

The City Club of Cleveland Budget

Item Unit Price Number Sub Total Shipping TotalFact Sheets $0.09 2445 $220.05 $40.75 $260.80Novelties $0.24 77,000 $18,480.00 $407.50 $18,887.50Posters $1.25 3260 $4,075.00 $154.85 $4,229.85Fliers $0.49 3260 $1,597.40 $154.85 $1,752.25Direct Appeal Letters $0.49 1750 $857.50 $437.50 $1,295.00Banners $12.00 163 $1,956.00 $203.75 $2,159.75

$28,585.15

Evaluation

The City Club of Cleveland Evaluation

Awareness Objectives

If The City Club plans to hold another essay competition, then we must evaluate which chan-nels of communication were most effective. To do this, we will send surveys through direct mail to each entrant. In these surveys, we will ask questions to ascertain where they had heard of the competition.

To create awareness of the essay competition among students, teachers and administrators in at least 90 percent of high schools in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Portage, Lake, Lorain, Medina and Sum-mit counties.

To measure if we managed to create awareness among at least 90 percent of the high schools, we can create a simple tally by incorporating a spot for each entrant’s school in the submission process. If we received an essay from a school, it is reasonable to assume that the teachers and administrators at that particular school were aware of the essay contest.

The City Club will contact by telephone those schools that had zero students enter the contest.

To create awareness of the essay competition among City Club members.

An informal evaluation will be conducted through City Club directors to evaluate whether mem-bers were aware of the essay competition. We will ask if they have heard any feedback regard-ing the competition.

To create awareness of the essay competition among registered home school parents and stu-dents.

To determine whether registered home school parents and students were made aware of the competition, we will see if any submissions came from such schools. If there were none, we will then assess whether the direct appeal letters received any responses/requests for further informa-tion (in the form of information kits).

Action Objectives

To have at least 200 high school juniors and seniors enter the competition.

We will measure if at least 200 junior and senior high school students participated in the competi-tion by tallying the total number of essays submitted.

The City Club Campaign

Documents

Transcript of The City Club Campaign