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Overview

• The X PRIZE Foundation’s latest competition to spur social change looks to inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that help break our society’s addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change.
• An educational program to raise awareness of current energy-related issues among K-12 students was developed with the U.S. Department of Energy as a complement to the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE.  Widmeyer was hired to design, launch, promote and fully execute a national high school student contest as part of this program.

Communications Challenges

• Develop a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-focused contest architecture that incorporates creativity and 21^st-century skills and is compelling to high school teachers and students.
• Create an integrated communications plan to reach target audiences, recruit diverse high school teams from across the nation, promote positive change as well as the overall Progressive Automotive X PRIZE and ultimately announce the Grand Prize winner.
• Engage the American public in the over-arching themes of the contest – including fuel-efficiency and eco-friendly driving – through the promotion of online voting to help determine the winner.
• Display the promise of outstanding students and raise awareness of STEM-related careers.

Strategy and Tactics

• Widmeyer conducted a landscape analysis of national student contests in preparation for development of the contest architecture.
• To develop the national student contest, Widmeyer hosted and carried out a contest design session bringing together various partners, including the U.S. Department of Energy, X PRIZE Foundation, Discovery Education and the Saint Louis Science Center to share ideas and define the contest goals.
• Widmeyer defined the DASH+ contest rules and architecture as well as developed the logo, branding and messaging for use throughout the contest. Through partnership outreach, Widmeyer assembled a diverse panel of expert judges to facilitate scoring of contest entries.
• With Discovery Education and the Saint Louis Science Center, Widmeyer developed the DASH+ contest website, resources and supplemental materials.
• To launch the DASH+ contest, Widmeyer produced videos with two-time Emmy Award-winning director, Jonathan Stack, to energize audiences and provide social media content, as well as recruit high school teams to be the first to register live during the launch press event.
• Widmeyer maintained partnerships throughout the contest, while boosting awareness through partner networks, paid advertising, earned media and a robust social media campaign that included a blog, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.
• Widmeyer facilitated the expert judging process as well as implemented a viral online campaign, providing toolkits to the semi-finalist teams to encourage voting.

Results

• More than ten creative minds came together for a design session to determine the themes and goals of the national student contest and to inspire U.S. youth to collaborate and drive change today.
• Widmeyer, X PRIZE and partners planned a successful DASH+ launch event, leveraging the announcement of the qualifying teams of the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE in October 2009.  Media outreach resulted in attendance by 13 media outlets and coverage from outlets such as Education Week, Scientific American, ConsumerReports.com and Seventeen.com.
• More than 200 teams registered for DASH+, with teams representing hundreds of students crossing the finish line with complete contest entries.
• To further promote DASH+, Widmeyer successfully engaged audiences through social media outlets with 1,356 Facebook fans, 2,417 uploaded video views on YouTube and 83 Twitter followers.
• The DASH+ semi-finalists and online voting gained media attention both locally and nationally with clips from the Santa Barbara Independent, Detroit Free Press, San Jose Mercury News as well as CNET.com and Investor’s Business Daily.  The teams submitted Flip camera videos, reached out to their personal networks through tactics such as ‘cafeteria voting’ and created their own Facebook pages.
• Education stakeholders including the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce and Learning First Alliance, as well as the Governor of Michigan all tweeted about online voting.
• Every semi-finalist team member was recognized by their local Member of Congress.
• More than 10,000 votes from all 50 states and Washington D.C. helped determine the DASH+ winner: EDV Technologies from Santa Barbara, California.
• To announce the Grand Prize winner, Widmeyer secured an exclusive, in-studio segment on the local ABC affiliate – KEYT – morning news program.  There, the team learned LIVE that they won. Students and their parents celebrated with their local Mayors, Principal and School District during a breakfast press event.  The Santa Barbara School District issued a press release congratulating the team.
• Widmeyer coordinated and executed the three-day Grand Prize VIP experience in Detroit which included seven unique events with partners at The Henry Ford, College for Creative Studies, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan International Speedway.
• Media coverage of the Grand Prize experience includes clips from KCOY, CBS 12 Santa Barbara; WWJ-950, CBS Newsradio; Detroit Auto Scene; and the Detroit Free Press.

View the article.

Listen to Nancy Farmer’s interview

Read the Op-eds:
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Detroit Free-Press

View the blog post

Overview

• The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) was mandated by the U.S. Congress to implement a national public education campaign to fulfill the requirements of section 1407 of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. For the first time, the agency was tasked with creating a campaign to reduce drownings and entrapments in and around pools and spas by raising public awareness and industry compliance of the law.
• Widmeyer Communications partnered with the CPSC to develop and implement a comprehensive strategic public education campaign to remind parents and children of simple water safety steps that everyone can adopt and practice at pools and spas.

Communications Challenges

• With the CPSC responsible and visible on variety of high-profile consumer regulatory issues, Widmeyer designed a first-of-its kind national campaign that capitalized on the summer swimming season and the increased number of drownings reported during that season to generate earned media attention for the campaign and engagement in campaign activities by the diverse pool and spa community across the country.
• Since the summer swimming season created a limited opportunity for earned media coverage among consumers, another challenge remained in sustaining the campaign beyond the summer months. To meet this challenge, Widmeyer Communications developed a comprehensive outreach strategy with targeted media events and activities highlighting a new element of the campaign with specific timeless messages that would resonate with the public throughout the summer and into the fall season.
• As many national organizations have implemented drowning prevention and water public safety campaigns in the past, the goal of the campaign is to unite the various disparate organizations under one overarching initiative. By partnering with leading national public and water safety organizations, CPSC’s campaign is a call-to-action for consumers and industry to adopt additional proven water safety steps and join a national conversation about pool and spa safety by sharing best practices and other life-saving information.

Strategy

• Widmeyer’s strategic plan called for a series of public media events and activities to roll out the campaign in stages as new elements were created and announced, ongoing targeted proactive and reactive media outreach, social media presence and redesign of the agency’s pool safety outreach materials.
• Widmeyer Communications built the national campaign and message to be amplified through five distribution channels: partners, consumers, industry, media and government.  By partnering with leading national public and water safety organizations, such as the American Red Cross, YMCA of the USA, Safe Kids USA, National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA), Home Safety Council, Abbey’s Hope, and the World Waterpark Association (WWA), the campaign and its message will live beyond the year-long timeframe of the initial campaign by promoting different elements of the campaign through its established networks.
• After conducting twelve targeted focus groups in four different cities, Widmeyer also developed the name, logo, and brand identity of the campaign: Pool Safely: Simple Steps Save Lives.  This identity was paired with a positive, proactive messaging structure based on the idea that parents and families are already doing some things to stay safe at pools and spas, but they can always do more.  A key message is “You can never know which safety step will save a live…until it does.”

Tactics

• Widmeyer Communications designed a national launch of the Pool Safely campaign in the home district of the Member of Congress (Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-FL) who was the chief sponsor of the law in the U.S. House. By engaging two high-profile Olympic swimmers – Jason Lezak and Janet Evans – to participate in the launch press conference, Widmeyer generated significant earned media interest throughout the event.
• For a press conference in Houston, Widmeyer engaged Judge Ed Emmett, a local public safety official, to participate along with Safe Kids USA and the National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA) to announce a new kids’ safety education program.
• Widmeyer crafted an aggressive social media strategy to promote the campaign and its media events through Twitter, Flicker, YouTube and HuffingtonPost.
• To draw local media attention to the issue of drowning prevention and pool safety, Widmeyer emphasized the number of drownings and near-drownings nationally and regionally in trouble spots between Memorial and Labor Day weekends to highlight the campaign.

Results

• Since the launch of the Pool Safely campaign, Widmeyer has secured national and regional coverage as a result of our monthly announcement activities and rapid response program. Coverage includes USA Today, Associated Press, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Tulsa World, San Diego Union Tribune, and over 250 local televisions station pieces.
• In response to a news article about temporary pools coming to Manhattan, Widmeyer secured a Letter to the Editor in the New York Times from the Chairman of the CPSC highlighting the Pool Safely campaign.
• Widmeyer secured a national segment on NBC’s TODAY Show in advance of the July 4^th holiday weekend, which include the debut of the television public service announcement while highlighting the number of drownings and near-drownings one-month after the Memorial Day weekend.With months remaining in the campaign, additional activities are planned and media coverage, partner engagement and promotion are continuing throughout 2010.

A recent piece of news from Macedonia illustrates this. In digesting it, keep in mind that Macedonia is a country “in transition,” struggling to get on-board with free market capitalism and its fruits (including the fields of PR/Marketing/Public Affairs and Research).   Here is the piece of news I stumbled upon not long ago, while browsing the Macedonian online media:

“A recent survey concluded: 100% of the Macedonian citizens use the Internet. Answering to the survey question ‘Do you use the internet?’ 1,102 of those surveyed answered YES.”  The survey sample size was representative and included – yes, you guessed it – 1,102 participants.

The overview of the methodology of the survey explains the peculiar finding. According to the same article the survey was fielded online and invitations to participate were sent via e-mail.

To anyone in the west, the error in the above mentioned research is probably apparent immediately (even if not underlined). And to those of us surrounded by colleagues who adhere to the highest research and methodology standards it even sounds as a bad attempt at a joke.

I’ll admit that the above example is an extreme one; however, in nations where public opinion and research is a practice in its inception, these “errors” might not be immediately obvious to the general populace. Even less obvious are the chronic data manipulation, loaded questions and selective reporting from research conducted by newly established PR firms in Macedonia.

Therefore, it is not surprising – given the notorious methodological research blunders and the insignificant and non-actionable results produced by public opinion research houses in Macedonia – that the local opinion elites are becoming skeptical of the value public opinion research could bring to policy/issue preparation and evaluation.  One commentator asked recently, “Does anyone still believe in the potential of opinion polls to contribute valuable insights and add to the understanding of issue and policy questions?” Other local media commentators have also started to conclude that the only “goal of public opinion surveys is to service the ratings of politicians and political parties, and business and lobby groups with extra money to spare.” And who is to blame?!

When research turns into a vehicle for uncovering desired “sound bites” to make the client look good in the short-term, researchers are not only trading-off the client’s future reputation and the issue at stake; they are also trading-off the value of their own profession in the long-run for a momentary business and financial gain.

The Macedonian example reminds us that researchers and communications professionals have a duty to devise the best methodological tools, use them appropriately, analyze and report results accurately with value added goals in mind. It is our duty not only to our clients, but also to our society and to our own profession.