YES Campaign

Zayed UniversityCOM 451 501Badran Badran

Wed 18th January 2012

Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182

We pledge that this is our work and that it conforms to the Zayed University Honor Code.

08Fall

Fall

Y.E.S! We Are Here and We Can Help

COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182

Contents pageExecutive Summary 3

PART ONE: Formative ResearchSituational AnalysisOrganizational Analysis

- Organizational Vision- Organizational Message- Organizational Values- Organizational Goals- The issue

Publics’ Analysis- Producers- Enablers- Limiters- Intercessory publics- Major opinion leaders

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PART TWO: StrategyEstablishing goals and objectives

- Reputation management goal- Relationship management goal- Task management goal

Formulating Action and Response Strategies- Proactive strategy 1: Action strategies

o Organizational performanceo Audience participationo Special eventso Alliances and coalitions

- Proactive Strategy 2: Communication o Publicityo News worthy communicationo Transparent communication

- Reactive Strategy 1: Pre-emptive Action o Pre-emptive action

Developing the Message Strategy- Spokesperson- Key Message- Branding

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PART THREE: TacticsStrategic communication tactics

- Interpersonal tactics o Special events

- Social media tactics o Twitter and Facebook

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o YouTube- News media

o Print mediao Broadcast mediao Interactive news tactics

Packaging communication tacticsImplementing the strategic plan

- Schedule o Event 1: Interview sessiono Event 2: Meet & Greet

- Budget Connection

PART FOUR: Evaluation PlanEvaluation of awareness objectives

- Message exposure - Message readability - Message content

Evaluation of acceptance objectives- Audience feedback

Evaluation of action objectives

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Appendix 20

References 21

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Executive SummaryYoung Eager Steps (YES) is a student-managed team, which aims to give back to

the community. The organization focuses on volunteering to help others such as orphans and the elderly. This campaign projects goal is to increase publicity and awareness about the organization and the projects and charity they hold for others.

The issue that YES experiences is considered as an opportunity. The problem of lack of publicity that YES is experiencing will help the organization understand what it’s doing wrong and find different strategies and solutions to overcome the issue, and hopefully gain more publicity than anticipated.

When looking for ways to help YES, four sections are included to create this campaign; research, strategy, tactics and evaluation. The research finding indicates that YES has a lot of assets that aren’t being used to achieve publicity, such as a large number of volunteers and young supporters. The research also indicates that parts of the society such as newspaper reporters and journalists are yet to acknowledge YES in their articles.

As part of the strategy, four goals were created in order to set a new strategy that can accomplish the issue of publicity. These goals include; reputation management goal, relationship management goal and two task management goals. These goals are: (1) To generate a new sponsor support system, (2) to increase publics support for organizational goals, (3) to generate acceptance of both english and arabic news agencies and journalists and (4) to recreate the organizations image in the public eye, from being a charity into a youth empowering organization.

Subsequently, specific action and response strategies are chosen to achieve the issue of lack of publicity. Three strategies were chosen. First off is an action strategy, which is part of ‘proactive strategy. This strategy includes 4 parts: organizational performance, audience participation, special events and alliances and coalitions. The second proactive strategy is communication. This strategy includes: publicity, news worthy communication and transparent communication. Finally, the last strategy is a reactive one, Pre-emptive action. This is where members of YES are aware that not all comments are positive and they as members should be able to handle negative comments and any crisis that the organization may experience.

To achieve the strategy, three tactics have been chosen to create the campaign; Interpersonal tactics, Social media tactics and News media tactics. Interpersonal tactics includes special events, where YES will create a photography contest for people to join through Facebook and Twitter. The prize for best photo will get a chance to have a one-on-one photography lesson with Bader AlAwadhi, President of Emirates Photography Society and Board Member of Union of Arab Photographers. The second tactic is Social media. This tactic is the most important from the other tactics, as information spreads like wild fire, especially through Twitter and Facebook. The main benefit to this tactic is that the cost is free! This includes Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The last tactic is News media, The YES organization requires news media as a way to gain publicity through the different mediums; print, broadcast and interactive news tactics. Each medium has its own beneficial part to gaining publicity for YES. The

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182main benefit to this tactic is that the cost is free! This includes print media, broadcast media and interactive news tactics.

Two events are planned; event one is a photography contest, where the public is able to join and film an interview by YES. Event two is a meet and greet where YES will invite the press along to a casual Gala dinner at Dusit Dubai. The dinner will be followed by an introduction session, a YES brief by the founder, and finally a Q&A session, where guests are free to ask questions to the organization. The proposed budget for conducting these two events for this campaign is a total of AED 14,206.

The methods used for evaluating whether this campaign is successful by using the three evaluation methods; evaluation of awareness objectives, acceptance objectives and action objectives. The main methods will include; message exposure, message readability, message content, and audience feedback . Analyzing elements such as the comments, statistics of views and number of people that attend YES events in 2012, will help determine whether their objectives to gain publicity have been successful or not.

Part one: ResearchSituational AnalysisIn Dubai, there are approximatly 20 licensed charities and foundations (deparment, 2012) that aim to help society, from orphans to the disable and to the elderly. Some of these charities include associations such as Dubai Cares, which is well known in helping to educate and build schools for children around the world. Young Eager Steps (referred to as YES) is a new organization, which is just as important as Dubai Cares, but lacks publicity. Publicity is “a technique or process of attracting public attention to people, products [and others] as by the use of mass media.” (Publicity, 2011).

Since the first underprivileged group that YES has aimed to help is orphans, it is harder to reach every single orphanage in the U.A.E without the right publicity. The YES organization has only used a minimal method in publicizing, mainly using social media such as Blackberry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook, as well as word of mouth. There is a void in the number of mediums to publicize themselves.

Another issue is that publicity comes after an event hosted by the organization. Therefore, a large number of people are not aware about the events held by YES until much after it, and so the event lacks attendees. This issue has been repeated a number of times and has become a cycle throughout the year since its launch.

Even though the events held by YES are open to all the public, the lack of publicity results in having a limited number of attendees.People who attend the events hosted by YES are mainly:

- Family and friends of members in the YES group.- The special guests that are invited- The orphanages that are invited- People who work in orphanages and attend these events (one orphanage is

invited per event)- Volunteers- Some Arabic media (such as: Al Khaleej Times and Al Bayan)

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182The organization is a year old and so it needs publicity and prioritization; where the public is informed, aware and also motivated to join or attend events held by YES. This issue of lack of publicity is a temporary one that any year-old organization is expected to go through, and hopefully the organization can gain its publicity using certain strategies and methods.

Organizational AnalysisYoung Eager Steps (YES) is a student-managed team, which aims to give back to the community. The organization focuses on volunteering to help others such as orphans and the elderly. Our campaign project goals to increase publicity and awareness about this organization and the projects and charity they hold for others.

YES is a group that works on different projects that revolve around the issues that concern the Emirati youth. The YES organization focuses on the needs of certain underprivileged groups in society, such as helping orphans and making friends with them, as well as helping them feel part of the society.

Following are the organization’s vision, message, values and goals that were taken from the original YES website (Young Eager Steps, 2010) and translated from Arabic to English for the sake of this formative research proposal:

Organizational VisionThe creation of a generation that passes a thousand miles in one step, through the development of their skills and contributions in building a society of knowledge, power and kindness.

Organizational MessageEffective participation that is good for our society. We aim to reach the highest peaks of intellectual thinking and education. Each of these factors is important, and when met together, we can achieve a well-harvested plan to succeed in the best possible way.

Organizational Values- Responsibility.- Honesty, trust and cooperation.- To benefit and to be benefited by.- The determination to succeed.- Excellence, innovation and professionalism.- To provide aid and assistance to the society as a whole.

Organizational Goals- To motivate young people into volunteering and display its importance to them.- To complete the on going interaction with individuals in order to hear the voices

of the youth.- To shed light upon the self-fulfilling results of humanitarian work.

The issueThe issue that YES experiences is considered as an opportunity. An American best selling author, Louis L’Amour, once said: “Some say opportunity only knocks once, that is not true. Opportunity knocks all the time, but you have to be ready for it. If the chance

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182comes you must have the equipment to take advantage of it.” (Cole, 2010). It is understood that if you don’t see this opportunity, it will be long gone. Successful people are those who find great opportunities behind every problem they face. They understand that they are the reasons that these problems occur, and so they must better themselves to fix it. The problem of lack of publicity that YES is experiencing will help the organization understand what it’s doing wrong and find different strategies and solutions to overcome the issue, and hopefully gain more publicity than anticipated.

Public Analysisa) Primary public:

- Orphanages in the UAE- Charities that are interested in collaborating.

b) Secondary public:- Volunteers- Press: such as Radio, TV, bloggers.- General public: such as guests and special guests that attend events.

Producers: “Are those publics that provide input to the organization, these include personnel such as employees, volunteers and unions; producers of needed materials such as suppliers; and producers of the financial resources, such as investors, donors and stockholders” (Smith, 2009).The following lists the producers of this organization:

- YES group members- Volunteers (changes per event)- Sponsors: Sponsors may not necessarily be giving money; many provide the

space and equipment needed to make an event successful. An example of a previous sponsor in a YES event is Dubai Sports World at the Dubai World Trade Centre, which offered its Full-sized Football and Ruby Turf pitch with the equipment needed for the event.

Enablers:“Groups that serve as regulators by setting the norms or standards for the organization, opinion leaders with influence over potential customers, and groups that otherwise help make the organization successful.” (Smith, 2009).The following lists the enablers of this organization:

- Government: Islamic Affairs & Charitable Activities Department- Print media: Newspapers (Al Khaleej Times, Al Bayan, Al Ittihad)- Online media: Bloggers (Think Up GCC)- Religious speakers: Who talk about the importance of humanitarian work in

Islam.- Orphanage representatives: Who set the standards for orphan-related events

held around the U.A.E.

Limiters:“Those publics that in someway reduce, or undermine the success of an organization.” (Smith, 2009)The following lists the limiters of this organization:

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- Media: the media who publish about events organized by YES, without mentioning the organization’s name and instead focusing on the orphanages and celebrities who attended.

- Opponents: Such as Unicef, Department of Islamic Affairs, as they may hold events similar to YES and share the same audience.

Intercessory publics:“Someone who presents your case to another, some one who uses her influence to intercede on your behalf to obtain a favor, mediate your dispute or to speak for you” (Smith, 2009). Intercessory public are individuals that represent the company on a local level.

- Volunteers: Those who volunteer use social media and word of mouth to publicize about events held by the organization.

- Bloggers: Bloggers such as ThinkupGCC, who have recently posted a video interviewing YES members on their Youtube account.

- Twitter: A main social medium where users that have many followers tweet about the organization and its events.

- Family and friends: Those who use social media and word of mouth as well as support and help the organization.

Major opinion leaders:Major opinion leaders are great sources to word of mouth.

- Celebrities: including UAE based football players, TV hosts, Khaleeji actors, (such as the voice-over of “Sha3biyat ElCartoon”). Those who have attended events held by YES and speak highly about the organization, mainly through word of mouth and social media.

By understanding the main issues and framework of the organization and its surroundings, a strategy can be created to overcome this main issue of publicity.

Part two: StrategyA strategy “is the organizations overall plan. It is the determination of how the organization decides what it wants to achieve and how it wants to achieve it.” (Smith, 2009) In this section, we will explain the various strategies and discuss how each strategy will be implemented to the YES campaign. By creating a strategy through goals and objectives, this can help YES overcome the issue of lack of publicity.

Establishing goals and objectivesGoals and objectives are important for all organizations to know how distinct it is from other organizations, rather than its similarities. A goal and strategy helps position the organization in its changing environment. A goal is “a statement rooted in the organization’s vision or mission.” (Smith, 2009). By establishing the public relations issue, we can now determine the 3 kinds of goals (reputation, relationship and task) and its objectives to over come the issue of lack of publicity, which are listed below:

- Reputation management goal this goal “deals with the identity and perception of the organization” (Smith, 2009). YES’s reputation goal is to recreate the organization’s image in the public eye, from being a charity into a youth empowering organization.

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182Objective: To recreate the organization’s image in the public eye, from being a charity into a youth empowering organization, specifically creating a video campaign, which creatively summarizes all the things the members of YES as young people have achieved so far that should go viral by March 2012, through shared links on online websites such as Youtube, where the video will be entitled “Young Arab Role Models.”

- Relationship management goal this goal “focuses on how the organization connects with its publics” (Smith, 2009). YES’s relationship goal is to generate acceptance of both english and arabic news agencies and journalists.Objective: To generate acceptance of both english and arabic news agencies and journalists, specifically, increase the amount of positive articles and updates published by different news agencies in the UAE, about YES by 25% by the end of 2012.

- Task management goal this goal is “concerned with getting certain things done” (Smith, 2009). YES’s task goal is to increase publics support for organizational goals.Objective: To increase publics support for organizational goals, specifically encourage people living in the UAE to attend events held by YES, specifically gain 30% of attendees to YES events by the end of 2012.

- Another Task management goal To generate a new sponsor support system.Objective: To generate a new sponsor support system, specifically gain 2 major annual contributors by the summer of 2012.

Positioning is the process of managing how an organization distinguishes itself with a unique meaning in the mind of its publics. (Smith, 2009) In this case, YES doesn’t aim to get a revenue, but it aims to generate with the youth, and which will later on allow the youth to connect with the society, through knowledge, power and kindness.By achieving the goals and objectives, the organization is able to find out how it is perceived by various publics and the position held by its major competitors.

Formulating Action and Response StrategiesSpecific action and response strategies are chosen to achieve the issue of lack of publicity, which are mentioned below:

Proactive strategy 1: Action strategiesAction strategies are “tangible deeds undertaken by the organization in an effort to achieve its objectives” (Smith, 2009). There are 7 parts to the proactive action strategy, which include: organizational performance, audience participation, special events, alliances and coalitions, sponsorships, strategic philanthropy and activism.From these 7 points, only 4 are highly needed in achieving publicity for Young Eager Steps. These four are explained as follows:

- Organizational performanceOrganization performance “Ensure[s] that the organization is working at its highest possible level of quality for its customers” (Smith, 2009). As the issue for YES is to gain publicity, we see that it is important for YES to implement and portray good organizational performance. This gives YES the advantage of having a good reputation and image among its key publics, and hopefully can help to recreate the organization’s image in the public eye, from being a charity into a youth empowering organization.

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- Audience participationAudience participation, which “involves using strong two-way communication tactics and engaging audiences and publics in your communication activities” (Smith, 2009). This strategy is important for YES to encourage people living in the UAE to attend events held by YES through audience participation. By having a strong bond between the organization and its publics, though a constant flow of information and ideas.

- Special eventsSpecial events are “staged activities that an organization develops to gain the attention and acceptance to its key publics” (Smith, 2009). By having a special event, such as hosting a Gala evening dinner, to invite all potential investors or future alliances, where YES will be introducing its team members and its achievements so far, as well as awarding the current and past investors that have assisted in previous YES activities. News worthy events allows YES “to carry an important message to the key publics” (Smith, 2009), which in return can help in encouraging and persuading these investors to get involved and be a part of YES.

- Alliances and coalitionsAlliances and coalitions is “when two or more organizations join together in a common purpose” (Smith, 2009). By having both informal and formal relationships among YES and ThinkupGCC, it allows the organization to gain its publicity from both sides.

Proactive Strategy 2: Communication- PublicityPublicity is “the attention given by the news media to an organization, person, event, product or idea” (Smith, 2009). The main issue in YES is its lack of publicity, publicity is extremely important for the organization to have a good reputation and encourage attendees as well as media attention, which is positive. Even though “not everything gets on the air” (Smith, 2009), publicity is important between the informal and formal publics. By having a good reputation this helps generate news worthy publicity. Through two events that will be explained further in the tactics section.

- News worthy communicationNews worthy communication is when “an organization is using the news media to carry its message and capture the interest of its publics” (Smith, 2009). The information in a news worthy communication presents new ideas, which includes elements such as action and interesting news that attracts its public. It is important for YES to have news worthy communication to gain attention of its publics as well as both English and Arabic news agencies and journalists, as this can help YES gain more and more publicity.

- Transparent CommunicationTransparent communication “is the term given to the [idea] that open and observable activity by an organization helps publics understand the organization and support its action” (Smith, 2009). YES requires to have transparent communication for its publics to interact and also criticize or give ideas about YES and their events. This can help the two-way communication between the organization and publics, and in return make the audience responsible to have an input into important decisions, hence, feel trustworthy

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182and included. As well as allow the organization to improve through these ideas and criticisms.

Reactive Strategy: Pre-emptive ActionOut of the 7 reactive strategies, pre-emptive action is the only adequate strategy needed by the organization.

- Pre-emptive action Pre-emptive action is “the action, which is taken before the opposition launches its first charge against the organization” (Smith, 2009). In other words, the safety fence that an organization needs to be ready for a crisis. YES needs pre-emptive action as no organization is immune to bad news. Having pre-emptive action it helps the organization promote the company that if a crisis happens, there is a safety net or action to prevent or decrease the problem. “The first person to tell the story sets the tone” (Smith, 2009), having a pre-emptive action allows YES to tell the story in an appropriate tone that doesn’t generate negative versions of the situation.

Developing the message strategyAfter having identified our publics and established our objectives for what we need to achieve, we will now turn our attention to the best means in communication. This includes introducing 2 or 3 possible spokespersons for the organizations campaign, a key message that is verbal and nonverbal as well as mentioning the most adequate way to branding the organizations campaign.

- SpokespersonsThe spokesperson is the face of the organization. For YES, there are 2 possible persons for this campaign. First, Saleh Al Braik, who is the founder of Thinkup.ae, the social hub to find the best, most talented and inspirational GCC nationals. This audience-admired, charismatic 23-year-old Emirati already has a high credibility level in terms of his expertise and knowledge in giving back to the community. ThinkupGCC’s “initiative is set up to be the voice of the future and focus on inspiring individuals in taking the future in their own hands,” (Riyami, 2011) similar to YES. He already has up to 27,000 followers on his Twitter account, @fearlessindubai, which would be helpful for our campaign in terms of publicity, to tweet about YES.

The second spokesperson for this campaign is Jalal Jamal BinThaneya, an Emirati who focuses his missions on “issues that concern the country and its people.” (BinThaneya) He aims in “Integrating individuals with special needs.” (BinThaneya). Having BinThaneya as a spokesperson for YES, helps the organization achieve their mission and goals, as well as help associate the organization with the idea of philanthropic work.

- Key messageA tagline “is a succinct phrase that is associated with the organization’s logo, presents a comprehensive message that identifies the organization and seeks to position it in the minds of consumers and other publics.” (Smith, 2009)For the key message, we have come up with a tagline, which reads:

Y.E.S! We are here and we can help!

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182This message will use a mixed appeal. Rational appeal in a way that this message provides the purpose of why it is important that we (the organization) and they (the publics) can take steps to help the underprivileged.Emotional appeal in a way that the message focuses on the emotional side of the audience, since this campaign is to inform the public about YES as an organization that deals with issues concerning the underprivileged youth in the Emirates.

“No matter how good your verbal communication skills are, your body language and other non verbal communications can make or break the message you are trying to put across.” (Tsui, 2011) Our message is verbal through the tagline: “Y.E.S! We are here and we can help”, while the non-verbal focuses on the look and feel of the organization. Having a warm and kind environment during events held by the organization, is an example of non-verbal communication. Youthful happy faces in a corporate video or during the events is another way to express positive non-verbal communication.

- BrandingWhen branding our campaign, we will focus on:

- What we want people to remember: the tagline: “Y.E.S! We are here and we can help” by incorporating the tagline in all social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry Messenger, and anything published about the organization.

- What we want them to do: to increase publics support for organizational goals, by making them clear and understandable to our key publics.

- The attitudes towards the YES organization: to recreate the organization’s image in the public eye, from being a charity into a youth empowering organization, by highlighting the fact that it is a group of privileged young adults, helping underprivileged people.

- That we are different or unique from other organizations that do similar activities, by creating a corporate video highlighting everything that has happened in the past year, since the organizations launch.

Part three: TacticsStrategies are important for planning what the organization wants to achieve through its goals and objectives. It provides “the skeleton and muscles” (Smith, 2009) for the organization to communicate. By creating a strategy and branding the campaign, YES can now create an image for the public that has a good reputation and bond between the organization and its publics. By taking on certain actions and having spokespersons, YES is able to undertake tangible deeds that the organization can achieve.

In the tactics section, certain tactics are chosen that allow the organization to deal with things that are visible to the public. Communication tactics “are the visible elements of a strategic plan.” (Smith, 2009). This helps the organization plan the various messages that are communicated to the public as well as include scheduling and budgeting for the campaign.

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182Strategic communication tacticsStrategic communication tactics are responsible for looking “at the various media and communication tactics in their complexity.” (Smith, 2009). From the 5 types of tactics, only 3 are chosen for this campaign; Interpersonal tactics, Social media tactics and News media tactics.

Interpersonal tacticsThis tactic “offers face-to-face opportunities for personal involvement and interaction.” (Smith, 2009). Within this tactic there are 3 parts: personal involvement, information exchange and special events. As the aim of this campaign is to gain publicity for YES, special events are important to take on.

- Special eventsThese are “activities that are created by an organization mainly to interact with members of its publics.” (Smith, 2009). When having a contest for example, to increase likability of the company and interaction between the public and the organization. This tactic helps generate positive word of mouth among the competitors, as well as generate news worthy communication. This helps achieve the organization’s goal “to recreate the organizations image in the public eye, from being a charity into a youth empowering organization.”

On the day of filming the interview, YES will create a photography contest for people to join through Facebook and Twitter. This contest will have various categorys including; best portrait, best group photo and so on. The photos will be judged by the public on Facebook by posting these photos on the YES Facebook account on a public photo album, where people can judge these photos through the “Like” button. The prize for best photo will get a chance to have a one-on-one photography lesson with Bader AlAwadhi, President of Emirates Photography Society and Board Member of Union of Arab Photographers. Since this goals objective is to create a video that goes viral through social media, having a special event contest will help spread the word about the up-coming video campaign as competitors are able to create a hype on social networks through Facebook and Twitter. Example for Twitter, creating a hashtag “#youngarabrolemodels”.

A poster (shown in the appendix) was designed and created, as a way of advertising and inviting people to this event. This poster will be printed on A5 paper and given out in specific locations that this organization is aiming at, such as Zayed University and Dubai Mens College. The poster will also be posted online on YES’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, since social media is active during this era and information spreads rapidly.

Social media tacticsThis tactic “is a new phenomenon” (Smith, 2009), which covers a number of mediums for social communication. Social media “acts as an active part in the development and presentation of the messages.” (Smith, 2009). This tactic is the most important from the other tactics, as information spreads like wild fire, especially through Twitter and Facebook. The main benefit to this tactic is that the cost is free!

- Twitter and Facebook

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182This will act as the main means to strategic communication for gaining publicity, since it is a fast spreading network. For example: if an organization posts, mentioning an interesting event, where volunteers are needed, this information easily spreads through different peoples social networks and in result the organization gains publicity. Although the downside to social media from the public, is that negative comments have a great impact and spread much faster than positive ones, just like gossip, since people are much interested in gossip more than positive news.

Social media tactics also includes a large amount of audience participation, where the audience writes personal views and thoughts about the organization, by posting pictures or videos. These people can also follow and read what the organization itself posts on their own social account. Because of audience participation in social media, the positive messages shown, seems more credible, since these messages and views are not coming from within the organization but from the public.

Another poster was designed (shown in the appendix), which is an example of the look and feel of the YES campaign. This poster will be posted on Twitter and Facebook.

- YouTubeYouTube is the second largest website visited in the world. It is a video sharing search engine, where a large number of people post, share and comment on videos daily. By posting videos or interviews about YES on YouTube and sharing them through Facebook and Twitter, we hope to have this video go viral. All the organization’s goals will require social media tactics, as it is the best to help achieve publicity for YES.

News mediaWhich are “communication vehicles that exist primarily to present news worthy information to various audiences.” (Smith, 2009). People, who are somewhat interested in the organization, are able to read, watch or listen to the news media and thus gain more informed about the organization. The YES organization requires news media as a way to gain publicity through the different mediums; print, broadcast and interactive news tactics. Each medium has its own beneficial part to gaining publicity for YES. The main benefit to this tactic is that the cost is free! It also adds credibility to an organizations message and a certain level of accuracy and so can achieve the goal “to increase publics support for organizational goals.” Third party endorsement is the term used for people who are not part of the organization, but are responsible for preparing “the significance and validity of the information being presented.” (Smith, 2009), such as reporters. Another benefit to news media is that it reaches a mass number of audience, and so someone is bound to read, listen or watch it.

- Print mediaThis includes newspapers. Newspapers “are publications that post up to date printed information.” (Smith, 2009). YES would benefit in having news posted in newspapers because free news is crucial to a new organization that doesn’t want to waste their financial resources. Having free publicity is a big plus for YES. Although the number of newspaper readers is declining there are still a fair amount of readers such as opinion leaders, business people and others that read newspapers as a part of their daily information gathering. (Smith, 2009) Having news about YES in general interest newspapers include information about special events that YES may hold, which appeals

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182“to the diverse interests of a wide spectrum of leaders.” (Smith, 2009). Al Khaleej, Al Bayan and Al Ittihad are newspapers that YES will be contacting to invite to the events held by YES, including; the interview day and photography contest, where they are able to write articles about YES and the event.

- Broadcast mediaThis includes radio and television. Terrestrial radio which “have both AM and FM formats” (Smith, 2009). Radio allows YES to speak about their organization, as well as advertise events they may hold. Since terrestrial radio is local, listeners can tune into radio channels, easily listen and may even call the radio channel to ask questions to YES on live radio. For example, the morning radio station hosted by Kris Fade, on Virgin Radio (104.4), which airs from 6am to 10am. This station was chosen to reach a young audience since Virgin radio is a station that appeals to the young generation.

- Interactive news tacticsWhich includes news interviews, a very important part of strategic communication. Interviews act as a way for organizations to hold sessions where journalists can ask questions which are answered by the organization. Having news interviews would help YES achieve its goal to generate a new sponsor support system. Where sponsors have the chance to ask questions about YES and learn more about them through a credible source.

By setting up a meet and greet session with different TV channel hosts, such as Noor Dubai. One TV, Sama Dubai and Sharjah TV, this can help achieve the campaign goal: “To generate acceptance of both english and arabic news agencies and journalists.” At this meet and greet session, YES has the chance to introduce themselves as well as an opportunity for the TV stations to network. With this, we will be reaching any sponsors that watch these shows. YES will invite these hosts to a casual meet and greet dinner followed by an introduction session, a YES brief by the founder, and finally a Q&A session, where guests are free to ask questions to the organization.

The other 2 tactics; organizational media tactics and advertising and promotional media tactics are not required for the campaign as it requires a big budget and not necessary for this campaign, to gain publicity for YES. YES is an organization that is barely over a year old and it is a non-profit organization. In other words, members of YES are not paid and all the funding comes from sponsors. Therefore, using these costly and expensive tactics would not benefit the organization as much as the other tactics mentioned above.

Packaging communication tacticsPackaging communication tactics are required “for putting the public relations program together” (Smith, 2009) and looking for the simplest way of planning it. From the 5 various packaging types; by category, public goal, objective and department packaging, packaging by goal was chosen for this campaign. For YES, packaging by goal “provides an over-view of goals associated with the issue.” (Smith, 2009). Since this campaign includes 4 main goals that it wants to achieve, packaging it by goal is the most effective way for the organization to focus on taking each goal into action.

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182BudgetThe budget includes two events with an approximate pricing.

Event 1:Tactic Price (AED)Filming:

- Hiring camera crew, - Renting camera equipment- Production team

- Volunteer Videographer, Free of charge

- 1,100 AED- Volunteers Free Of Charge

Location fees- Safa Park- Supplies Chairs, Picnic Mat, Tables

- Entrance Fees 3 AED per person- ≈ 90 AED- Furniture Rental Service = 1,000

Transportation fees - Car, - Petrol, - Salik

- 100 AED Petrol- 8 AED Salik

Refreshments - Snacks - Drinks

- Snacks ≈ 800 AED- Drinks ≈ 200 AED

Office supplies - Pens - Paper

- 100 AED-

Phone bills - 200 AED

Pocket Expenses - 150 AED

TOTAL: 3,748

Event 2: Meet and GreetTactic Prince (AED)Venue rentalDusit Dubai Conference Hall 1

- 5,000 AED

Catering Dinner Buffet for 40 people

- 100 AED per head- 4,000 AED

Phone bills - 200 AED

Printing - Brochures- Invites

- 300 AED- 200 AED

Transportation bills - Car, - 100 AED Petrol

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- Petrol, - Salik

- 8 AED Salik

Photographer Volunteer Photographer free of charge

Flowers - 500 AED

Pocket Expenses - 150 AED

TOTAL: 10,458

ConnectionSince YES’s goals are all catered around the theme of “Publicity” the 3 tactics chosen are designed to meet the organization’s needs. Social Media is the most important tactic, which will be used in compliance with al the rest of the tactic since it will help enhance them. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be used to promote the special events and competitions being held throughout the next 6 months and help create a buzz for the Young Arab Role Model video campaign.

Part four: EvaluationEvaluation is “the systematic measurement of the outcomes of a project, program or campaign based to which stated objectives are achieved.” (Smith, 2009). For this campaign, it is important to evaluate certain elements to know whether the campaign was successful in gaining publicity to YES or not. From the four goals and objectives stated in the strategy, a number of questions are listed as a way to evaluate these objectives, through awareness, acceptance and action.

Evaluation of awareness objectivesReputation management objective: To recreate the organizations image in the public eye, from being a charity into a youth empowering organization, specifically creating a video campaign, which creatively summarizes all the things the members of YES as young people have achieved so far that should go viral by March 2012, through shared links on online websites such as Youtube, where the video will be entitled “Young Arab Role Models.”

This evaluation focuses on “how many people were exposed to the message, how easy the message is to understand and how much of the message is remembered.” (Smith, 2009).

Message exposure:- How many times has the video link been shared and viewed?- How many times newspapers and magazine articles have written about YES, and mentioning the event.- What are the number of likes and dislikes for the video on YouTube?YouTube is a search engine for videos. When posting a video, the user is able to findout a number of statistics, such as the number of views watched, demographics of the viewers, playback locations (to know which medium used is the most successful) and more. This helps the campaign figure out whether the video posted went viral, and to who.

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COM 451 501 –ISC Nouf Farid 2008 23714Fatima Albanna 2008 19182Message readability:Since this objective focuses on a video and not any written documents, the message readablity will be based on finding out what the audience is saying about the video through checking their comments on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Message content:- Was the content in the video positive?- Were the newspaper and magazine articles giving positive or negative reviews to YES?- Were the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube comments positive or negative towards YES?Message content is important for this campaign, to know whether YES has a good reputation and view towards its publics. Having good comments builds the selfesteem of the members of the organization, and having negative comments can help the organization improve, and so it is important to focus on what the public has to say about YES.

Evaluation of acceptance objectivesRelationship management objective: To generate acceptance of both english and arabic news agencies and journalists, specifically, increase the amount of positive articles and updates published by different news agencies in the UAE, about YES by 25% by the end of 2012.

This evaluation includes the attitudes and opinions, as well as the behavior of the audience, through audience feedback. For this campaign, YES will be able to evaluate whether the campaign for publicity was successful or not. By analyzing the voluntary reaction of the audience, in this case, Arabic and English news agencies and journalists. - How many telephone calls and e-mails did YES receive from these agencies?- How many of these agencies and journalists requested for additional information about YES and their events?

Evaluation of action objectivesTask management objective: To increase publics support for organizational goals, specifically encourage people living in the UAE to attend events held by YES, specifically gain 30% of attendees to YES events by the end of 2012.Another task management objective: To generate a new sponsor support system, specifically gain 2 major annual contributors by the summer of 2012.

To evaluate these objectives, it is important to keep a record on the number of people that attend YES events in 2012, and compare them to those statistics of the year before. Also, to evaluate through registration forms at YES events, and find out the gender and ethnicity of the attendees. Finally, counting the number of people who were present when a YES event started and again count the number of people towards the end of the event, to find out whether the public was interested enough to stay at the event, hence, stating whether the event was a success or not. For evaluating a new support system, YES will count the total sponsors gained by summer 2012.

These evaluation methods will help evaluate the publics attitude towards YES and their events and will hopefully allow YES to determine whether their objectives to gain publicity have been successful or not.

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Appendix

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References(2010). Retrieved from Young Eager Steps: http://www.youngeagersteps.ae/main.htmlBinThaneya, J. J. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from BinThaneya:

http://www.binthaneya.com/about/Cole, R. The Unwritten Laws of Finance & Investment. London: Profile Books LTD.Publicity. (2011). Retrieved from Dictionary.com:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/publicitySmith, R.D. (2009). Strategic Planning for Public Relations (3rd Edition ed.). New York:

Routledge.Riyami, N. (2011, Sept 18). The only way to think is up! Retrieved from Khaleejesque:

www.khaleejesque.comTsui, D. (2011, June 14). Nonverbal communication exercises. Retrieved from Livestrong:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/351433-non-verbal-communication-exercises/

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Documents

YES Campaign