Marketing to the American Cancer Society

Transcription

1 College Marketing Guidebook September 2009 Midwest Division

2 MARKETING & PROMOTION: Spreading the Mission of the American Cancer Society Dear Midwest Collegiate Relayers: During the past few weeks we had a team of students do some serious market research surrounding Relay For Life on our college campuses. The results were nothing shy of disturbing. A decent number of students on some of our most Relay intensive campuses were unable to answer questions as simple as: What is Relay and where does the money go? Answers ranged from: some cancer thing to an event in the spring time. We even had someone say the money went to the AMERICAN RED CROSS! That was all the motivation we needed to push out a Marketing and Promotional Guidebook specially designed to address opportunities and challenges on the college campus. Seeing that we have many students out there who are not familiar with the objectives of ACS and Relay For Life, this guidebook first outlines and breaks down the mission statement of the American Cancer Society and how each Relay For Life event can spread this message through their marketing. The guidebook then goes on to describe effective marketing strategies (unexpected marketing, target marketing, word of mouth marketing), branding, promotional activities, and ways to utilize online marketing. Each section contains some best practice ideas and examples from colleges and universities in our division (the best division in ACS, obviously) and from around the country. Keep in mind these are examples of what has worked in the past at various other schools - the most important thing would be to take these suggestions and tailor them to the needs of your campus. It is also important to note the restrictions imposed on you by certain university offices (for example, a posting policy for flyers and posters). Please be mindful of the rules. We don t want to be giving Relay a bad name! If you have your own best practices or pictures that you would like to share, please feel free to e- mail them. As a division we are always looking to share ideas that can better all of our events. Good luck with each of your events! Happy Relaying, Taylor Schaubschlager St. Catherine University Collegiate Representative Midwest Youth Advisory Team Chair tsschaubschlager@stkate.edu

3 American Cancer Society Mission Statement The American Cancer Society is the nationwide, community based, volunteer health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer through research, education, advocacy, and service. But what does that mission statement mean? The American Cancer Society is the nationwide, community based, volunteer health organization 5,000 + community events and college/university events throughout the United States Only charitable organization that is community based and volunteer driven dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering During the 1980s: Breast Cancer early detection guidelines are published; Medicaid coverage for Pap tests During the 1990s: Overall cancer death rates drop 1.6% 2000 Present: Gleevec increases the life expectancy for leukemia patients; 5 year cancer survival rates increase to 64% through research, education, advocacy, and service. More money dedicated to cancer research than any other private, not for profit, nongovernmental organization in the United States o Over $3.3 billion since 1946 funding over 42 Nobel prize winning researchers Education through services like and the National Cancer Information Center ACS CAN sister organization dedicated to eliminating cancer through legislative action Hope Lodge provides a comfortable, nurturing environment where patients and caregivers can stay free of charge during treatment and focus on what is most important getting well. Basically, the American Cancer Society wants to help people: o Get well o Stay well o Find a cure for cancer o Develop their own way of fighting back Relay For Life Mission Statement The American Cancer Society Relay For Life represents the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported, and that one day cancer will be eliminated.

4 Marketing the Mission One of the most impactful forms of marketing your Relay For Life event is to include some aspect of the Mission of the American Cancer Society. Relay establishes a living platform for the face and voice of the cancer patient, survivor and caregiver. It lets you and the rest of the participants on your college campus act as agents for change and become life savers. This mission the one outlined above - is the heart of the cause. Relay For Life is not a business or a one day special event in the spring semester. It began as a fundraiser to find a cure and has turned into a global movement to end cancer. So take advantage of this movement and incorporate it into your marketing. Include statistics that people can relate to as college students. Staggering statistics will stop people in their tracks. 1. Cancers caused by cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol use can almost be prevented completely. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008 alone almost 175,000 cancer deaths are expected to be caused by tobacco use. 2. In 2007, the American Cancer Society spent an estimated $128 million on cancer research. 3. Evidence suggests that one-third of all cancer deaths can be prevented with proper diet and exercise. Educational or Mission Marketing It is also important to sometimes go beyond the statistics and dig deeper into the heart of the cause. Think about things like showing what the dollars raised can do and why Relay as a fundraiser is so important. This allows Relay to become an event that means more than just raising money it is a cause that allows you to also educate the student body. Examples: o Pilates for Pink collaboration promoting breast cancer awareness o Quit Cold Turkey hand out info on quitting smoking and give away free turkey sandwiches Relay For Life is a year round GLOBAL MOVEMENT to end cancer! Implement year round marketing activities to raise awareness for this movement. o For example: Conduct campus blitz weeks during the fall semester as well as the spring semester Tie Relay marketing into cancer awareness months: breast cancer in October and Great American Smoke Out in November Statistics to help support the ideas of a Global Movement: Each day 20,000 people around the world will die from cancer.

5 In 2007, there were an estimated 12 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths globally. Of these, 6.7 million new cancer cases and 4.7 million deaths will occur in economically developing countries. Survival rates in developing countries are lower because cancer is not given a high priority on the global health agenda. Also, early detection and treatment services are scarce. To help reduce the global cancer burden the American Cancer Society focuses on the three areas of advocacy, capacity building and cancer information. The American Cancer Society leads the global fight against cancer by providing: o Quality cancer information and media outreach o Collaborations on advocacy and tobacco control o Training and development to strengthen regional and country-based cancer organizations Effective Marketing Campaigns Doing the RIGHT things RIGHT Unexpected Marketing When you do things that other campus groups don t already do (hence: unexpected ), you are more likely to grab people s attention. Locations One way to be unexpected is to place your marketing materials in innovative locations. Instead of just adding a poster or a flyer to a group of flyers on a bulletin board, do something different. Think about where people are spending the most time and where they are most likely to be reading things around them. Some examples: o Bathroom stalls (Don t lie to yourself: everyone reads them.) o Library cubicles (You ve probably learned the hard way: everyone procrastinates.) o Backs of seats in lecture halls (These people are just begging for something else to look at.) o Chalking the sidewalks. Examples for Library Cubicles:

6 Slogans In addition to unexpected locations, it is also good to take advantage of innovative and unexpected slogans. The goal of this is to make people stop in their tracks and ask themselves, Did that say what I thought it said? It may seem weird but people will remember completely outrageous marketing slogans. Examples of flyers:

7 Target Marketing Like you may have learned in your Intro to Marketing class (or by using your common sense), target marketing refers to targeting certain groups on campus and catering your marketing materials to them. (Hm, imagine that!). In the Relay world, you want to be constantly expanding your presence on campus, enlarging your footprint and penetrating untapped markets. Target marketing is a great way to attack this problem. Identify your weak areas of representation and go after them! Subtle Marketing This refers to brand and event exposure even if you don t know it or intend for it to happen. A lot of times, people won t even realize they are seeing the Relay logo or using Relay things, but it is still there which reinforces the cause. When appropriate, distribute Relay materials around campus: pens in the bank, pencils and post-its in the library, mouse pads in the computer lab, your Relay website as the homepage on university computers. Innundate the surrounding community with flyers on delivery boxes or in every bag at the bookstore, donation cans in coffee shops/restaurants, Relay footprints in grocery stores, Relay business cards on store counters. Word of Mouth Marketing Although this is always overlooked, we cannot forget about the cheapest and most effective form of marketing: word of mouth. You should treat word of mouth marketing the way you would treat team recruitment get out there and spread the word. This allows you to put a face on the event and the cause. Make it a point to get personal - share your Relay story and let people know why Relay is important to you. Make it a mission to tell one new person about Relay each week and share this goal with your committee. If everyone joins in, your event footprint is expanding already! Also be sure to think about tee shirts and Relay gear everyday that someone wears Relay apparel, you are marketing your event. Branding Your Event To achieve maximum impact make sure that you put the Relay logo and brand on everything. This will allow you to build brand recognition and create a culture around the brand. However, this also means that you must work extra hard to maintain the quality of the brand! Check and monitor everything that goes out with your brand on it. Emphasize to all participants the importance of brand quality. Adhere to American Cancer Society branding standards and try to prevent distortion of the logo. American Cancer Society market research shows that 96% of the general public recognizes the ACS brand. Take advantage of all ACS provided materials such as stage wrap (trash cans), footprint chalk stencils, stickers, and balloons with the Relay logo.

8 Promotional Activities Promotional Activities are a great way to reinforce and supplement more traditional forms of on campus marketing that we ve talked about above. They are very effective for getting the Relay name out there and maintaining a constant presence on campus. Traditional Promotional Activities Something as simple as tabling can be done each week in the student center or other campus hubs. Take advantage of the opportunity to recruit team captains and pass out promotional materials. If the committee structure does not allow this type of commitment, recruit team captains to take responsibility for different weeks and use this time to promote their team fundraisers. Highly Visible and Attention Grabbing Activities - Be creative everyone likes to have fun! Ideas include: a sumo wrestling event on the lawn or a big freeze recruiting your committee and team captains to hold a mass freeze in a highly visible public gathering place on your campus. Don t forget to wear those Relay shirts! Relay Blitz Weeks These blitzes occur during a contained time frame (usually about 1 week long) and they are intense Relay promotional periods on campus. They can include Jump Start Relay weeks in the fall or Paint the Campus Purple in the spring. Essentially, it is just an opportunity to place Relay everywhere on campus. Some blitz activities include: o Yard signs with cancer facts, statistics, instructions on how to sign up o Posters and flyers on and off campus o Table tents on the tables in the cafeteria and other food areas o Set up information booth/table all week long in cafeterias and academic buildings o Do presentations in the large classrooms on campus. Use polyp man to get peoples attention followed by a talk about what Relay is, how to get involved, etc. o Put a face on cancer and have student cancer survivors telling their individual stories. o Wear Relay shirts and other apparel don t forget that word of mouth marketing! o Use car window paint to paint your car windows purple and park them around campus. o Get permission from the local community to paint business windows purple with Relay For Life information. Online Marketing Your Relay Website The most underutilized form of marketing is no doubt the Relay websites. Each event is given a website but it is YOUR job to use it for marketing and information sharing. The website framework allows a lot of room for creativity and increased online utilization. If you don t have an online chair a committee member whose job is to take advantage of online marketing opportunities be sure to recruit one. They can use technology in many different ways: Event Website Be sure to put your website on everything ( You website needs to become the hub of your Relay event. Use the homepage to market fundraisers, post information about TC meetings etc., and share resources with all team captains, participants, and donors.

9 o Drive people to visit your website by posting information from meetings online instead of printing handouts. You get to save paper and reinforce your marketing efforts each time someone visits the site. o Update your website often. This will ensure that people will want to come back and visit. If the information stays the same for too long, they will not have the incentive to revisit the site. They won t feel like they are missing out on anything. o Send out encouraging coaching s to all participants and team captains. These s can include: o Mission moments that help educate participants on ACS mission. o New fundraising ideas and opportunities o Reminders about meetings or fundraising events o Facebook & Social Networking Sites As college students, we can not underestimate the value added from pages like Facebook and MySpace. Some obvious uses for these social networking sites: Group pages, fan pages, events, etc for sharing information about your fundraisers, kickoffs, or Relay events. Think about changing your Facebook picture to help marketing big events like kickoff and Day of Relay. Encourage committee members and friends to do the same in order to up exposure on mini-feed! YouTube Work with video production departments or a tech savvy committee member to develop promotional pieces for your Relay event. Also, encourage participants to post video clips from their Relay experience. Each of these YouTube links can be compiled into a page on your Relay website or embedded into the homepage for instant marketing. Use the ACS Presence on Your Campus The American Cancer Society may be on your campus in more ways than you are aware of. Besides Relay you may also have an American Cancer Society Research grantee or a recipient of an American Cancer Society Champion College Scholarship. These provide you with resources for speakers at meetings and the ability to put a face on the fight against cancer and personalize the movement. American Cancer Society Research Program o Since the ACS adopted Relay For Life as its signature fundraiser in 1993 the dollars raised and used for cancer research have saved an estimated 90 more lives each day from cancer. o The American Cancer Society s research program is unique because of its focus on beginning researchers with the most cutting edge and innovative ideas o 42 of the American Cancer Society funded researchers have gone on to win the Nobel Prize o 10% of ACS research dollars target the poor and underserved population. American Cancer Society researchers make excellent speakers at kickoffs, meetings, Relay events.

10 Work with your American Cancer Society staff partner to connect with a researcher. Even if there are no currently funded researchers on your campus there are a large number of researchers throughout our Division who are ready, willing and eager to share what they do and thank volunteers for raising funds at any sort of ACS event. Midwest Youth Scholarship Program o Each year, a limited number of scholarships are awarded to childhood cancer survivors from Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin who are continuing their education at a college, university or technical school. The scholarships provide these students the chance to pursue a degree and achieve their full potential by helping curb the financial burden often associated with obtaining a higher education. o A limited number of scholarships are available each year for $1, each and are paid directly to the student s institution of choice, to be applied toward the Fall Semester tuition. o In 2009, 40 Youth Scholarships were awarded in the Midwest. o The program and its recipients are highlighted in the annual Youth Scholarship Yearbook available from your ACS staff partner o Many Youth Scholarship recipients are willing to share their stories with your Relayers o Having a Youth Scholarship recipient and cancer survivor speak puts a face on the fight against cancer and provides relatable motivation for college Relayers about the importance of our fight. Appendix 1: Enlarging Our Footprint in Every Community: Relay For Life Talking Points Relay For Life is much more than a fundraiser it is a worldwide movement to end cancer. Relay For Life not only raises the funds that enable the American Cancer Society to fulfill its mission to eliminate cancer as a major health concern, it also establishes a living platform for the face and voice of the cancer patient, survivor and caregiver. Relay For Life gives people from all walks of life a place to act as change agents and life savers. It is more important than ever that we continue to invest in the fight against cancer. These are the messages and this is the story we need to share with our current supporters as well as those we will be asking to join us as we continue on our journey. Did you know The American Cancer Society is the single largest non-profit funder of life-saving cancer research in the world. 90 more lives are saved from cancer each day since Relay For Life was established as the signature activity of the American Cancer Society. The return on the dollar you give today is much greater because we are standing on the brink of so many breakthroughs.

11 We can say things today in the fight against cancer that we could not say even three years ago. What we do today will determine the story we tell three years from now. John Seffrin, American Cancer Society Chief Executive Officer The American Cancer Society research program is unique because of our focus on beginning researchers with the most cutting-edge and innovative ideas. Once these researchers get started with Society dollars, they can go on and receive funding from other sources, such as government agencies. The American Cancer Society has funded 42 Nobel Prize winning researchers. The American Cancer Society research program has played a role in every major advance against cancer. 10% of American Cancer Society research dollars target the poor and underserved population. Each year, there are many more research grants deemed worthy than there is funding available. These are called pay-if grants and can only be funded if additional donor dollars become available. Essentially these are answers waiting to happen. There are better, faster, more humane treatments available now than ever before. More cancer diagnoses are being avoided altogether through our prevention and early detection efforts. The American Cancer Society has set a goal to prevent five million unnecessary deaths from cancer (more than the total population of South Carolina), prevent six million new cancer diagnoses (more than the total population of the state of Maryland), and improve the quality of life for all cancer survivors by the year What does all of this mean? Because of the lifesaving work of our volunteers and staff, hope, progress and answers are not just words on a page. They are happening each and every day in your community Through the phone calls made day and night to our toll-free number by patients and concerned family members. Through the researchers who are discovering new answers each and every day in laboratories across the Division. Through the thousands of survivors and caregivers being supported through Relay For Life each year. Through the 11 million cancer survivors alive today - more than ever before in American history. Through the countless volunteers who give their time, money and hearts to make all of this possible. It is now more than ever that we need you to continue in your efforts and to urge others to join the fight against cancer. Every step you take, every dollar you raise, every new member you recruit helps us get one step closer to a cure. Otis Brawley, American Cancer Society Chief Medical Officer