The following blog post was written by Dondalyn Breaux, design director of The Limn Group Public Relations.
As an agency with integrity and perseverance, The Limn Group sought after Baton Rouge’s greatest audience: families. This weekend, our agency hosted a campaign kick-off event called Fair in the Square for our client, Capital Area Special Olympics.
The much-anticipated event took place in North Boulevard’s Town Square and was an
evening filled with hot chocolate, a silent auction, carnival games and much more. Charles Guillory, the chapter’s area head, smiled from ear to ear as he approached the location. Each group member could see he was pleased with what he was seeing.
“You all really put on a terrific night,” Guillory said a few days later in an email. Guillory spoke to the audience that evening and also accepted a large donation from First United Methodist Church on behalf of the chapter. The sounds of children laughing and dancing, thanks to TLG’s own Daisy Miller and her dance session, confirmed that the night would be a positive step in the right direction for our client.
As public relations students, we learn that evaluation is an important step in measuring an outcome to a project, program or, in this case, a campaign. To evaluate the evening and the campaign thus far, I observed three important objectives: awareness, acceptance and action.
An overarching goal was to have a successful event. Fair in the Square was originally planned to last three hours; but due to decreasing temperatures, TLG concluded the event an hour early. Like many occasions, unplanned results are sure to occur and our response altered minor scheduled parts of the night. While some could look at this as a failure to complete plans, we felt we accomplished what we set out to do, and the event can still be measured a success.
In public relations, a professional must take into account his or her awareness objective for their client. For TLG, that meant having an effect on the awareness of potential sponsors in the capital area. We wanted to increase their understanding of the resources our client offers to intellectually disabled residents.
To evaluate this objective, TLG has the post-event survey, which will gather insights from those who attended the event. Though currently under review, we hope to see a 15 percent increase from September to December. Our other tactic is to reach future sponsors through the media. A news release recapping the event will be sent to the media, and a video news release will be included as well.
Furthermore, our acceptance objective is to have an effect on the acceptance of private donors in the capital area. More specifically, we want to increase their following on CASO’s social media. Since the day it was created, the Facebook page has garnered 186 “likes” so far. The number increases weekly and therefore means we are meeting our objective. We hope to have a 15 percent increase of “likes” between September and December.
Additionally, our action objective is to have an effect on the action of donors, specifically to increase their donation amounts to CASO by $500 between September and December. The kick-off event raised more than $1,800, and we are still receiving donations from businesses and residents that planned on attending and giving this past weekend.
If you ask me, I think the event opened a door to the community for CASO, which is what public relations is all about — building relationships.
For more information on CASOL, see its website, blog and “like” the page on Facebook.
The Limn Group Public Relations 