Implementing a Snow PR Campaign on a Shoestring Budget

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Implementing a Snow PR Campaign on a Shoestring
Budget
Holli Keyser, Snow PR Guru City of Fort Collins,
Streets Department
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• Ranked 2 for Best Places for Business Careers
  in 2009 (Forbes)
• Ranked 2 Best City in the Nation in 2008 (Money
  Magazine)
• Ranked 1 Best City in the Nation in 2006 (Money
  Magazine)

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Fort Collins, Colorado

• -Population 131,200
• 24,000 Colorado State University students
• -Precipitation averages
• 14 inches of moisture
• 51 inches of snow
• -The average high temperatures
• Summer 85 degrees
• Winter 42 degrees
• -300 days of sunshine per year

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Napa Valley of Beer
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Streets Department Operations

• Annual Streets Department Budget 10.6 million
• Annual Snow Removal Budget 1.4 million
• Annual Public Outreach Budget close to 0

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Snow PR on a Shoestring Budget

• Grassroots Approach
• Engage people! Snowplow drivers, management, and
  the public
• Do all of the above with minimal expense

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Starting out

• Want to make sure all angles are covered-
• TV, newspaper, radio, web site, brochures
• Talk to people about what they think
• This should be covered, oh and this should be
  covered, and dont forget about that

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What is our Key Message?

• Want to make sure all angles are covered-
• TV, newspaper, radio, web site, brochures
• Talk to people about what they think
• This should be covered, oh and this should be
  covered, and dont forget about that

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(No Transcript)
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We Know Snow
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Brochures and Posters
1500 distributed
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How to Achieve a full-blown Outreach Campaign

• on less than 350

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Local Newspaper Column
30,000 subscribers
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Utility Bill Insert
63,000 Households
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Radio
Thousands of listeners?
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Web
Monitor web traffic via Google Analytics
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Local Access Cable Channel
Hundreds of Viewers?
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Ride-Alongs
Citizens, City Employees, Council Members, City
Manager
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The 2009 Experiment Twitter
XXXX Subscribers?
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We Know Snow!

• Public Outreach Campaign on a Shoestring Budget
• Components
• Pizza Brainstorming lunch Cost 40
• Brochures and Posters Cost 300
• Local Newspaper Column Cost 0
• Utility Bill Insert Cost 0
• Radio Talk Shows Cost 0
• Revamped Web Site Cost 0
• We Know Snow Video Cost 0
• Ride-Alongs Cost 0
• Twitter Cost 0
• Educating our Stakeholders Cost Priceless

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Tips for your Agency

• Pull together the brainpower first!
• Whats your Key Message?
• Identify key FREE outlets to disseminate your Key
  Message

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Thank you!

• Questions? Tips? Cool Ideas to Share?
• hkeyser_at_fcgov.com
• 970.493.4123