Community service & corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be synonymous…
Blending the money making world of business corporate social responsibility with the “give something back” world of service makes life richer and provides a “leg up” to non-profit organizations that seek to make the world a better place. So, when my art teacher daughter asked for public relations expertise to get their Fremont High Chalk Festival in the news, I was excited to assist.
We first made a list of the who, what, why, how, where, when of the event. Then, we put some “meat on the bones” by gathering factoids around the history of the event. This was further expanded by taking a PR craftsman look at what the most likely news hook should be. While gathering further information about participating professional artists and charities, along with photos from the previous year’s event, we crafted a press release. We selected editors and media most likely to have interest in the project. This whole process took about three weeks.
One week out from the homecoming football day event, I started contacting the press outlets with a heads-up 7-day countdown to the event. We followed up with the best targeted news editors as the event day approached.
One festival day, we contacted the TV station assignment desks to make our case for TV coverage. Of course, their interest has everything to do with which building, business, airplane, or politician is on fire that day.
Once the local newspaper showed interest, as expected, we offered spokesperson access, photos, exclusive access to professionals and art teachers that might meet the need. The Standard Examiner delivered big time with a reporter, photographer, and videographer on site the day of the event. Access was granted, questions were answered, and the visual of young people creating offered a grand array of photo/video ops.
FULL STANDARD EXAMINER STORY
See. Corporate citizenship (corporate social responsibility) can be fun and very fulfilling.
You be the judge. How did we do?
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About the Author:
As founder of PilmerPR, John Pilmer, APR serves as a PR and marketing communications advisor for both emerging and established companies. He offers customers more than 20 years of results-driven business PR and marketing experience. John and the firm have provided PR consultation and campaigns for clients such as Mozy, Novell, AdvancedMD, Certiport, NextPage, ElectraTherm, Altiris, Avamar, EmergeCore Networks, FSLogic, INVISUS, 10x Marketing, MWI, Project Insight, REIC, Seastone, US Synthetic and Funding Universe (now Lendio), among others.