ACE in the Media
As I stated in my last blog the parent company to the ACE program sees little benefit to spending money on advertising. Thus for site coordinators such as myself advertising must be creative and cheap.
The media outlet that we utilize most is print. We have flyers and brochures everywhere. It makes it easy to catch the attention of our target market. We place flyers at "Bodegas" and other small stores that we know people in the community frequent. Its difficult to miss our flyer if we post it on the counter where people pay for their goodies. Another reason my we find success in using print is that the community that we are trying to reach isn't as technical savvy as other communities. So print make it easy for them to get the information that we are trying to convey and put it in their hands.
We do however have a website that very modestly tells about the ACE program. I don't believe that our organization puts to much effort in the website because it in all honesty don't receive the attention to really do so. The website is shared with the ACE program and I-LEAD Inc. our parent company. People who actually are interested in the program can them contact me via email to get more information on what the ACE Program has to offer.
We have also done a television show or two on the local television station. Other than the fact that it is a local station and we are trying to reach local people, I am not sure how beneficial the use of this media outlet is. The cost for a program is nothing and it only takes about an hours of our time. So I guess the rational is that if we get one student out of it then we are successful.
Our use of media outlets is for one common goal, recruiting students for our program. We use the slogan, "The College of Possibilities in Your Neighborhood!". So we stick to what we know. We know that the people in our neighborhood who need our program will look at print ads over a no-so-easy to navigate website. We know that someone who needs our program might catch our show on BERKS COMMUNITY Television. We also are well aware that we are a not of profit organization and that money is a luxury for use and every dollar is held tight with the jaws of non profit life.
I am sure that other non profit organizations can identify with our campaign. In a non profit money is not guaranteed and thing like advertising just aren't in the budget. In these circumstances we have to do the best that we can. And that is exactly what we do!
M. TURP
I admire your conviction and sincerity! Working under an austere budget is certainly one of the biggest challenges. You accurately state how your job is to creatively maximize the "bang" for the buck - because there aren't that many bucks! Given what we've discussed about target audiences and motivation, do you feel as if these traditional approaches - print brochures, local access TV - represent the best ways to broach the receptive target audience? You seem to raise questions about what would be the most effective ways to reach your target, but then you quickly concede that not much else could be done because not much else could be afforded.
ReplyDeleteBut is the current budget being applied most effectively? Is there any evidence to suggest that the audience could be better targeted?
Very good work so far!
I think that evidence that the audience could be better targeted is that the program really hasn't grown much in the five years that it has been in existence and the fact that most people don't even know anything about it.
ReplyDeleteSince the program is fairly new and moving fast in other areas, I think that there hasn't been much thought placed in to a budget. At least that site coordinators like me know of. I am sure that something could be done more effectively but I am just not sure what.