Advertising Our Message
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At FARM‘s Animal Rights Conference last month, I attended “Advertising our message”, featuring Mercy for Animals’ Nathan Runkle and Compassion Over Killing’s Erika Meier. Both speakers used slides and videos to convey their points.
Here are my notes:
Runkle:
Most animal organizations face these challenges:
- lack of money
- lack of time
- perception of our mission
- reception of our message
- pushback from threatened organizations
Appropriate advertising can reach a large number of targets at a low cost per person.
Billboards:
- Sometimes space on billboards can be obtained for free, as a public service announcement (PSA). You don’t get to choose where the billboard is or how long it will be up in this case, but it’s free.
- For maximum effectiveness use seven or fewer words.
Subway ads:
- Choose subway system with high ridership and you’ll reach thousands per day.
- Cost can be very low.
Internet ads:
The most bang for the buck. Pay per click and target many different topics.
Meier:
All of see at least 3,000 ads per day. It’s necessary to make your ad stand out.
Budget for the Center for Nutrition Policy: 6.5 million/year
Budget for fast food industry: 4.2 billion/year
Television advertising:
Meier shared several COK ads with the audience.
Television advertising can be very inexpensive yet reach a large number of persons if the advertising is shown outside prime time. For a recent 30-sec. commercial it cost $25 for each 2500 viewers – one cent per impression.
Repetition is important.
Target your audience. Produce a series of ads with the same theme, the same message.
Many animal organizations are happy to share their commercials with local groups, who arrange to have the commercial run locally in return for having their logo added. For more information on how to do this with COK ads, contact Meier at emeier@cok.net.
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Our notes from this year’s conference will be all at http://www.vegansoapbox.com/topics/ar2011/. Notes from 2009′s conference are at http://www.vegansoapbox.com/topics/ar-2009/.
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