waltersgirl
03-21-2003, 02:35 AM
the original marketing plan in all its glory. (http://www.scaperoute.com/sfmarketing.html)
wow. i'd forgotten how big this document was. recognize that this document is the original drawn up when the campaign and our website got into high gear. we will be revising this in the near future to reflect the changing nature of the campaign from one of short-term goal, get the show back on the air fast, to one of long-term goal, keep the show in the public consciousness, draw new viewers with the upcoming reruns, keep the Farscape fan community together until we achieve our end game.
so. read it over. does it give you any ideas? drop us a line or feel free to toss out some ideas in the Campaign Strategizing forum.
Overview
Since this campaign first got off the ground, the reason it was given any press at all is because of its grassroots origins and the use of technology to link people across the country and the world. To lose that feel of community and teamwork--which flies in the face of the stereotypical notion of internet "geeks" with no lives--would be a huge mistake and one that would most likely cost us the valuable press we seek.
The goal of this marketing plan is to maintain that grassroots approach while giving support to individual fans and regional groups through material and financial support, as well as seek out and pursue avenues toward free publicity in newspapers and broadcasts throughout the country.
Individual Support
Without the work of individual fans, this campaign would never have gotten off the ground. We at Save Farscape wish to continue to promote their hardwork by making Save Farscape their complete resource for finding materials, ideas, and financial support (upon meeting set critera laid out by the finance committee). Here are some of the ways we can do this:
Home Work
These have been important in keeping fans on track and focused on the game plan with targeted letter campaigns, so continuing and adapting them to the marketing plan is a must. It is a familiar means of keeping fans in the loop through Save Farscape Announcements when they may miss something on bboards. We can continue to enhance homework assignments by designing pieces and providing examples where necessary. This would also be a great outlet for passing along some creative ideas--for example: ways of keeping people aware of Farscape through the holiday season when distractions are prevalent.
Groups to coordinate with: copywriters
Idea Center
Having one location where we can list some of the more creative individual ways to get the word out would be a big help for those that don't know where to begin. The first step might be having an "Ideas" section on bboards where people can post their ideas and success stories for us to find without having to wade through billions of other posts. Then every couple of days or so, we can list some of the highlights from the bboard on a separate page of the website acknowledging the originator. This will not only help the fans that need it, but drive fans to do things to get their name up on the page (individual recognition for hard work). This would also be a good location to post or have links leading to how-to's for running events, guidelines for pursuing local media, placing ads, etc.
Groups to coordinate with: Web group, bboard monitors, copy writers
Issues to consider: webspace, person to monitor bboard, compiling how to sections
Note: ScapeArtist will be more than happy to take care of handling design and maintenance of this page.
Graphics Warehouse
Right now there is a page on the Save Farscape site for links to different websites housing various fliers and graphics for fans to use as well as some housed on the SF server. We could update and expand that to include promotional pieces Save Farscape has designed (fliers, postcards, menu-like fliers to hang off doorknobs, stationary, stickers, etc.) for fans to use that would sport the design of whatever campaign design we finally decide to adopt. This is also a way to encourage fans to use similar graphics to represent the movement and create some rudimentary branding in the process.
Groups to coordinate with: Web group, designers, copy writers
Issues to consider: webspace, copyright issue--do we allow graphics with show images?, types of promo to design (perhaps take suggestions from Idea Center?)
Note: ScapeArtist will be more than happy to take care of handling design and maintenance so Web God doesn't kill her for coming up with more work for Him to do.
Ad Gallery
There are quite a few fans out there who would like to place ads but just are not adept at putting them together, so they don't pursue that course. If we provide them with a few different choices for ads designed by SF designers, they are more likely to take that step and we would be able to better monitor what is being put out there, and cut the amount of copyright infringement down at the same time. Along with print advertising, we would also provide web-ready versions of the TV commercials for example only(when available), and sample radio spots (if created and usable). This would also be a good place to link to a guide for placing ads of all kinds including classifieds.
Please see the section in National Support on Advertising for a more indepth look at how we can provide support to fans and make an effective ad campaign.
Groups to coordinate with: Web group, Finance, copywriters, design
Issues to consider: webspace, person to research general procedures for dealing with newspapers, co-op distribution proceedures, people to run ad fulfillment (most likely from the ad crew)
Note: ScapeArtist will again be more than happy to take care of handling design and maintenance to appease Web God, but may need some assistance with how to work the form correctly.
Press Kit Materials
Once the press kit is produced, it would serve us well to make it available online to the fans (and press) to have access to for contacting local media and organizations to give them the background they need to help with the campaign. All "printed" pieces should be provided as PDFs, and all multimedia provided as either MP3s, Real Player flies, Quicktime files, and/or Windows Media files. Please see the Press Kit section of this plan to see what we may want to include in the package.
In order to keep cost down and not send out the same press kit to many of the same outlets, it is important to keep a running list on the website of where they have gone already and ask that people downloading the pieces let us know where they are going. Most fans will be cooperative about it, but we may want to link lo-res files to a page requesting they email us providing the info on name of media outlet as well as contact person there to get to the high quality files. It all depends on how much info we want to get from fans on their activities, but it would help us keep up to date on the contact names at the outlets and who to follow up with later for more coverage.
Groups to coordinate with: web group, copywriters, design
Issues to consider: webspace, file conversions, links to various players for download
Note: ScapeArtist will help the Web God in whatever way she can, but parts of the web-readiness are over her head. PDFs are easy enough though.
Campaign Progress
As a way of keeping everyone in the fandom apprised of what is going on and how the campaign is moving, the ad/marketing crew could maintain a section on the site for more information (a completed projects type of thing). This would be a place where we could update weekly the ads placed, the events that took place, press we recieved, etc. We would also have links to lists we update with locations of events, press, and ads. We could ask the fans to update us on their own successful projects thereby offering more interaction and individual recognition, and again, create and maintain momentum and enthusiasm.
Groups to coordinate with: web group
Issues to consider: webspace
Regional Support
Regional events can be a huge asset to gaining new viewers and spreading the word about the show. It is important for the advertising/marketing group along with other SF crews to provide as much support and coordination as possible to make these not only successful events, but publicity opportunities as well. We may want to consider putting the call out to the fans to be regional contacts to help handle certain events (i.e. sending out the press releases and distributing promo). Here are some of the ways we can do this:
Charity Events
Mickie has some great ideas for charity events (as do many others in this group) and it would be our responsibility to provide to her and her event contacts all the promotional materials needed to use as give-aways during the events, press releases to the local media, and any advertising that would be useful to promote the event. After we get a chance to meet with Mickie and see what plans she has, we'll know better how she needs to use us on these campaigns. It might be helpful to keep the number of larger charity events to a maximum of 2 or 3 over the next few months so that we will be able to get enough donations from merchandisers (and maybe even comic book chains?) to cover both the charity events and national give-aways. For the moment though, any specific ideas for large charity events should be run past her and will not be listed in this plan until approved.
We have seen that there are some individuals out there who want to run small Farscape-related charity events (that would involve running the show in the background). One thing we could provide for them is a how-to/guideline section someplace on the web site and downloadable fliers specific to the charity they are sponsoring. If we can have a list of charities the actors like to champion and some other notable charities (as well as the national contact info for the charity), that would be great as a starting point for those who aren't sure who to contact. Whatever we provide, we'll need to include a disclaimer that just because we suggest it doesn't mean we are responsible for what happens during the event. We can ask for people who hold the events to let us know what they have done so we can update the list as to the charity and how much fans have raised for them. Also a great place to point out to potential media.
Groups to coordinate with: charity, finance, copywriters, designers, regional contacts
Issues to consider: making sure fans know legalities of running such events themselves
Conventions
A great opportunity to let people know about Farscape's cancellation and campaign to get it back at sci fi-related conventions. Having the regional contact be the liason with the convention contact about the best way to distribute materials and what materials can be distributed would be great. The RC can also be liason with local volunteers who may want to work the convention passing out promotional materials on the campaign's behalf. Also, if some demonstration or rally will take place at the convention, the RC would take care of sending out the publicity to local media if necessary as well as distribute promo to the volunteer.
Groups to coordinate with: Con Organization, finance, regional contacts
Issues to consider: geographical distance of RC to event, convention protocol, con audience and timing
Rallys
We can support rallys by providing press releases, help with advertising if needed, and promotion to pass out to passers-by. Much of this would be handled through the RC to the main rally contact in that area as well as the rally team.
Groups to coordinate with: Rally Team, regional contacts
Issues to consider: geographical distance of RC to event
National Campaign Support
Besides being the main support resource for fans, there are some campaign ideas that would be more effective if handled by the crews at SF in a more nation-wide capacity. That way we are able to coordinate the timing of similar events, press releases to national media, and collaboration with Farscape merchandise distributors. Here are some of the ways we can do this:
Give Aways and Promotions
We hope to have a comprehensive national Farscape campaign set up at radio stations across the country for the first full week of January. (Week beginning Jan 6)The plan is to do an entire week of Farscape giveaways and at the end of the week, give away a large prize package consisting of any FS merchandise we can secure. (Games, books, action figures, cards, etc.) We are working with retailers/manufacturers of Farscape product to see if we can get some donations for these giveaways. In return they will receive "mentions" during the radio promotion and we hope to set up a sponsorship page on the site as well. This will give companies free radio advertising and get their names out to our fans as manufacturers who are helping the cause. We are currently planning on at least ten major radio stations. That will be the MINIMUM we work for this campaign. We will work UP from there to as many radio stations as we can get involved reliant upon the amount of product we receive. The radio stations are being chosen specifically to target Nielsen areas.
The Task Force is already working on cracking Blockbuster and NetFlix to help out in the campaign, and we would want to promote that (once something solid is hammered out) by posting fliers on the website people can use to promote it in their town as well as some ads people can use if they want to promote it that way. If we want to hit some of the major markets with advertising about this, we might be able to get co-op advertising from ADV through Blockbuster if we can't set something up ourselves. We'll need to follow up with them about that possibility.
Groups to coordinate with: Guerilla Radio crew, Task Force, finance, copy writers, designers
Issues to consider: back up plan if we can't get co-op from ADV, possibilities of running something similar with Amazon or Suncoast?
Free Publicity
Once we identify the markets we want to hit and national media outlets that might be interested in the story, we should send out press kits to all those places to get the ball rolling. We've had some great coverage already that should help win over some other coverage. But this should always be the goal--free publicity and spend as little of our fund on national type advertising as possible.
Please see the Press Kit section below for specifics on that.
Groups to coordinate with: Media relations, copy writers?
Issues to consider: narrowing down the list of contacts and getting correct information
Advertising
Spending any of the fund on large-scale, national advertising would make funding all of the other projects above prohibitive. Ads (even small ones) in national publications like TV Guide, or USA Today, or other publications cost in the 10's of thousands to 100's of thousands of dollars. It just doesn't make sense to go that route considering the current size of the Fund. We would be better served to spend the money on producing and sending press kits and updates to the entertainment and technology editors of the publications and making sure events have the support they need. If we think we need to advertise on a national level, for anything, we should definitely try to tie it into merchandise so that we can ask the merchs for coop help. This might work especially well during the holiday season to promote the purchasing of Farscape products far and wide. Tapping into the resources of Creation Entertainment, Wild Storm, Toy Vault, ADV, Simon and Schuster, and Tor Books is a win-win situation--it boosts their 4th quarter sales and it gets our message out.
A couple of areas that need further research to determine the best way to use our resources include cable and radio advertising strategies. We are a bit heavy on the print advertising side, so we'll need some more direction here. There is a link on the war room leading to TV advertising info (thanks WG!), so that is one place to begin. Probably there is also something like that for radio as well. Someone on the bboard had suggested contacting the actors to donate their voices for radio spots and that is something to investigate as well. Another area that would be good to explore is banner advertising on certain websites and see if that is cost effective. We can have the banner link back to the SaveFarscape website. (Or we could put a really loud annoying pop up on other bulletin boards across the web. That might be effective too...NOT!!!) Until we get more information on this, we'll have to leave it vague. Sorry.
Two important questions come up when dealing with advertising--especially when considering individual fans placing ads. One is how will they be paid for, and the other is how will we know where they are being placed?
One way to find out the answer to the latter question is to make sure that we only post low resolution graphics on the site with the stipulation that they need the hi-res versions for papers to print. We link all the low-res versions to a page that instructs them to email the advertising group and we'll send them the file that needs to be placed when they provide the information below:
Fan's name and email address
preferred ad style
name of media outlet
contact person at outlet
address of media outlet
specs: size of ad, type of file (if multimedia)
total cost
date of insertion(s)/airing(s)
The financial part of the support depends entirely on the size of the fund and the manpower to monitor and maintain it. We have a couple of different options:
1. (This option was not part of the original plan but should the budget open up, it may want to be reconsidered) What might be to our benefit is that we place the ads in the major markets by simply posting a poll on the site and tell people we have X amount of dollars for a newspaper ad campaign to run at the end of Dec, first week in January and we can place three 2 col. x 4 inch (8 col inches) ads in 25 major to medium markets (those with the highest number of Nielson boxes being the best choices) which markets would "they" like to see ads in. Let the fans decide--poll would have to throw out multiple voters if possible. We still need to get the information about the costs in all the markets. We may also be able to place these ads through one national media placement outlet--they do all the placement, we get one bill--we would have to find out who those companies are.
2. Another way we can help the average fan decide to place an ad is by offering the incentive of co-op payment through the Fund. Criteria will need to be developed to access the fund money and a cap needs be placed on the amount available for any given request. For example, fans will only be able to use the co-op option once; be it for paper, radio or TV, and they would only be allowed to use it to pay for 1/2 of the ad or $100--whichever is the lesser cost. The costs for ads will vary greatly between regions, cities, and towns, but one thing is common no matter where ads are placed: In order for ads to be effective they need to run more than once--three is the norm, run an ad 3 times, change it, run it again and so on. We definitely want to encourage fans to try and run their ads more than once.
As stated, these options will depend entirely on how much of the budget will go to the co-op and advertising (if any). Print ads can be very expensive depending on the location and the day of the week, same as TV and radio. And although you can get discounts with placing ads more than once, it might not be enough to help fans even with the co-op option. And with the number of fans out there who have the potential to use this, there has to be substantial monitoring, but we think that anything we offer to help would be beneficial even if it is to allow fans to voice their opinions on where the ads go. Another bonus to the co-op option is that it could bump ad sizes up or bump print ads to radio spots, or TV time.
As we send ads out, we can list all the locations on the website as a reference for fans and media to see. This could definitely be an impressive list to show other media to run stories about the campaign and show other networks the kind of money spend to save the show that would be better spent on their advertisers' products. It would also allow us or the fan to alert the entertainment reporter to the ad and the campaign by sending them a press kit as well.
Before we can really go anywhere with any type of ad, we'll need to come up with the specific messages or themes or slogans we want to use in our ads. We certainly can do a few different types of ads to include the romance aspect, the "not your father's sci fi," and any others that seem appropriate, but we need to have something that will carry through on all the pieces. We can vote on it between the web consortium and the strategy team and crews, or we can put a poll out there to the fans with some suggestions and see where it takes us, but we need something that ties everything we do together.
Groups to coordinate with: designers, copy writers
Issues to consider: overall cost effectiveness, markets to target, cooperation with merchandisers, broadcast advertising strategy research, plausibility of actors helping
Supplimental Information
Timeline
We can spend more time as a group deciding on a timeline for promotions and events to carry us through to the new episodes, but one rough schedule could be:
October: plan prep (market research) and production (press kits, online resources for fans)
November: send out initial press kits to national media outlets, fans begin to run ads if they want but suggest they wait until
December: major charity event, begin ads promoting product and cause, fan ads continue, send press info update to press kit recipients
January: Radio giveaway, new eps, more press kit updates to recipients, stress advertising push to fans while show is on.
Again, this is certainly flexible and just a suggestion based on when the holidays fall in all this and when the new eps air. No other formula is at work here.
Design
Farscape certainly attracts an inordinate amount of designers to the fandom. We have already had several requests from designers to help out, and a few of us on the crew are designers as well. What would be a great way to make fans not on committees feel a part of all the planning and preparation might be to hold design contests for all the pieces we need designed (press kit, promo, banners, ads). We can provide the designers with a list of what we'll need created to include specs and copy and guidelines, and let them come up with their designs. Then post the entries and let the fans choose. It would save us in the ad group from having to turn people down and give everyone a fair shot at helping. It wouldn't disclude the other designers from designing later pieces, but we can kick things off this way. As far as time frame goes, we can give them a week to send us their ideas, and then give fans another 5 days to vote and then we send the job to production or post for use on the website.
Press Kit
Ideally the kit should tie into the website design somehow, since that is the origin of the campaign and where people will go for more info or updates. While a traditional press kit is printed, we should try to be a little different--we are a bunch of organized fans, not a company, so if we get too slick, media outlets may think we're a front for Henson or something. If we keep it simple, but eye-catching, we should get more attention for our grass roots movement than our nice print job. Plus the main attention we have gotten has been about our use of the Internet to connect with each other and strategize, so it makes sense to use that as a tool. A combination of print and multimedia would probably do the trick (putting all the kit materials along with the TV/radio spots on CD).
As mentioned in the Individual Support section, the kit would be available online as well, and once the kit is produced, it would be cheaper to post updates to the site rather than keep reprinting. All the media outlets we would want to contact have online connections, so putting our updated press kit pieces after an initial press run makes sense. It cuts down on print costs and brings the media into our campaign first-hand. We could offer them the service of sending them notice of updates via email if they want to sign up for it. This would be especially handy when numbers come in for the new eps. We can alert them as to whether or not we have been successful in our objective.
Pieces to be included (in no particular order):
Introduction/Information/Background on SaveFarscape
Description of Farscape w/ other resources info including:
Production costs, regular advertisers, network info
Franchise possibilites/merchandising of show
Critical praise of show (quotes) & awards
Current media attention (to include CD-Rom with CNN spots and other TV coverage)
Press Releases
Rally information/scheduled charity events
Statistical info on growth of movement via website hits, etc.
Contact info for both SFS and Henson
Audience Demographics
Where they can go to rent a DVD of the show (maybe get some sort of coupon from Blockbuster for free rental?)
Possibly add some sort of freebie like FS trading card, button for campaign, bumpersticker, music videos or fan art?
The pieces will need to be written so, help from the copy writers will be a must. Some of us on the ad crew with writing experience can also take care of this if the copy writers are backed up. As far as production is concerned, we definitely need to enlist anyone who can donate press time, and someone who can help with pressing CDs. We currently have a couple of names on file for this type of help and we will get intouch with them to see if the offer still stands.
In trying to keep print costs down, we are looking at putting the majority of the kit on CD and attach a "White Paper" that would give them the highlights of our information and where to find them on the disk. mycattoldme had a clever idea to create the white sheet in the "voice" of John Crichton to grab the attention of the recipient. We would definitely require printing up a matching label for the package, and because burning CD's is cheaper than print, we would be be able to print the "White Paper" in 4-color. Before we can go out for pricing, we'll need a quantity to bid, so the target markets and contacts will need to be researched first.
Promotion Pieces
Ideally, all our promotion pieces (fliers, brochures, postcards, stickers, etc.) will be made available mainly online so that we don't have to pay for too much print work. However, we may want to choose a couple of items to use as giveaways for various events. There is already pricing for buttons (that design decision could be done via a contest), and there seems to be a thing for bumper stickers lately. We might want to have one informational piece from the press kit avialable to send to fans who want it. The thing is, folks like free stuff, and if we can have something ready to hand out we'd be golden. If you all can put out some suggestions, we can get prices and decide based on that.
Webmaster Association
We would like to recognize the participation of the websites in the association. We will be designing a banner for their sites in the near future. It is up to them if they would like to have that banner link back to savefarscape.com.
Budget Need Summary
Just wanted to recap the areas we will need to have some sort of funding to make it easier on Deneba and the rest to plan.
Production costs for press kit and promotional items
Mailing costs for press kits
Potential to buy product for giveaways if donations don't work out
Co-op advertising to subsidize fan advertising
Advertising charity events (local ads only)
We realize that this marketing plan is not overly specific with regards to some events and ideas for individual projects. We think that it is important to get the association involved in choosing some of the events as well as the fans. This plan is mainly a way to attempt to set some structure to the next few months and bring up the ways in which people can participate and we can help them to do so. Our overriding thought was to find ways for fans to get involved and give them a sense of accomplishment and pride in the work they did to save Farscape. There is a lot here to take in, and there is a lot to discuss, so please take your time going through it. If you have questions at any time, you can contact ScapeArtist, Twich, and mycattoldme at advertising@wdsection.com.
wow. i'd forgotten how big this document was. recognize that this document is the original drawn up when the campaign and our website got into high gear. we will be revising this in the near future to reflect the changing nature of the campaign from one of short-term goal, get the show back on the air fast, to one of long-term goal, keep the show in the public consciousness, draw new viewers with the upcoming reruns, keep the Farscape fan community together until we achieve our end game.
so. read it over. does it give you any ideas? drop us a line or feel free to toss out some ideas in the Campaign Strategizing forum.
Overview
Since this campaign first got off the ground, the reason it was given any press at all is because of its grassroots origins and the use of technology to link people across the country and the world. To lose that feel of community and teamwork--which flies in the face of the stereotypical notion of internet "geeks" with no lives--would be a huge mistake and one that would most likely cost us the valuable press we seek.
The goal of this marketing plan is to maintain that grassroots approach while giving support to individual fans and regional groups through material and financial support, as well as seek out and pursue avenues toward free publicity in newspapers and broadcasts throughout the country.
Individual Support
Without the work of individual fans, this campaign would never have gotten off the ground. We at Save Farscape wish to continue to promote their hardwork by making Save Farscape their complete resource for finding materials, ideas, and financial support (upon meeting set critera laid out by the finance committee). Here are some of the ways we can do this:
Home Work
These have been important in keeping fans on track and focused on the game plan with targeted letter campaigns, so continuing and adapting them to the marketing plan is a must. It is a familiar means of keeping fans in the loop through Save Farscape Announcements when they may miss something on bboards. We can continue to enhance homework assignments by designing pieces and providing examples where necessary. This would also be a great outlet for passing along some creative ideas--for example: ways of keeping people aware of Farscape through the holiday season when distractions are prevalent.
Groups to coordinate with: copywriters
Idea Center
Having one location where we can list some of the more creative individual ways to get the word out would be a big help for those that don't know where to begin. The first step might be having an "Ideas" section on bboards where people can post their ideas and success stories for us to find without having to wade through billions of other posts. Then every couple of days or so, we can list some of the highlights from the bboard on a separate page of the website acknowledging the originator. This will not only help the fans that need it, but drive fans to do things to get their name up on the page (individual recognition for hard work). This would also be a good location to post or have links leading to how-to's for running events, guidelines for pursuing local media, placing ads, etc.
Groups to coordinate with: Web group, bboard monitors, copy writers
Issues to consider: webspace, person to monitor bboard, compiling how to sections
Note: ScapeArtist will be more than happy to take care of handling design and maintenance of this page.
Graphics Warehouse
Right now there is a page on the Save Farscape site for links to different websites housing various fliers and graphics for fans to use as well as some housed on the SF server. We could update and expand that to include promotional pieces Save Farscape has designed (fliers, postcards, menu-like fliers to hang off doorknobs, stationary, stickers, etc.) for fans to use that would sport the design of whatever campaign design we finally decide to adopt. This is also a way to encourage fans to use similar graphics to represent the movement and create some rudimentary branding in the process.
Groups to coordinate with: Web group, designers, copy writers
Issues to consider: webspace, copyright issue--do we allow graphics with show images?, types of promo to design (perhaps take suggestions from Idea Center?)
Note: ScapeArtist will be more than happy to take care of handling design and maintenance so Web God doesn't kill her for coming up with more work for Him to do.
Ad Gallery
There are quite a few fans out there who would like to place ads but just are not adept at putting them together, so they don't pursue that course. If we provide them with a few different choices for ads designed by SF designers, they are more likely to take that step and we would be able to better monitor what is being put out there, and cut the amount of copyright infringement down at the same time. Along with print advertising, we would also provide web-ready versions of the TV commercials for example only(when available), and sample radio spots (if created and usable). This would also be a good place to link to a guide for placing ads of all kinds including classifieds.
Please see the section in National Support on Advertising for a more indepth look at how we can provide support to fans and make an effective ad campaign.
Groups to coordinate with: Web group, Finance, copywriters, design
Issues to consider: webspace, person to research general procedures for dealing with newspapers, co-op distribution proceedures, people to run ad fulfillment (most likely from the ad crew)
Note: ScapeArtist will again be more than happy to take care of handling design and maintenance to appease Web God, but may need some assistance with how to work the form correctly.
Press Kit Materials
Once the press kit is produced, it would serve us well to make it available online to the fans (and press) to have access to for contacting local media and organizations to give them the background they need to help with the campaign. All "printed" pieces should be provided as PDFs, and all multimedia provided as either MP3s, Real Player flies, Quicktime files, and/or Windows Media files. Please see the Press Kit section of this plan to see what we may want to include in the package.
In order to keep cost down and not send out the same press kit to many of the same outlets, it is important to keep a running list on the website of where they have gone already and ask that people downloading the pieces let us know where they are going. Most fans will be cooperative about it, but we may want to link lo-res files to a page requesting they email us providing the info on name of media outlet as well as contact person there to get to the high quality files. It all depends on how much info we want to get from fans on their activities, but it would help us keep up to date on the contact names at the outlets and who to follow up with later for more coverage.
Groups to coordinate with: web group, copywriters, design
Issues to consider: webspace, file conversions, links to various players for download
Note: ScapeArtist will help the Web God in whatever way she can, but parts of the web-readiness are over her head. PDFs are easy enough though.
Campaign Progress
As a way of keeping everyone in the fandom apprised of what is going on and how the campaign is moving, the ad/marketing crew could maintain a section on the site for more information (a completed projects type of thing). This would be a place where we could update weekly the ads placed, the events that took place, press we recieved, etc. We would also have links to lists we update with locations of events, press, and ads. We could ask the fans to update us on their own successful projects thereby offering more interaction and individual recognition, and again, create and maintain momentum and enthusiasm.
Groups to coordinate with: web group
Issues to consider: webspace
Regional Support
Regional events can be a huge asset to gaining new viewers and spreading the word about the show. It is important for the advertising/marketing group along with other SF crews to provide as much support and coordination as possible to make these not only successful events, but publicity opportunities as well. We may want to consider putting the call out to the fans to be regional contacts to help handle certain events (i.e. sending out the press releases and distributing promo). Here are some of the ways we can do this:
Charity Events
Mickie has some great ideas for charity events (as do many others in this group) and it would be our responsibility to provide to her and her event contacts all the promotional materials needed to use as give-aways during the events, press releases to the local media, and any advertising that would be useful to promote the event. After we get a chance to meet with Mickie and see what plans she has, we'll know better how she needs to use us on these campaigns. It might be helpful to keep the number of larger charity events to a maximum of 2 or 3 over the next few months so that we will be able to get enough donations from merchandisers (and maybe even comic book chains?) to cover both the charity events and national give-aways. For the moment though, any specific ideas for large charity events should be run past her and will not be listed in this plan until approved.
We have seen that there are some individuals out there who want to run small Farscape-related charity events (that would involve running the show in the background). One thing we could provide for them is a how-to/guideline section someplace on the web site and downloadable fliers specific to the charity they are sponsoring. If we can have a list of charities the actors like to champion and some other notable charities (as well as the national contact info for the charity), that would be great as a starting point for those who aren't sure who to contact. Whatever we provide, we'll need to include a disclaimer that just because we suggest it doesn't mean we are responsible for what happens during the event. We can ask for people who hold the events to let us know what they have done so we can update the list as to the charity and how much fans have raised for them. Also a great place to point out to potential media.
Groups to coordinate with: charity, finance, copywriters, designers, regional contacts
Issues to consider: making sure fans know legalities of running such events themselves
Conventions
A great opportunity to let people know about Farscape's cancellation and campaign to get it back at sci fi-related conventions. Having the regional contact be the liason with the convention contact about the best way to distribute materials and what materials can be distributed would be great. The RC can also be liason with local volunteers who may want to work the convention passing out promotional materials on the campaign's behalf. Also, if some demonstration or rally will take place at the convention, the RC would take care of sending out the publicity to local media if necessary as well as distribute promo to the volunteer.
Groups to coordinate with: Con Organization, finance, regional contacts
Issues to consider: geographical distance of RC to event, convention protocol, con audience and timing
Rallys
We can support rallys by providing press releases, help with advertising if needed, and promotion to pass out to passers-by. Much of this would be handled through the RC to the main rally contact in that area as well as the rally team.
Groups to coordinate with: Rally Team, regional contacts
Issues to consider: geographical distance of RC to event
National Campaign Support
Besides being the main support resource for fans, there are some campaign ideas that would be more effective if handled by the crews at SF in a more nation-wide capacity. That way we are able to coordinate the timing of similar events, press releases to national media, and collaboration with Farscape merchandise distributors. Here are some of the ways we can do this:
Give Aways and Promotions
We hope to have a comprehensive national Farscape campaign set up at radio stations across the country for the first full week of January. (Week beginning Jan 6)The plan is to do an entire week of Farscape giveaways and at the end of the week, give away a large prize package consisting of any FS merchandise we can secure. (Games, books, action figures, cards, etc.) We are working with retailers/manufacturers of Farscape product to see if we can get some donations for these giveaways. In return they will receive "mentions" during the radio promotion and we hope to set up a sponsorship page on the site as well. This will give companies free radio advertising and get their names out to our fans as manufacturers who are helping the cause. We are currently planning on at least ten major radio stations. That will be the MINIMUM we work for this campaign. We will work UP from there to as many radio stations as we can get involved reliant upon the amount of product we receive. The radio stations are being chosen specifically to target Nielsen areas.
The Task Force is already working on cracking Blockbuster and NetFlix to help out in the campaign, and we would want to promote that (once something solid is hammered out) by posting fliers on the website people can use to promote it in their town as well as some ads people can use if they want to promote it that way. If we want to hit some of the major markets with advertising about this, we might be able to get co-op advertising from ADV through Blockbuster if we can't set something up ourselves. We'll need to follow up with them about that possibility.
Groups to coordinate with: Guerilla Radio crew, Task Force, finance, copy writers, designers
Issues to consider: back up plan if we can't get co-op from ADV, possibilities of running something similar with Amazon or Suncoast?
Free Publicity
Once we identify the markets we want to hit and national media outlets that might be interested in the story, we should send out press kits to all those places to get the ball rolling. We've had some great coverage already that should help win over some other coverage. But this should always be the goal--free publicity and spend as little of our fund on national type advertising as possible.
Please see the Press Kit section below for specifics on that.
Groups to coordinate with: Media relations, copy writers?
Issues to consider: narrowing down the list of contacts and getting correct information
Advertising
Spending any of the fund on large-scale, national advertising would make funding all of the other projects above prohibitive. Ads (even small ones) in national publications like TV Guide, or USA Today, or other publications cost in the 10's of thousands to 100's of thousands of dollars. It just doesn't make sense to go that route considering the current size of the Fund. We would be better served to spend the money on producing and sending press kits and updates to the entertainment and technology editors of the publications and making sure events have the support they need. If we think we need to advertise on a national level, for anything, we should definitely try to tie it into merchandise so that we can ask the merchs for coop help. This might work especially well during the holiday season to promote the purchasing of Farscape products far and wide. Tapping into the resources of Creation Entertainment, Wild Storm, Toy Vault, ADV, Simon and Schuster, and Tor Books is a win-win situation--it boosts their 4th quarter sales and it gets our message out.
A couple of areas that need further research to determine the best way to use our resources include cable and radio advertising strategies. We are a bit heavy on the print advertising side, so we'll need some more direction here. There is a link on the war room leading to TV advertising info (thanks WG!), so that is one place to begin. Probably there is also something like that for radio as well. Someone on the bboard had suggested contacting the actors to donate their voices for radio spots and that is something to investigate as well. Another area that would be good to explore is banner advertising on certain websites and see if that is cost effective. We can have the banner link back to the SaveFarscape website. (Or we could put a really loud annoying pop up on other bulletin boards across the web. That might be effective too...NOT!!!) Until we get more information on this, we'll have to leave it vague. Sorry.
Two important questions come up when dealing with advertising--especially when considering individual fans placing ads. One is how will they be paid for, and the other is how will we know where they are being placed?
One way to find out the answer to the latter question is to make sure that we only post low resolution graphics on the site with the stipulation that they need the hi-res versions for papers to print. We link all the low-res versions to a page that instructs them to email the advertising group and we'll send them the file that needs to be placed when they provide the information below:
Fan's name and email address
preferred ad style
name of media outlet
contact person at outlet
address of media outlet
specs: size of ad, type of file (if multimedia)
total cost
date of insertion(s)/airing(s)
The financial part of the support depends entirely on the size of the fund and the manpower to monitor and maintain it. We have a couple of different options:
1. (This option was not part of the original plan but should the budget open up, it may want to be reconsidered) What might be to our benefit is that we place the ads in the major markets by simply posting a poll on the site and tell people we have X amount of dollars for a newspaper ad campaign to run at the end of Dec, first week in January and we can place three 2 col. x 4 inch (8 col inches) ads in 25 major to medium markets (those with the highest number of Nielson boxes being the best choices) which markets would "they" like to see ads in. Let the fans decide--poll would have to throw out multiple voters if possible. We still need to get the information about the costs in all the markets. We may also be able to place these ads through one national media placement outlet--they do all the placement, we get one bill--we would have to find out who those companies are.
2. Another way we can help the average fan decide to place an ad is by offering the incentive of co-op payment through the Fund. Criteria will need to be developed to access the fund money and a cap needs be placed on the amount available for any given request. For example, fans will only be able to use the co-op option once; be it for paper, radio or TV, and they would only be allowed to use it to pay for 1/2 of the ad or $100--whichever is the lesser cost. The costs for ads will vary greatly between regions, cities, and towns, but one thing is common no matter where ads are placed: In order for ads to be effective they need to run more than once--three is the norm, run an ad 3 times, change it, run it again and so on. We definitely want to encourage fans to try and run their ads more than once.
As stated, these options will depend entirely on how much of the budget will go to the co-op and advertising (if any). Print ads can be very expensive depending on the location and the day of the week, same as TV and radio. And although you can get discounts with placing ads more than once, it might not be enough to help fans even with the co-op option. And with the number of fans out there who have the potential to use this, there has to be substantial monitoring, but we think that anything we offer to help would be beneficial even if it is to allow fans to voice their opinions on where the ads go. Another bonus to the co-op option is that it could bump ad sizes up or bump print ads to radio spots, or TV time.
As we send ads out, we can list all the locations on the website as a reference for fans and media to see. This could definitely be an impressive list to show other media to run stories about the campaign and show other networks the kind of money spend to save the show that would be better spent on their advertisers' products. It would also allow us or the fan to alert the entertainment reporter to the ad and the campaign by sending them a press kit as well.
Before we can really go anywhere with any type of ad, we'll need to come up with the specific messages or themes or slogans we want to use in our ads. We certainly can do a few different types of ads to include the romance aspect, the "not your father's sci fi," and any others that seem appropriate, but we need to have something that will carry through on all the pieces. We can vote on it between the web consortium and the strategy team and crews, or we can put a poll out there to the fans with some suggestions and see where it takes us, but we need something that ties everything we do together.
Groups to coordinate with: designers, copy writers
Issues to consider: overall cost effectiveness, markets to target, cooperation with merchandisers, broadcast advertising strategy research, plausibility of actors helping
Supplimental Information
Timeline
We can spend more time as a group deciding on a timeline for promotions and events to carry us through to the new episodes, but one rough schedule could be:
October: plan prep (market research) and production (press kits, online resources for fans)
November: send out initial press kits to national media outlets, fans begin to run ads if they want but suggest they wait until
December: major charity event, begin ads promoting product and cause, fan ads continue, send press info update to press kit recipients
January: Radio giveaway, new eps, more press kit updates to recipients, stress advertising push to fans while show is on.
Again, this is certainly flexible and just a suggestion based on when the holidays fall in all this and when the new eps air. No other formula is at work here.
Design
Farscape certainly attracts an inordinate amount of designers to the fandom. We have already had several requests from designers to help out, and a few of us on the crew are designers as well. What would be a great way to make fans not on committees feel a part of all the planning and preparation might be to hold design contests for all the pieces we need designed (press kit, promo, banners, ads). We can provide the designers with a list of what we'll need created to include specs and copy and guidelines, and let them come up with their designs. Then post the entries and let the fans choose. It would save us in the ad group from having to turn people down and give everyone a fair shot at helping. It wouldn't disclude the other designers from designing later pieces, but we can kick things off this way. As far as time frame goes, we can give them a week to send us their ideas, and then give fans another 5 days to vote and then we send the job to production or post for use on the website.
Press Kit
Ideally the kit should tie into the website design somehow, since that is the origin of the campaign and where people will go for more info or updates. While a traditional press kit is printed, we should try to be a little different--we are a bunch of organized fans, not a company, so if we get too slick, media outlets may think we're a front for Henson or something. If we keep it simple, but eye-catching, we should get more attention for our grass roots movement than our nice print job. Plus the main attention we have gotten has been about our use of the Internet to connect with each other and strategize, so it makes sense to use that as a tool. A combination of print and multimedia would probably do the trick (putting all the kit materials along with the TV/radio spots on CD).
As mentioned in the Individual Support section, the kit would be available online as well, and once the kit is produced, it would be cheaper to post updates to the site rather than keep reprinting. All the media outlets we would want to contact have online connections, so putting our updated press kit pieces after an initial press run makes sense. It cuts down on print costs and brings the media into our campaign first-hand. We could offer them the service of sending them notice of updates via email if they want to sign up for it. This would be especially handy when numbers come in for the new eps. We can alert them as to whether or not we have been successful in our objective.
Pieces to be included (in no particular order):
Introduction/Information/Background on SaveFarscape
Description of Farscape w/ other resources info including:
Production costs, regular advertisers, network info
Franchise possibilites/merchandising of show
Critical praise of show (quotes) & awards
Current media attention (to include CD-Rom with CNN spots and other TV coverage)
Press Releases
Rally information/scheduled charity events
Statistical info on growth of movement via website hits, etc.
Contact info for both SFS and Henson
Audience Demographics
Where they can go to rent a DVD of the show (maybe get some sort of coupon from Blockbuster for free rental?)
Possibly add some sort of freebie like FS trading card, button for campaign, bumpersticker, music videos or fan art?
The pieces will need to be written so, help from the copy writers will be a must. Some of us on the ad crew with writing experience can also take care of this if the copy writers are backed up. As far as production is concerned, we definitely need to enlist anyone who can donate press time, and someone who can help with pressing CDs. We currently have a couple of names on file for this type of help and we will get intouch with them to see if the offer still stands.
In trying to keep print costs down, we are looking at putting the majority of the kit on CD and attach a "White Paper" that would give them the highlights of our information and where to find them on the disk. mycattoldme had a clever idea to create the white sheet in the "voice" of John Crichton to grab the attention of the recipient. We would definitely require printing up a matching label for the package, and because burning CD's is cheaper than print, we would be be able to print the "White Paper" in 4-color. Before we can go out for pricing, we'll need a quantity to bid, so the target markets and contacts will need to be researched first.
Promotion Pieces
Ideally, all our promotion pieces (fliers, brochures, postcards, stickers, etc.) will be made available mainly online so that we don't have to pay for too much print work. However, we may want to choose a couple of items to use as giveaways for various events. There is already pricing for buttons (that design decision could be done via a contest), and there seems to be a thing for bumper stickers lately. We might want to have one informational piece from the press kit avialable to send to fans who want it. The thing is, folks like free stuff, and if we can have something ready to hand out we'd be golden. If you all can put out some suggestions, we can get prices and decide based on that.
Webmaster Association
We would like to recognize the participation of the websites in the association. We will be designing a banner for their sites in the near future. It is up to them if they would like to have that banner link back to savefarscape.com.
Budget Need Summary
Just wanted to recap the areas we will need to have some sort of funding to make it easier on Deneba and the rest to plan.
Production costs for press kit and promotional items
Mailing costs for press kits
Potential to buy product for giveaways if donations don't work out
Co-op advertising to subsidize fan advertising
Advertising charity events (local ads only)
We realize that this marketing plan is not overly specific with regards to some events and ideas for individual projects. We think that it is important to get the association involved in choosing some of the events as well as the fans. This plan is mainly a way to attempt to set some structure to the next few months and bring up the ways in which people can participate and we can help them to do so. Our overriding thought was to find ways for fans to get involved and give them a sense of accomplishment and pride in the work they did to save Farscape. There is a lot here to take in, and there is a lot to discuss, so please take your time going through it. If you have questions at any time, you can contact ScapeArtist, Twich, and mycattoldme at advertising@wdsection.com.