The Alzheimer's Association's (AA) successful walkathon in the fall of 1996 underscores the importance of bringing together several forces every step of the way: celebrity endorsements, public service announcements, local chapter assistance and an aggressive media campaign.
The association's two-day Memory Walk fundraiser generated $10 million for research and education about the debilitating disease. And AA attributes part of the event's success to its PR partner Golin Harris Communications, Chicago.
In addition to being the only annual nationwide event for Alzheimer's, the Memory Walk also serves to support programs and services provided by the Alzheimer's Association, Chicago. The true purpose of the walk, which ran through 200 cities nationwide, including major markets like New York and Los Angeles, is to increase public awareness about the disease and the support offered by local chapters.
The Oct. 5-6, 1996, effort reached an audience of 137 million and attracted 114,000 participants, and also turned out to be the most memorable walk in its four-year existence.
Spreading the Word
GH and AA created a PR plan that incorporated a satellite media tour, public service announcements and local chapter assistance, which helped spread the word early enough for people to sign up for the walk. GH also created national media opportunities for day-of-event activities in major markets and assisted participating local chapters in handling media activities for their walks.
For an annual activity, the most important research tools are findings and feedback from previous years. AA reviewed chapter surveys after the walk about 1995 PR activities that it conducted and got input from the Memory Walk committee.
"It's a challenge to attract media coverage two to three weeks in advance of a walk, the time period in which many walkers decide whether or not to participate," said Mike Pirages, director of media relations at AA. "You'll need to arrange an exciting and newsworthy opportunity during this time if you hope to generate coverage."
With a $100,000 budget and an eight-month timeframe for PR activities, GH used AA's research to create a Memory Walk plan. Celebrities were a large part of the PR plan, but in addition to the idea that people listen to them, each one of them had family members who were afflicted with Alzheimer's.
GH and AA created two public service announcements featuring Memory Walk national honorary co-chairs Shelley Fabares of ABC's Coach and Dave Johnson, Olympic medalist in the decathlon, created by GH and On the Scene Productions in Calif. GH assisted in coordinating the PSAs, writing the scripts, and handling tape duplication and distribution to media outlets.
On the Scene created a 19-city satellite media tour featuring Fabares, that included New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Clevelandand Seattle.
On the weekend of the walk, AA and GH shot satellite b-roll footage that featured NBC's David Hyde Pierce of Frasier and Lea Thompson of Caroline in the City at the Los Angeles walk. GH distributed it to key national TV news and entertainment programs and sent via satellite to local TV stations nationwide. With over 100,000 participants nationwide and four celebrity spokespeople, the Memory Walk was certifiably a newsworthy event.
Sally Jewett, president of On the Scene Productions, said that Fabares, whose mother died of Alzheimer's, is an exceptional spokesperson for AA. "She had personal experience and passion for the association that comes out loud and clear to the audience, especially reporters."
Barbara Box, senior vice president of GH, said that "the key to creating this program was to be as relevant and meaningful to as many people as possible. We were extremely creative, using touching sound bytes from celebrities in the b-roll and putting lots of clips of people in the T-shirts and participating in the walk."
Pirages advises other organizations planning such PR activities as this one, "If you have multiple events taking place around the country, hold them on the same day or weekend. That way, the media are more likely to view it as a major event."
Most importantly, though, is to "identify and train spokespeople who can talk with the media before, during and after the event...a representative of your organization and someone personally impacted by the disease you're fighting against." Box went further by saying that, "celebrities you choose as spokespeople don't have to be national TV stars, just highly respected and highly visible, with a link to the cause."(Alzheimer's Association, 312/335-5764; Golin Harris Communications; 312/836-7100; On the Scene Productions, 213/930-1030)