As part of T.G.I. Friday’s 20th annual World Bartender Championship, Friday’s and Peppercom launched a cheeky public advocacy campaign to include bartending as an Olympic sport. On a more serious note, Mindy Finn, partner at political communications firm Engage, offers five criteria for starting a bona fide movement:
1. Clear Objectives & Goals: Unite your team around a well-defined mission, and make sure you can meaningfully calculate ROI.
2. Everywhere Integration: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Web sites, e-mail, search engines and more—it’s no longer which platform to use, but how to integrate the use of a combination of platforms.
3. Contests/Promotions/Deals: Make advocacy fun with game-like incentives and rewards.
4. Engagement: How much your audience engages with your campaign matters more than the volume of participation.
5. Influencer Targeting: Narrowing your target audience by demo- graphic or geographic boundaries makes good sense. To take your resources even further, while increasing engagement, target influencers within specific categories, or use a peer index.
PR News Subscribers can read more about public advocacy efforts in the case study: "Cocktail of Strong Media Relations and Tongue-in-Cheek Advocacy Boosts T.G.I. Friday’s Bartender Competition."