[NIFL-FAMILY:1648] PSA Campaign for Family Literacy

From: Ginger Wilding (gwilding@famlit.org)
Date: Thu Aug 28 2003 - 17:42:24 EDT


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From: "Ginger Wilding" <gwilding@famlit.org>
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Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:1648] PSA Campaign for Family Literacy
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In response to any concerned NIFL Listserv recipient, the National
Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) wishes to clarify the intentions and
goals of the PSA campaign for family literacy.  We appreciate your
interest.

The Public Service advertising (PSA) campaign for family literacy is
sponsored by NCFL and the Ad Council.  The campaign launched in July
2002 and is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and
created by J. Walter Thompson advertising in New York City.  The
campaign consists of TV (Spanish and English language), radio (Spanish
and English language), newspaper (English only), and web-based ads.  

The primary target audience is adults with low literacy skills.  We
target this audience primarily through the use of the TV and radio ads.
NCFL launched this campaign with the goal of motivating parents with low
literacy skills to call NCFL's Family Literacy InfoLine to get more
information about literacy programs and enrolling in their communities.
Each phone call that comes into NCFL's InfoLine is handled personally
with great care.  Any phone message that is posted overnight is answered
promptly by NCFL Outreach staff the following morning.  Our goal is to
connect adults with your literacy programs within your own communities.
Additionally, NCFL's Family Literacy Program Directory, funded by
Verizon, is readily accessible via our website.  Anyone who logs on to
www.famlit.org can locate a family literacy program anywhere in the
country.  If you know of a program that may not be included within
NCFL's Family Literacy Program Directory, please contact us and we will
add your program.  Without question, we want parents to know that
education is the key to breaking the cycle of low literacy and poverty.


The secondary audience includes potential supporters, volunteers,
influencers, and others who care about the effects of low literacy on
our nation.  We target this group primarily through the newspaper ads
and web banners.

As Ms. Beaman-Jones has indicated, NCFL, the Ad Council and J. Walter
Thompson tested this and other proposed campaigns with great care and
attention regarding the needs of our target audience.  We tested the
creative material in St. Louis, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. with
carefully-chosen members of our target audience.

It is important to note that a qualitative research firm conducted
one-on-one research with both Spanish and English-speaking members of
our target audience.  These male and female participants were not
members of any adult education program or service.  Researchers
identified, screened and recruited potential participants by phone who
would then agree to review our creative materials.

The team recruited individuals who met certain educational, economic,
and other demographic criteria. We wanted to discover what might
motivate these adults to seek help from literacy programs.  We reviewed
and tested several concepts - following an intensive team review of a
larger set of ideas.  The concepts selected for final development were
in fact indicated as overwhelmingly most effective in reaching adults
with low literacy and education.

NCFL is pleased to share that these ads are successfully reaching at
least a portion of our target audience.  NCFL receives many calls each
day from individuals throughout the country who are seeking help for
themselves and their children.  Though we may not ever reach everyone
with our messages, we believe the campaign is worthwhile and making a
difference.

Additionally, the media community has been generous in donating time and
space to these PSAs.  To date, we have received more than $18 million in
donated media from nearly every media market throughout the country.  We
are especially pleased that the New York Times has made a commitment to
support our newspaper ads through the remainder of 2003.  Each full-page
ad has generated a great deal of support from concerned people who care
about the literacy issue and want to do something to help within their
own communities.    

We are excited about proceeding with Phase II of our campaign, which
will include new TV and radio ads to be released in the first portion of
2004.

Ginger Wilding
Public Relations Specialist/Project Manager
National Center for Family Literacy
325 West Main Street, Suite 300
Louisville, KY  40202-4237
Ph:  502/584-1133 ext.147
Fax:  502/584-0172
Email:  gwilding@famlit.org
Web:  http://www.famlit.org



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