About
Effective communication is critical to your organisation’s success.
Many corporate and government organisations are excellent at taking
action, but less confident about communicating with their various
audiences.
A Strategic Communications Plan helps by organising
your communications with a written blueprint for actions and
activities: what, how, when, where, and to whom you should be
communicating.
When properly done, strategic communications
planning takes into account all aspects of your organisation’s public
image. It provides criteria for making day-to-day decisions about
communications, and a template against which all such decisions can be
evaluated. This leads to greater focus and effectiveness.
The
plan starts with a clear set of communication objectives. It explains
in detail which audiences you wish to reach, what (and perhaps what
not) to communicate, the time frame for carrying out these actions,
media to be used, and how much each step will cost. It also includes
plans for evaluation, so results can be measured and improvements made
in the future.
Writing a Strategic Communications Plan can be
daunting. Working sessions within this seminar will help you to develop
a framework for a clear plan and approach. This will help your
organisation to achieve its goals more effectively, by successfully
promoting the identity and services of your firm.
Key learning objectives
• Clarify what you want to communicate
• Choose your intended audience by identifying the best opportunities
• Determine which media will provide you with the best chance of reaching your audience
• Craft your message to heighten its impact and produce maximum results
• Develop effective strategies for measuring each element of your total communications plan
• Establish timelines for the implementation of your communications plan
• Review your communications plan for future success
Who should attend
Communications professionals including:
• Communications Managers
• Marketing Managers
• Corporate Communications Professionals
• Public Relations Professionals
• Media Relations Managers
“Great knowledge, tailored to audience, very good applied examples.”
Peter Hennessey, Communications Manager, Western Bay of Plenty District Council
Outline
Day One
8.30 Registration and Coffee
Developing an effective communications plan that fits your organisation’s strategic plan
• Understanding your corporate identity and establishing the goals
• Identifying target audiences and the necessary communication channels to reach them
• What should be included in your communications plan?
• Deciding on and incorporating the various communication channels
• Ensuring flexibility can be maintained
• Developing a communications plan to strengthen and protect your company’s reputation
Effectively identifying your target markets
Once you have established your goal, determine who you need to reach with the message.
• Accurately defining your target audiences
• Consumer, business to business, and government audiences
• Understanding your full range of stakeholders
• Matching markets with the most suitable communication channels
• Using research to measure results: When, how and who?
Determining the most effective communication channels
• Deciding on the right communication channels for your plan
• Channels for getting the most bang for your advertising bucks: Print, TV, radio, cinema
• Mixing channels to reach your target audience
• Positioning against competition
Coordinating your internal and external communications to improve awareness of your services
The
communication of information is the lifeblood of any organisation.
Whether the information is shared internally - or presented as a
release externally, it is essential that all members of the executive
team deliver a consistent and aligned message.
• Understanding the internal communications process
• Realising and raising an organisation’s communication capacity
•
Protecting the domain of the communications professional: Aligning the
organisational message across executives within the organisation
• Improving the quality of service through effective internal communications
Day Two
Measuring and evaluating the impact of your organisation’s strategic communications plan
Assessing
your plan’s effectiveness is critical for its continued success -
evaluate your plan and revise it, if necessary. In this session, we
focus on measures that can be used to evaluate the contribution of your
Strategic Communications Plan to company objectives.
• Developing measurable objectives and establishing benchmarks
• Advertising Value Equivalents
• Using feedback, interviews, focus groups, surveys and e-surveys to offer evaluation possibilities beyond the media
• Ensuring that the information gathered results in better business decisions
• Measuring the impact of specific campaigns
Building your corporate brand
Effective
branding is of critical strategic importance. The brand serves as a
focus for consumer and customer loyalties and captures the promotional
investment put into it.
• Understanding the value of brands and branding: corporate and not-for-profit
• Discovering a framework for developing and managing strong brands
• Learning how to develop and sustain the competitive advantage of your brand
• Assessing brand value
Incorporating strategic public relations into your plan
This session examines the strategic issues that lie behind successful public relations planning.
• Establishing a public relations strategy to support your marketing and corporate objectives
• Elevating the profile of public relations to ‘reputation management’ in your organisation
• How public relations activities can be aligned to the strategic objectives and cultures of your organisation
• Instant ‘reputation killers’ that impact negatively on the culture of an organisation
• Techniques for designing a public relations and communications campaign
• Techniques for using sponsorship to maximum effect
Execution: Putting your plan to work
A
Strategic Communications Plan is a living document that can be modified
and updated as systems change, projects are completed and goals evolve.
Successful implementation will ensure that your plan will help to
achieve company goals and objectives.
• Successful techniques for informing staff of the strategic communications plan
• How do you launch your company to a new audience?
• Preparing a comprehensive press kit
• Getting your timing right for implementing the plan
Facilitator
Tom Agee, Senior Lecturer, Dept of Marketing, University of Auckland
Tom immigrated to New Zealand in 1974 from the United States where he was founding partner in a successful advertising agency in Richmond, Virginia after 15 years in public relations and advertising, having won awards for both. In New Zealand he was group marketing manager for New Zealand’s largest media conglomerate and later returned to advertising as senior account director at one of New Zealand’s oldest and largest advertising agencies (now FCB) serving major New Zealand brands, e.g. AHI, NZI, Coldrex, Choysa, Cerebos Greggs.
In 1985, he joined the Auckland Institute of Technology (then ATI), as lecturer in Marketing. In 1992 became Head of the School of Marketing, Advertising and Tourism where he established New Zealand’s first degree in Advertising, and later in Advertising Creativity.
In 1994 he received his MPhil (Marketing) with honours from The University of Auckland where he become a senior lecturer in the Department of Marketing and established New Zealand’s first course in Marketing Communications. He has taught on undergraduate, masters, post graduate executive programmes.
His academic research is in the area of Advertising Effectiveness. His master’s thesis was “The Effect of Television Clutter on Advertising Recall”. His PhD research on the effectiveness of infomercials as a form of direct response television has appeared in both the American Journal Advertising Research and Journal of Consumer Research.
A prolific writer, his column “One Consumer’s Opinion” was a popular feature of Marketing Magazine for 20 years until a change of publishers in 2009. He co-authored the NZ Marketing Resource and Case Studies Book published in 1996 and his articles have appeared in the New Zealand Listener and Ad Media magazines as well as the Commerce Commission’s Compliance publication. In 2011, his case studies on NZ Consumer and Telecom XT will appear in McGraw-Hill’s Consumer Behaviour – Implications for Marketing Strategy 5th Edition.
He has been a consultant to major New Zealand firms and Government Departments including: Mobil, NZ Sugar, Lion Breweries, TVNZ and Public Trust, as well as an expert witness on advertising related cases for Ministry of Health, Commerce Commission and Telecom.
He is a popular conference and seminar speaker as well as in-house trainer whose clients have included: National Bank, Auckland District Law Society, Gen-i (Telecom), NZ Inland Revenue, Housing NZ, Waitakere City Council, Counties Manukau District Health Board, Pfizer, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Visique Optometrists, Carpet Court, Fiji Visitors Bureau and the NZ Association of Advertisers.
In 1994 he became the fourth person to be inducted into the New Zealand Marketing Hall of Fame, for his contribution to the profession over two decades.
Tom Agee is also facilitating:
In-house Training
Sorry, this event currently has no dates scheduled.
