It was a beautiful sunny September morning when three Justees were setting up the creative space in our SE1 office for the arrival of 12 of the brightest and best from the UK’s third-sector organisations. The beanbags were arranged, the coffee was brewed and excitement was in the air. It was time for this quarter’s Just:: Academy.
The attendees were from a diverse range of charity backgrounds – from Autistica to the Thai Children’s Trust, from iCan, the children’s’ communication charity, to DV8, an experimental theatre company. This wonderful mix of charities resulted in lively and exciting discussion on the theme of ‘Maximising Media: Making Multichannel Communications Work for You’.
With the help of the fourth member of the team, the ‘Wheel of News’, the participants were guided through the art of turning a challenging brief into an effective communications campaign that uses the right mix of channels to target key stakeholders and audiences. The interactive session focused on sharing best practice and advice on making the most of media coverage, particularly where there are obstacles to be overcome.
The fourth member of the team
We gave the group an overview of media channels and how to address them, on the back of a discussion about being exposed to daily news stories. This then sparked the bright ideas that emerged from group work on specific communications scenarios.
Inspired by the Just:: Invent technique of ‘Random Objects’, attendees were given several props representing assets – such as a face cutout to stand for celebrity endorsement – which they had to incorporate into their media strategies. This helped them to approach their stories from new angles and find the most impactful, but still achievable, ways of communicating with their desired markets.
We followed up with attendees with a set of Top Tips for maximising their reach in the media, to help consolidate the skills and knowledge they gained during the Academy. The tips included key advice for research, preparation, targeting and availability of assets when disseminating a story for TV, national and regional print, and social media.
We received glowing feedback – like this tweet, for example – but the true value will hopefully be realised over time as they have the opportunity to incorporate the insights gained into their next campaigns.
Thanks go out to the Media Trust for their help and support in the organisation.
Plans are already underway for our next Just:: Academy. Head on over to www.mediatrust.org/events or email justask@havas.com for more information and to sign-up.
We hope to see you there!
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As part of our A Just:: Cause pro bono initiative, we host four academy sessions every year in partnership with the Media Trust, aimed at helping healthcare and welfare charities with their comms-related issues.