2017

MDIA1003 – ASSESSMENT 3
CLIENT PITCH

CLAIRE KEENAN Z5117630

|Executive Summary
Currently in Australia only 25% of Indigenous students within remote communities are at the
minimum reading standard compared 90% of non-Indigenous students (Indigenous Literacy
Foundation 2017). The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) is a small yet expanding
organisation with the vision to overcome this inequality by promoting early intervention of
reading and literacy skills.

Last year, through their annual event ‘The Great Book Swap’ the ILF raised over $160,000 and
in the foundation’s lifetime have rewarded over 200,000 books to over 230 remote
communities. However, the not-for-profit charity still has a long way in generating enough
funds and awareness Australia wide.

[ Accessed from Google Trends on the 18th October 2017]

The ILF is already in partnership with several corporations such as the Australian Publishers
Association, Australian Booksellers Association and the Australian Society of Authors.
By next year, we aim to open doors to new partnerships, with companies and local
communities.

Local communities and businesses generate mass donations and can heighten awareness
around the importance of reading in all local communities across Australia. Ultimately, by
strategizing for – increasing registrations in workplaces – and aligning it with a larger influence

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– local communities – our Client’s overall goal of increasing awareness about The Great Book
Swap will be achieved.

Our aim is to achieve these overall goals and campaign objectives to have them in place by
early September next year for NAIDOC week and Indigenous Literacy Day.

|Preliminary Research
The Great Book Swap is known as a popular event held annually in schools within NSW and
Victoria and has had positive media responses. A Herald Sun news article written early
September, about Reservoir High School in Victoria detailed that the school’s Literacy
programs facilitator Goff Rilpoli’s viewed the program as a raising awareness for the
Foundation ‘as well as inspiring students to enjoy their reading’ (Herald Sun 2017).

However, in regards to the availability and promotion of information on the event, the ILF is
lacking in self-promotion. The ILF Facebook and Instagram presence on social media is at a
low-scale range - a challenge that can be a focus throughout the tactical campaigning for
next year’s event.

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation The Aboriginal Literacy Foundation

33,871 people like this 4,117 people like this

33,536 people follow this 4,065 people follow this

[Accessed from Facebook on the 18th of October)

In regards to strong relationships with leading figures in the wider Indigenous community,
the ILF’s programs have been strengthened by having lifetime ambassadors such as Jessica
Mauboy support their campaigns. However, ambassadors have not been restricted to
Indigenous figures and the ILF’s partnership with renowned authors such as Andy Griffiths,
has increased public and school support.

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In regards to its scale, the ILF is a small organisation that is attempting to work towards long-
terms goals. With no government support and a budget of only $3,000 the ILF is an
independently run organisation that will face challenges of sourcing recourses for achieving
campaign objectives. Moreover, the absence of an Annual Report resource on the ILF’s
website, makes it more difficult to predict failures from previous campaign analysis. This
came to my attention, after visiting the ILF’s competitor ‘The Aboriginal Literacy Foundation’
who provides an extensive report.

External conditions that will assist the ILF in achieving its goals for The Great Book Swap:
• The event as a community-based program:
o The Great Book Swap is recognised in the schooling community and thus could
be publicised more as an opportunity for members of the community.
• The significant timing of the event:
o To work in conjunction with the other Indigenous charity days/weeks such as
Indigenous Literacy Day (Wednesday 6th September) and NAIDOC Week is
highly beneficial for the program and should be reiterated to our targeted
audience.
• The role of ambassadors:
o This could be utilised more, as public figures are the loop-hole into Australian
media and freely connects the foundation to other renowned socialites.

External conditions that can prevent the ILF from reaching its goals:
• The competitive nature of the charity field in Australia
o The ILF operates within a competitive field that has long established
organisations
o Within the sub-field category of charities related to Indigenous inequalities,
organisation such as ‘The Cathy Freeman Foundation’ hold greater
prominence
o There are also extensive religious organisations based in Australia that are well
established e.g. The Salvation Army
• The competitive nature of the Indigenous literacy field in Australia

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 o The ILF’s main competitor is the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation whom has
very similar aims and objectives
o Has a bigger reach in regards to social media, a newsletter and annual reports
• Other events that have similar qualities to the Great Book Swap
o Book Week, which is annually run at schools across Australia is a highly
renowned event that promotes the benefits of literacy

SWOT ANALYSIS OVERVIEW

STRENGTHS Growing partnership with Indigenous

communities

School communities being involved in the

event

WEAKNESSES Social Media

Lack of money to complete their vision

OPPORTUNITIES Involving local communities and businesses

Developing relationships with communities

to make it an annual event

THREATS Lack of awareness

The competitive nature of known charities
saturating the market

|Target Audiences

From the brief provided by the client and research collected from media scanning, ‘The Great
Book Swap’ is undoubtedly a recognised campaign within the school environment. For this
small organisation to expand their presence nationwide, a tightly-focused primary and
secondary audience target would best reach the ILF’s central objective of increasing
awareness about the Great Book Swap.

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Targeting local communities is our primary focus. A local community being involved in
charitable events leads to an opportunity for discussion, action and annual celebration.

The secondary audience targeted is businesses, whether corporate or local. Similar qualities
coincide with our selected primary audience, as often people who are grouped together are
more likely to participate in community events. To be engaged with the values of literacy and
reading, highlights corporate-social responsibility, as businesses have the ‘responsibility
reaching beyond the narrow perspective of profit maximisation in the short term’ (O’Brien &
Quazi 2000).
Potential businesses to work in partnership with:
- E.g. Cotton on Group
Cotton on foundation ‘empowers youth through quality education’, targeting
disadvantaged communities across the globe including the Northern Territory, and would
be a suitable corporation to partner with for The Great Book Swap (Cotton On
Foundation 2017).

|Campaign Objectives

The campaign objectives proposed by the ILF are all achievable over a significant period.
However, with the deadline of 2018 I have made some adaptions in response to my concerns
with the amount of set targets and research I obtained of their social media.

o The main objective will be to increase registrations in workplaces from 600 (2017) to
900 (2018) in conjunction with local communities rather than the schooling
community.

o We aim to expand stakeholders and build strong relationships with at least 2 well-
known corporate Australian businesses and 10 local businesses by the end of 2018.

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 o By 2018 we intend to have at least 10 country or suburban communities, with the
assistance of local businesses, to be on board of running ‘The Great Book Swap’ in
their town or local area.

o By 2019 we intend the number of corporate businesses to grow up to 5. This will be

achieved by the same strategy used for the previous businesses, with the media
publicity accumulated from previous businesses.

o Lastly, this coincides itself with expanding awareness and participation beyond NSW
and Victoria to ensure national awareness is increased by 50% by the end of 2018.

o Long-term, we intend to motivate volunteers to be actively involved in this annually

run event. This addresses our budget of $3,000 and reinforces why we have chosen
local communities and businesses as our target audiences – large groups of people
mean more opportunities to offer a helping hand.

|Campaign Strategy

Our client is a relatively small however energetic organisation, that values the benefits that
come from working with partners, fundraising and a hardworking team of staff and
volunteers.

Our strategy is to extend upon the “grass roots” approach that “increases responsiveness to
local circumstances” and focus on the importance of sustaining community bonds (Karen
Williams 2012).

This will be achieved by creating a bond between client and target audience – by fostering a
long-lasting relationship with communities and businesses who are socially aware and willing
to donate to a cause.

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Just like the ILF creates two-way bonds with Indigenous communities for their programs to
be sustained, the ILF should be connected to other local communities and businesses that
can offer support and donations to the event. Local communities can act as an insight into
how other diverse communities operate in Australia in regards to promoting the importance
of reading and writing.

By creating a relationship between the foundation and target audience, our strategy will aim
to assure communities and businesses, feel connected in the process of the event and know
that their contribution is valued. Therefore, we want to dedicate our $3,000 budget to go
towards having volunteers and workers of the ILF visiting local communities and businesses
in designated areas. When there is a face-to-face acknowledgement, people are more willing
to donate to a good cause.

|Key Messages
The main message we want to send is that charity work shouldn’t be a one-off thing. The
Great Book Swap is an event-based program; however, we want it to be a gate-way to a long-
term relationship between foundation and target audience.

The workers and volunteers who initially go to the businesses and designated communities
are the biggest promoters of this message. They will educate business owners and local
councils on the importance of early literacy skills, provoke an emotional response from
people to inspire them to start a dialogue and a plan of action against inequality.

We want to send a message that addresses businesses and local communities in the same
light as schooling communities. They should be just as much involved to the children
donating in their classrooms. This is of upmost importance and the Facebook/Instagram
posts and feature article are tailored to reflect these key ideas of long-term relationships,
dialogue and valuing our sponsors.

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|Key Media

The campaign integrates social media as a form of feedback from research collected on the
campaign’s weaknesses. The Great Book Swap’s website is a thriving source of information
however after browsing through Facebook I found no official site for the event, only specific
pages for launches of the event.

[Accessed on sensis on the 18th October]

Ideally, I would like to create an app for the event that allows users to log on and keep tabs
on the amount raised in their community or business, however an app would be too
expensive for the ILF to create right now. Instead, this campaign would focus on revamping
their social media presence. From this information published in the Australian Sensis Social
Media Report 2017, Facebook holds the highest percentage (94%) of users across the social
networking platforms.

[Accessed on sensis on the 18th October]

The Facebook page wouldn’t act as a sole provider of information on the event, as that is
what the official website does already. Instead it would be a platform utilised for frequent
statuses about the event, live updates on the latest businesses or local area that have joined

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the event and a frequent stream of promotion. The Facebook page would be made available
as a link from the ILF’s main website and The Great Book Swap website and will be easily
accessible through the search engine on the platform.

There is also an immense room for growth in the event’s publicity on the platform Instagram
- the second most used social networking site. Ambassadors of the ILF, such as Jessica
Mauboy (308k followers), should be sharing information with their own followers, about the
cause they support and requesting people to follow the official ‘thegreatbookswap’ page.

|Methods of Evaluation
To evaluate the success of this campaign, the social media analysis format will be used.

Exposure
To measure the exposure of the campaign we will compare the initial statistics extrapolated
from my research to future recordings. We will focus on Facebook and Instagram exposure,
such as the amount of views, likes and follows.

Influence
We will measure the influence of our ambassadors and if they stimulate more publicity for
the event. Online, this will be followed by the number of mentions of the foundation’s key
words and how often the event is circulated in the news online.

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Engagement:
This will be measured by the number of likes and clicks on our Facebook page and visits to
the home-page website. Following individual’s shared posts and pictures of the event will
also give us good indication of the extent of people’s engagement on their personal pages.

Action/Convert:
This will be measured by the number of people that end up signing up for the event and the
amount donated and by how many businesses and local communities we attract.

Sale:
This will be measured by how much money is donated, weekly or monthly leading up to or on
the day of the event.

Retain:
This will be a more long-term summary of the number of donors who continue to donate
annually to the event, in comparison to those who don’t re-donate.

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 MEDIA RELEASE
26th October 2017

Businesses and local communities are the new targeted ‘swappers’ for The Great
Book Swap

This month the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) is reaching out to prominent business
owners and local communities across Australia to take part in their annual event, ‘The Great
Book Swap’ that will be held between July and September next year.

The event is run annually, involving people ‘swapping’ old or favourite books in exchange for
a gold coin donation. All donations go towards the long-term goal of promoting the
importance of literacy skills in remote Indigenous communities.

Cotton On has been the first major Australian business to express interest in joining next
year’s event and ILF workers and volunteers have begun visiting local councils of the Eastern
and Northern suburbs in Sydney to promote the cause. The ILF will continue to extend their
reach to more regional communities in surrounding NSW country areas.

For returning and new businesses partaking in the event, participators will automatically
enter a competition and the business with the most books collected and swapped will be
crowned the ‘Book Business of the Year’.

To partake in The Great Book Swap during NAIDOC Week or Indigenous Literacy Day on the
2nd of September 2017, a local community council member or business colleague must enroll
your respected group before this time.

To donate one can simply visit the ILF’s website http://www.greatbookswap.org.au/ or call
(02) 9280 0644 to donate over the phone.

ENDS
________________________________________________________________

For more information on events or other news, contact:

Claire Keenan
Public Relations Advisor
clairekeenan@keenpublicrelations.com
+61 347099751

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Instagram post:

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This feature article will be placed in the Great Book Swap kits

The honour of being awarded ‘Book Business of the Year’

What does it mean to be a business?

Is it the success one holds based on profit measures?
Is it based on being known to the larger society?
Or is it both?
Businesses contribute to the welfare of society by providing a service, product or lifestyle.
However, do business owners look back on the work they achieved and be most proud of the
money they made or the impact they made?
This is where the Indigenous Literacy Foundation steps in.
Your business is next on our list.
Walk around your office today and imagine if you couldn’t read. What does that sign say over
in the corner near the printer? What does the whiteboard notice tell you as you walk past
your boss’ door?
Reading and writing is an essential part of growing up as a child. All children should have the
material and support to read books. Being able to read opens the doors to our future, a
future that could look a lot like your life right now. For some kids, living in remote Indigenous
communities the joy of owning a bookcase full of books is not a reality. Books are limited
when they should be unlimited and literacy skills are far lower than anywhere else in
Australia.
Join the Indigenous Literacy Foundation today to help place books into children’s hands who
need them the most. By signing up for 2018’s event, your business will be put into the draw
of being awarded the ‘Book Business of the Year’. Now wouldn’t that be an honour…

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|Reference List

Cotton On Foundation 2017, Cotton On Foundation, Cotton On Group, North Geelong,

viewed 16th October 2017, https://www.cottononfoundation.org/

Google Trends 2017, Search term: Indigenous literacy foundation, Google, viewed 18th
October 2017
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=Indigenous%20Literacy%20Foundation

Indigenous Literacy Foundation 2017, The Great Book Swap, ILF, Broadway, viewed on the
10th October 2017 https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/

Karen Williams 2012, Evaluation finds positive outcomes, ILF, viewed 25th October 2017
https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/evaluation-finds-positive-
outcomes.html.html

O’Brien, A & Quazi, D. 2000, ‘An empirical test of a cross-national model of corporate social
responsibility’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 25, pp. 33-51.

Preston Leader 2017, Reservoir high school swaps books to support Indigenous Literacy
Foundation, Herald Sun, viewed 16th October 2017
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/north/reservoir-high-school-swaps-books-to-support-
indigenous-literacy-foundation/news-story/df04ab4c8b5e544978fea6fbc9de3f9a

Sensis 2017, The must-know stats from the 2017 sensis social media report , Sensis Pty Ltd
viewed 20th October 2017 https://www.sensis.com.au/about/our-reports/sensis-social-
media-report

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