Case Study:
Florida Education Association
Situation:
As 2008 was coming to an end, Florida was facing a severe state budget crisis, and funding for public education was solidly in the crosshairs of a major budget cut. At a time when many interest groups would be trying to rally support to protect their own priorities, the Florida Education Association needed an innovative, dynamic advocacy effort that would break through the media clutter and not only reach FEA’s membership base…but also break through to the general public, as well.
Action:Visuality developed an aggressive, creative big seed campaign to save education funding in Florida. It was called Make Our Schools a Priority.
The comprehensive campaign started with a media-rich, highly interactive web site at makeourschoolsapriority.org, which quickly became the hub of FEA’s advocacy efforts in 2009. From there, a series of compelling media was developed. From straight videos to interactive quizzes and games: interesting and fun media was used to drive messages home and generate action. For each piece of media, a designed, HTML email was developed and sent to FEA members, with links back to the media, web site, or other relevant resources.
Soon, though, the Make Our Schools a Priority campaign expanded within the online realm, to web advertising and social networking sites, and then eventually moved into other media venues. Cable television ads. Posters. Print collateral. Press conferences. T-shirts. Banners. Rally appearances. And even a special message to the FEA leadership cabinet, whose buy-in was critical to the success of the effort.
Results:
FEA reports that the Make Our Schools a Priority campaign has spawned more earned media coverage than any other effort the association has ever undertaken, helping generate literally hundreds of news stories over just the first few months of the campaign. From newspaper to television to radio and the web: one estimate indicates a more than 40% increase in coverage over previous highs, on a week to week basis. More importantly, with billions of dollars of deficit looming in the spring, leaders from both houses of the Republican-controlled legislature reversed previous stands and signaled that education would essentially be held-harmless in the upcoming budget session.
It was a huge victory under the most difficult of circumstances.
