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American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)



American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, VA 20191-4400
703-295-6000
[www.asce.org]
Contact: Jane Howell, Director of Public Relations

CEO: James E Davis





Plexus Consulting Group, LLC
1620 Eye Street, NW
Suite 210
Washington, DC 20006
Phone:  202-785-8940
Fax:      202-785-8949
Email:   info@plexusconsulting.com


 

The Challenge | The Solution | The Processs | Unforseen Benefits | Measurements & Results | Lessons Learned

 

The Challenge

How to increase understanding among ASCE's target audiences of the value of civil engineers to society?

How to raise the awareness, understanding and importance of infrastructure development and renewal through the association's public policy and media agenda?

In 1998, ASCE's board approved a strategic communications plan that set forth the objectives defined above. ASCE's target audiences were identified as: opinion leaders (the "voting" and influential public), government leaders, strategic partners (allied organizations), ASCE members and students (beginning in middle school). Public and member research had shown ASCE that while its audience was aware of the civil engineering profession, its understanding about the profession was limited. The association was particularly interested in capturing the attention of younger students in an innovative and memorable way.

The Solution

To sponsor Building Big, a miniseries on megastructures and partnership with public television designed to improve the public image and understanding of the engineering profession and to reach middle school students, the engineers of the future.

In October 2000, for the first time in its history, ASCE sponsored a national television series. The five-part series, called Building Big, was broadcast nationally on PBS each Tuesday of that month. Each one-hour episode explored one type of engineering structure (bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, and tunnels) and explained the engineering principles that make these monumental structures possible. ASCE's strategic communications plan recommended portraying civil engineering as a dynamic, problem-solving profession requiring highly educated and skilled people, and involved delivering key messages to target audiences using local engineers. The audiences and objectives were adopted as the goals of the Society's 150th Anniversary Observance in 2002.

Due to cost considerations, television advertising (or sponsorship) was not initially considered for ASCE's communications plan. However, the Society did plan to sponsor National Public Radio programming which, like PBS, reaches many of ASCE's target audiences. In May 2000, WGBH Boston, the Building Big producing station, contacted ASCE to discuss possible sponsorship opportunities. Professional membership societies are not typical public television sponsors, but many of WGBH's contacts had suggested approaching ASCE, since the program's goals appeared to be closely aligned with the Society's. Indeed, ASCE was working with the Building Big producer as a technical resource, providing experts and background information.

Forming an education outreach partnership directed at middle-school students would give WGBH access to a grassroots network of 125,000 volunteers eager to conduct outreach programs, and would leverage ASCE's investment beyond the initial broadcast through a program with long-lasting opportunities and impact.

The Process

"A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

A typical national sponsorship for a television program can cost $600,000+. For a cash outlay of $350,000, ASCE was able to simultaneously reach its target audience and engage its members in an unprecedented national outreach to promote the civil engineering profession. $350,000 still represents a huge investment in any one promotional initiative for a typical association, yet it is a small fraction of the program's $7 million price tag. While this outlay was hardly painless, the cost was spread over two fiscal years and resulted in a "win-win" for both WGBH and ASCE.

Securing buy-in from ASCE's leadership involved numerous one-on-one meetings and personal follow-through on the part of four full-time ASCE staff members and volunteer leaders. The effort involved educating stakeholders about the multiple benefits of the program and commitment to accountability on implementation. By branding the Building Big sponsorship as an anniversary program, staff members were able to further leverage the opportunity to boost member communications.

Based on shared mutual goals, ASCE and WGBH Boston negotiated a sponsorship agreement with the following provisions:

  • WGBH Boston would feature ASCE's anniversary logo and tag line on the series broadcast, the companion book and poster, the retail videos, and all educational materials, including the Web site
  • WGBH Boston would conduct educational outreach training for ASCE members at national and regional conferences
  • The series host and creative consultant, author and illustrator David Macaulay, would serve as the keynote speaker at ASCE's annual meeting and would appear at an ASCE-sponsored reception in Washington, DC
  • ASCE local affiliates would receive copies of Building Big educational outreach materials, including promotional brochures, activity guides and educational videos
  • Grants to support outreach activities would be awarded to coalitions in ten model communities. Each coalition would require the participation of the PBS affiliate station, the ASCE local affiliate and a local Boys and Girls Club
  • ASCE would be featured in series' publicity
  • ASCE would have the use of a limited amount of "B-roll" tape from the series for use in a video promoting its 150th anniversary
  • ASCE members would pledge a total of 20,000 volunteer outreach hours to be completed between October 2000 and December 2002. These outreach hours would, in part, offset the amount of ASCE's cash contribution

As part of the integrated publicity effort, ASCE planned supporting activities to reach its other target audiences:

  • Government officials
  • Allied organizations
  • ASCE members

These activities included:

Articles
ASCE placed a series of articles in the membership monthly, ASCE News, as well as its monthly leadership newsletter, FaxNews, to inform members of ASCE's role in the series and to encourage participation. ASCE also promoted opportunities to use the series to enhance anniversary activities to its network of local anniversary planners.

Keynote Presentation
ASCE aggressively promoted David Macaulay's scheduled keynote presentation at the annual meeting. Also, Macaulay agreed to hold a book signing following the presentation, offering books to members at a special price. The event sold out.

Capitol Hill Preview Party
ASCE hosted a preview party in September to which all members of Congress and staff were invited, along with representatives and guests from allied associations. Initial invitations were followed with a reminder postcard. To further link the series debut with ASCE in the minds of elected officials, ASCE delivered white chocolate domes to each office on Capitol Hill the day before the series, with the local viewing schedule attached on a hang tag. The construction of the Capitol dome was features in the series' premiere episode.

Media Premiere
ASCE worked with the series' publicist to include information in the official media kits and to provide engineering "props" for the media premiere, and publicized its role in the series within the engineering, design and construction trade media. ASCE distributed a CD-ROM with the complete media kit to local affiliates with instructions on how to localize the story. ASCE received many mentions in series reviews, which according to WGBH is unusual for a national sponsor.

Also, ASCE used its anniversary ListServ to encourage its grassroots anniversary organizers to organize premier parties for local ASCE members. Despite the fact that the first presidential debate was held in Boston that evening, hundreds of engineers and distinguished guests attended the ASCE-sponsored premiere party there. For its staff members, ASCE sponsored a premiere party in its Reston, VA, headquarters, to involve them in this historic event and to help increase their understanding of the civil engineering profession. ASCE used ideas from the educational outreach guide to conduct several team-building activities.

Educational Outreach
ASCE distributed information on the educational outreach program to each of its local affiliates, and encouraged them to apply for model commuity status. WGBH Boston staff conducted a total of 13 training sessions for ASCE members, in addition to a training summit held in Boston for representatives from the model communities.

Build-a-thons
ASCE helped to sponsor Build-a-thons, "hands-on" engineering projects to help kids explore the principles behind the construction of bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams and tunnels, in Seattle, Boston and Washington, D.C., key locations to reach its target audiences. Local ASCE affiliates have sponsored Build-a-thons in ten other confirmed locations as of March 2001. In Washington, D.C., more than 500 kids and 50 engineer volunteers, participated.

Unforeseen Benefits

The partnership with PBS enabled ASCE to achieve unanticipated success in reaching the congressional audience. WGBH staff worked to leverage ASCE's government relations office to build a doubly effective outreach to Capitol Hill.

Also, the Build-a-thon project, essentially a hands-on engineering fair for kids, energized ASCE's nationwide member base. It appeared that more member volunteers were participating in Build-a-thons than in regular ASCE chapter meetings


 
Measurements & Results

One of the biggest challenges ASCE faced was to track 20,000 volunteer hours. ASCE leveraged WGBH to distribute promotional materials at educational conferences, taking advantage of their ongoing relationships with educators to draw students into the Build-a-thon programs. Meanwhile, ASCE worked to motivate its volunteers at the grassroots level. This proved to be particularly challenging when educators failed to follow through.

ASCE employed the following tracking methods and measurements:

  • Measured distribution of promotional materials
  • Created a form to track member outreach and volunteer hours
  • Monitored ratings and press clips on the series' success
  • Reports from the field
  • Contact with students


To date, 40-50,000 Activity Outreach Guides were distributed to educators, and ASCE is receiving numerous calls from local members for 50-100 copies of the activity guide.

Lessons Learned


The secrets of implementing a successful name change are absolute confidentiality, precision timing and flawless logistics.

Prior to joining AFP, Vice President for Communications Reese Nank had just completed a similar process and was fully armed with lessons and contingency plans for ensuring a smooth transition. Talking points were prepared for each key internal and external audience, and all staff received media training to ensure that only one story would flow smoothly and consistently throughout the organization. Despite the tight March - October deadline forced by the timing of the annual conference, no one could have anticipated such a smooth process.