A message to all New Zealand Rotarians
(Please advise your members at meetings, in Bulletins or on web sites)
Rotary International has generously provided us in Zone 7b with a Public Relations Grant to assist in promoting Rotary in our community. A national committee representing each District has devised a publicity campaign over February/March. You are encouraged as a Club to supplement this campaign with your own local media activity. This can be paid advertising, generating public interest through special high-profile projects and events or through personal promotion by your members by inviting the community to your Club meetings.
This media campaign involves:
Ø Television 12 February – 30 March (TV3)
Ø Radio 19 February – 30 March (Newstalk ZB, Easy Listening, Hauraki and their other networked stations)
Ø Billboards 4 March – 6 May (Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin)
Ø Online Marketing 19 February – 25 March (TV3 online, NZ Herald, Stuff, Yahoo, Facebook, msn.co.nz)
We are fortunate to have Rotarians who are professional PR people and have donated their time and talents to come up with this extensive campaign. A substantial feature of this campaign is the additional ‘free’ media slots that will provided as the media houses continue to generously support Rotary.
What can your Club do to increase the impact of this campaign?
Ø Tell your Club members through your meetings, Bulletins and websites/Face Book pages of the dates.
Ø Promote the 0800 4 ROTARY phone number in your community – this will be referred to in the campaign
Ø Approach your own media outlets – giving them articles of interest and good photos
Ø Look at ways to create a special impact around 23 February – Rotary’s official ‘birthday’
Specific profile suggestions:
1. A number of New Zealand Clubs have already subscribed to is the Global Swimarathon – raising funds for Polio. This is a novel way to raise profile and funds for Polio – especially as the event in New Zealand will be on Sunday 26th February at 1am!! For more details go to http://rotaryswimarathon.org/
2. Arranging a projected light display and project End Polio Now onto one of your local buildings – this is done annually world-wide
3. Have all Clubs in your District involved in an outdoor project or activity on the weekend of 25/26 February – why not have a community tidy-up (beach, roadside, local park)
4. Be creative and have fun serving the community in a public way
5. Purchase Polio pins through RDU as part of their Pin it for Polio campaign
6. Consult your own Club media people for ideas
This will all go a long way to further reinforce and support the national media campaign.
In your advertising you are encouraged to also use "Want to play a part?" as the call for action plus 0800 4 ROTARY and your Club name. Each week a spot list will be circulated which will include bonus spots, however ‘fillers’ or ‘charity spots’ will not be advised as these are at the channel's discretion.
For more details visit our Public Image Blog or the NZ Rotary web site.
We all have the privileged responsibility to market Rotary to those in our community. Remember - each individual Rotarian’s actions count.
