Purpose
Increase the opportunities in which your Collaborative can promote your
public report and its contents to target audiences, including the media.
Considerations
Planned Events and Activities. The content of your public
report and other elements of your Collaborative's work are relevant to a wide
range of community events, activities, and communications that are initiated by
organizations other than your Collaborative. Knowing about these opportunities
in advance will enable your Collaborative to:
- Relate the content of your public report to topics of interest in your
community to increase the likelihood of your report being mentioned by trusted
sources such as media, health writers, and Collaborative members.
- Promote your public report in the context of these external events to
reinforce the wide-ranging relevance of your public report.
- Plan for and implement a steady stream of communication activities
throughout the year to keep messages about your public report front and center
for reporters, health writers, and others.
- Avoid scheduling announcements, events, or campaigns that could be
overshadowed or conflict with planned health-related activities of other
community organizations.
To identify some opportunities (and avoid major communication conflicts),
consider the health observances in Resource
2b. This resource lists many national health observances and national
launches, such as important annual reports from AHRQ, including the National
Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Also consider promotions and
activities planned by organizations involved with your Collaborative, in
addition to other statewide or community events.
- Example: In 2010, the National Football League (NFL) used Breast
Cancer Awareness Month as a springboard to participate in events across the
country. While perhaps an unlikely partner in this cause, the NFL can be a
powerful and popular way to get a message to the local community. The NFL's
Web site includes a statement about the importance of breast cancer screening
and lists activities team by team, community by community, to promote
awareness (http://tineyurl.com/ycdbabm Exit Disclaimer).
Similarly, a Collaborative that was one of the first Chartered Value Exchanges
(CVEs) worked with their local NFL team to promote hypertension awareness and
conduct blood pressure screenings before every home game.
Unexpected Events. Watch for opportunities to relate the
content and relevance of your public report to national and local news events.
This requires looking beyond the surface story to see the potential connections
with the content, process, value, and other aspects of your Collaborative's
public report and related activities.
- Example: In 2009, after the crash landing of a US Airways
airplane into the Hudson River when all 150 passengers survived, the media was
interested in covering many angles to keep this popular national news story
alive. Tapping into the fact that airline pilots routinely use checklists, the
Puget Sound Health Alliance (Washington State CVE) used the story as a lead in
to a news release about promoting the use of surgical safety checklists in
hospitals.
Tapping into unexpected events as part of your communications gives
reporters, and others who are not well versed in health policy, real-world
analogies to help them easily understand the importance of your Collaborative's
work. While unexpected events regularly occur, you cannot plan on the timing of
when such events will be relevant and appropriate. Therefore, you need to be
able to move quickly to recognize and act on unexpected events as
opportunities.
Not all events, whether or not they are planned, will be relevant to your
Collaborative's public report or work plan content, target audiences, and
communication style. Start by reviewing the list of health observances and
events (Resource
2b), select those that are relevant to your Collaborative's public report
and other products and activities, and add them to your Communication Plan (Resource
1b).
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