The Neighborhood Longhorns Program Table of Contents Meet the Team Morgan Bridges Morgan Nussbaum Brinkley Field Gabby Garza Art Director Copywriter Media Relations Account Manager Apollo Public Relations We’re an award-winning public relations agency that specializes in relaunching brands. Among our Kathleen Hazlett Carson Cline Lindsey Meyer stellar capabilities are strategy, Client Services Research Analyst Company Analyst identity, advertising, event planning, design, and a whole lot more. What is The Neighborhood Longhorns Program? MISSION: The Neighborhood Longhorns Program is an incentive-based learning program that helps economically disadvantaged youth build a strong academic future. WHO: The program serves economically disadvantaged youth in grades 2 through 8 who are at higher risks of experiencing academic difficulties, including low grade performance, low performance on tests, low school attendance and higher rates of dropping out of school. COMMITTED: The Neighborhood Longhorns Program helps prepare students to succeed, increase literacy, close the achievement gap, tutor/mentor, build partnerships, provides academic incentives, scholarships, summer camps, and integrates technology. OBJECTIVES: (1) To encourage self-discipline, promote enthusiasm for learning and increase student success. (2) The Neighborhood Longhorns Program presents tangible incentives to the students to better their individual achievement for each grading period over the course of the academic year. SUCCESS: The Neighborhood Longhorns Program proudly serves approximately 4,287 students at 33 elementary and middle schools in the Austin Independent School District. Sources:http://ddce.utexas.edu/neighborhoodlonghorns/about/ Apollo Public Relations surveyed 252 University Volunteer Survey: of Texas at Austin students regarding where students find information about volunteer opportunities 75% of respondents volunteer 60% of respondents volunteer through Greek Life or other student organizations 85% of respondents have NEVER heard of The Neighborhood Longhorns Program Of those familiar with The Neighborhood Longhorns Program think volunteering with The Neighborhood Longhorns Program is exclusive to UT ⅔ student athletes Most Likely Because: ■ 76% of respondents claim to know ”somewhat” about The Neighborhood Longhorns Program ■ Only 2% identify as regular, passionate Neighborhood Longhorns Program volunteers ■ 15% have volunteered with The Neighborhood Longhorns Program before Target Markets University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Students Passionate Longhorns eager to serve the local Austin community and are actively looking for new volunteer opportunities. We want to reach out to students who are reliable, charismatic,and driven. Encouraging students with traits like these to volunteer with The Neighborhood Longhorns Program will enhance the participants mentee experience. University of Texas at Austin Alumni Former Longhorns who still actively follow University news and give back to the University regularly. Reaching out to charitable alumni will increase donations to The Neighborhood Longhorns Program, because these alumni are courteous leaders who want to see other students achieve success like they did. Competitor Analysis Texas ZAP ● Student organization at The University of Texas at Austin that provides after-school activity classes to Zavala elementary students who otherwise do not get to regularly participate in extracurricular activities ● Volunteers serve as role models to students Reading Aces ● A non-profit organization that builds the literacy skills of low- income students through oral reading ● Students in high school and college volunteer to read to children at community centers and elementary schools for 45 minutes a week ● Supply each location with 50-60 books University of Texas at Austin Student Engineers Educating Kids (UT SEEK) ● SEEK mentors visit elementary and middle schools to administer a engineering related project with either a single student, or a small group ● SEEK mentors provide positive one-on-one influence academically and socially, giving elementary and middle school students attention that can help them develop goals and better learning skills Sources https://sites.google.com/site/texaszap/; http://www.readingaces.org/; http://utseek.org/ : Situation Analysis STRENGTHS: WEAKNESSES: - Partnership with the No. 1 public school in - Poor engagement on social media accounts the U.S. - Inconsistent social media presence - Access to UT-Austin resources - No communications specialist on staff - Silver Spurs’ philanthropy - Most volunteering efforts are off-campus, - One of the Bevo Endowment beneficiaries about 30% of students don’t have access to - Strongly supported by the UT-Austin cars student athletics program and its athletes - Program doesn’t follow-up or track the - Volunteers required to give 1 hour a week success of its’ scholarship recipients OPPORTUNITIES: THREATS: - Chances for student sponsorship with the - Cluttered field of volunteer opportunities rapidly growing number of spirit for UT-Austin students organizations on campus - Bevo XIV passed away, he was the - New University of Texas leadership - Interim centerpiece for many events benefiting Athletic Director Mike Perrin and President NLP i.e. ‘Bevo’s Celebrity Golf Tournament’ Greg Fenves - Austin is the fastest growing city in - 25th Anniversary of the Neighborhood America, more children will be enrolling in Longhorns Program in 2016 the Neighborhood Longhorn Program - New Bevo XV mascot Critical Factors AWARENESS The majority of UT students and the Austin community are not familiar with the Neighborhood Longhorns Program. DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT The Neighborhood Longhorns Program is not consistently active on its social media outlets, nor does it have relationships with mainstream media. ADDITIONAL FUNDING The Neighborhood Longhorns Program does not generate enough donations to function to its full potential. Relaunch. Align the brand with it’s core message: Hook ‘Em on Education Elements of the Relaunch Strategy Creative Target Mindset Positioning Execution An understanding Overall umbrella Tactics that are of the important direction for the appealing to the commonalities messaging. audience and across all of the achieve the key audiences. objectives. The Neighborhood Longhorns Program host home UT vs. KU basketball game to celebrate their relaunch and 25th year anniversary Who: The Neighborhood Longhorns Program will make their relaunch debut at the home UT Austin basketball game versus The University of Kansas on February 29th at 8:00pm at Frank Erwin Center. This is the second to last game of Big 12 conference play. An average of 11,000 people attend each UT basketball game thus re-launching at this highly anticipated game is a great way to reach new and current volunteers. What: The excitement and action will mount at halftime. First, the Neighborhood Longhorns Program’s new hype video will be shown for everyone to watch. Next, Charlie Strong will introduce the relaunch of The Neighborhood Longhorns Program to the crowd. The Neighborhood Longhorns Program students will then perform an organized dance routine to entertain those in the stands. After the game, there will be a special meet and greet with the UT basketball players. This will give The Neighborhood Longhorns Program kids a time to take pictures and receive autographs from the players. Why: The goal of this event is to relaunch and reinvigorate The Neighborhood Longhorns Program as well as engage current volunteers and attract new ones. We also want to excite the alumni about The Neighborhood Longhorns Program brand to give them an incentive to donate to the program. Sources: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_basketball_RB/Reports/attend/2015.pdf How will Neighborhood Longhorns Program students, UT fans, and alumni be involved with the relaunch event? About 2-3 times after school leading up to the big game, The Neighborhood Longhorns Program volunteers will teach the kids a basketball dance routine that they will then perform at the halftime show. This will engage both the volunteers and the students in an exciting way and incentivize the kids to attend the game. There will be reserved sections, 38-41, 44-47 for both the The Neighborhood Longhorns Program students and their teachers so they can attend the game. The Neighborhood Longhorns Program will provide Pizza Hut (Frank Erwin Partner) pizza for the kids, “Hook ‘Em on Education” t-shirts, and after school transportation to and from the game. On each seat in the reserved section there will be a white shirt that says “Hook ‘Em on Education” with the The Neighborhood Longhorns Program logo on the back. The arena will become a “white out” at one of the biggest basketball games of the season to enhance school spirit. The shirts are souvenirs for the fans, which will hopefully embed The Neighborhood Longhorns Program tagline into UT Austin students’ and fan minds as well as create buzz and awareness of the program. We will advertise this event through the Austin American Statesman sports section and 365 Things to Do in Austin website. UT basketball players and The Neighborhood Longhorns Program Brand Ambassadors will promote the basketball game re- launch event by visiting and announcing at UT classes the week prior to the game. Involving the the Austin Community for the Game Through Advertisements ● Austin American Statesman Sports Section to reach an affluent and involved community ○ Average daily circulation of more than 130,000