FARM AID 30 Communications Strategy Overview GOAL To grow a community of family farmers, activists and advocates, eater and donors who are coming together to change the food system. AUDIENCE • Now generation of eaters and farmers (young, diverse, 20 – 40 years old) • Loyal Farm Aid community of family farmers, activists and advocates, and eaters and donors • Partners and sponsors KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPI) • Earned media coverage • Tweets using #fRoad2FarmAid, #farmaid30 and/or @FarmAid • Social media posts from artists attending Farm Aid 30 on Twitter, Facebook and/or Instagram • Social engagement • Audience engagement (contributions) at road2.farmaid.org • FarmAid.org website engagement (visits, pages per visit, avg. visit duration, % new visits, bounce rate) • Farm Aid 30 ticket sales SOCO MESSAGE Thanks to each one of us -- family farmers, activists and advocates, eaters and donors -- we have come together and the food system is changing. For 30 years, you have joined farm aid and taken many small actions that are making a big difference. Together, we are creating a food and farm system that is good for family farmers, good for the soil and water, good for our health and good for the country. | Farm Aid 30 2 SUMMARY OF OUTREACH ACTIVITIES • Beginning in January, the publicity team implemented a monthly outreach approach that emphasized Farm Aid’s impact. Outreach kicked off with promotion of Farm Aid’s drought training. • In February, Farm Aid engaged Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp to announce the date at the GRAMMY Foundation Gala, leveraging a high-profile event for anniversary visibility. • Farm Aid leveraged the Iowa Ag Summit in March to send a counter-message about the role of family farmers in a stronger food system. • The Farm Aid publicity team developed a broader campaign strategy, which launched in July, to amplify the #Road2FarmAid message and crowdsource content to support a message that Farm Aid’s impact is thanks to the hard work of many. • The concert was officially announced in July through relationships with the Chicago AP, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Time, and Rolling Stone and Billboard. This announcement was followed by in-studio interviews and reporter deskside meetings to build relationships and promote ticket sales. • The publicity team implemented an influencer strategy to engage artists in concert promotion via social media channels. The team provided artists with a social media toolkit including promotional images and social media messages. • In September, during concert promotions, Farm Aid partnered with Modern Farmer to implement an Instagram takeover, boosting Farm Aid’s exposure and engaging new audiences. • Throughout the year the publicity team engaged with and maintained relationships with local radio stations, TV stations, newspapers and local blogs, along with numerous national publications, promoting Farm Aid’s mission and message and demonstrating Farm Aid’s impact. | Farm Aid 30 3 OVERALL ENGAGEMENT January – October 20, 2015 • Secured more than 2,798+ print, online & broadcast media hits • 2,037+ print/online stories and press release reprints, including Associated Press, Billboard.com (4 stories), Rolling Stone (12 stories), Bloomberg News, CNN, CMT, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Time Out Chicago, Modern Farmer, Slow Food USA, The Times of Northwest Indiana, and Yahoo! News. • 530+ broadcast hits, including WBEZ-FM, WGN-TV, WLS-TV (ABC), WMAQ-TV (NBC), WFLD-TV (FOX) and WBBM-TV (CBS). • Generated more than 4,225,581,606+ impressions from print, online & broadcast media hits • Reached more than 15,693,213+ fans on social media via Twitter and Instagram from announcement through Sept. 22 • Generated more than 22,809,778+ impressions from social media engagement via Twitter and Instagram from announcement through Sept. 22 Note: A full media report for the Farm Aid 30 concert can be found in the Appendix. | Farm Aid 30 4 EARNED MEDIA THROUGH THE YEARS Media Hits Through the Years 3000 2500 2,798 2000 2,134 2,086 1500 1,816 1000 500 0 Media Hits 2012 2013 2014 2015 | Farm Aid 30 5 SNAPSHOT OF OUTCOMES • January Texas Drought Summit coverage resulted in more than 12+ media hits and more than 3,114,164+ impressions. • February concert date announcement and GRAMMY Foundation coverage resulted in more than 167+ media hits and more than 47,487,848+ impressions. • March Iowa Ag Summit Outreach and POLITICO op-ed coverage resulted in more than 166+ media hits and more than 86,406,595+ impressions. • POLITICO alone sees 8,250,392+ unique visitors per month. • 159 people tweeted out the POLITICO op-ed • In addition, the op-ed inspired a Fortune article about the voice of family farmers in the larger agriculture debate. • July 28 concert announcement secured more than 800+ media hits and more than 1,598,792,535+ impressions • 452+ print/online/press release reprint hits, including Billboard.com, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg News, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Time Out Chicago, ChicagoNow and CMT. • 347+ broadcast hits, including WBEZ-FM, WGN-TV, WLS-TV (ABC), WMAQ-TV (NBC), WFLD-TV (FOX) and WBBM-TV (CBS) • Concert promotion between August and October secured more than 1,653+ media hits and more than 2,489,717,464+ impressions • 1,248+ print/online/press release reprint hits, including Billboard.com (4 stories), Rolling Stone (12 stories), Bloomberg News, CNN, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Time Out Chicago, Modern Farmer, Slow Food USA, The Times of Northwest Indiana, and Yahoo! News. • 183+ broadcast hits, including WBEZ-FM, WGN-TV, WLS-TV (ABC), WMAQ-TV (NBC), WFLD-TV (FOX) and WBBM-TV (CBS). | Farm Aid 30 6 2015 DROUGHT SUMMIT OUTREACH HIGHLIGHTS ENGAGEMENT APPROACH • In January, Farm Aid released a press release announcing plans to convene a Texas Drought Summit to promote idea-sharing and skills-building to encourage more resilient farming practices. • Vanguard pitched local and national media to showcase its on-the-ground work to strengthen family farm food systems. LESSON LEARNED • For these smaller events, it is important that Farm Aid has a high-level organizational representative on the ground at the event. These events would be a great way to engage non-artist board members. | Farm Aid 30 7 FARM AID 30/GRAMMY’S OUTREACH HIGHLIGHTS ENGAGEMENT APPROACH • Willie Nelson announced the date of Farm Aid’s 30th Anniversary show on February 5 at the GRAMMY Foundation Gala & Farm Aid announced the location on July 28. This allowed us to leverage a high-profile event for 30th anniversary publicity. • The publicity team reached out to Rolling Stone and Billboard, along with a variety of music outlets and blogs to help spread the word. Rolling Stone and Billboard mentioned the date announcement in their GRAMMY Gala coverage. LESSON LEARNED • Farm Aid board and staff participate in high-profile events frequently that can be leveraged for organizational exposure. | Farm Aid 30 8 FARM AID 30/GRAMMY’S COVERAGE | Farm Aid 30 9 2015 AG SUMMIT OUTREACH HIGHLIGHTS APPROACH • In March, Farm Aid released an interview alert to position the family farm perspective in the context of the Iowa Ag Summit that emphasized corporate ag. • Farm Aid placed an op-ed authored by Willie Nelson in POLITICO Magazine the day preceding the summit, challenging conventional perspectives that were likely to prevail at the summit. • Farm Aid sent staff to participate in rallies surrounding the summit and partnered with Iowa CCI to offer a national voice to support local organizing efforts. LESSONS LEARNED • Willie Nelson’s engagement on the op-ed was critical to placement. • Farm Aid’s local partnerships were also essential to maximizing outreach efforts. • POLITICO was a great partnership to saturate the Iowa Ag Summit market and get Farm Aid and family farmers included in the conversation. | Farm Aid 30 10 FARM AID 30 ONGOING COVERAGE OUTREACH HIGHLIGHTS April 2015 – Concert Announcement Coverage APPROACH • Several outlets generated strong coverage about Farm Aid as a result of ongoing relationship development, including a Grist story on Farmer Suicide Rates, which was also picked up by MSN. • A handful of publications picked up on the news that Farm Aid seeded in January about emergency aid available to farmers dealing with severe drought in California. • Reporters covered the Farm Aid anniversary in the context of Live Aid’s 30th anniversary. • The media also enjoy highlighting performances throughout the summer of various artists as anniversaries arise or other big news comes out around the artists. LESSON LEARNED • Having an established monthly content plan enhance overall outreach strategy to keep Farm Aid initiatives top-of-mind for the media and audiences alike. | Farm Aid 30 11 #ROAD2FARMAID OUTREACH HIGHLIGHTS APPROACH • The #Road2FarmAid initiative was reimagined to engage fans in a more meaningful conversation about the small actions that add up to big change. • Users were invited to post about the actions they are taking every day on a newly designed microsite road2.farmaid.org and social media. • Content generated from the campaign was then used in other anniversary promotion activities including shared and earned media and at the concert press event. LESSONS LEARNED • Creating tools that make it easy for artists to engage is an effective strategy to increase reach and relevance. • Integrating the #Road2FarmAid hashtag at the onset of concert communication is an effective strategy to seed use and engage artists for further promotion. • Farm Aid’s audience is committed and will take action when invited, even with small incentives. #Road2FarmAid Reach 5,000,000 4,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 0 Announcement Concert 2013 2014 2015 Note: #Road2FarmAid was not included in the announcement strategies in 2013 and 2014. | Farm Aid 30 12 SUMMARY OF #ROAD2FARMAID CAMPAIGN For the third year in a row, #Road2FarmAid exceeded all goals set for the initiative: • From announcement through Sept.