One-year Image Restoration for UNA

This is my one-year plan for UNA and the city of Florence. In recent developments around the Shoals community, UNA is trying to get the revenue from the Florence Golf & Country Club. I believe that there is a way that this could be resolve and also it could help the university with the relationship of the city of Florence as well.

Cedric Walls
Intro to Public Relations
Spring 2011
4/18/2011

The University of North Alabama Development and Information office has contacted our public relations program here to find a situation with UNA and the city of Florence, the Florence Golf and Country Club to be specific. Within the past year, UNA has offered to purchase the former Florence Golf and Country Club and adding more acres for $1.2 million. People are feeling very strong about this situation because of UNA being a "bad neighbor" to the city of Florence; especially, west Florence because of the fraternity parties and land encroachment. The people do have a point when it comes to having Florence as a family-town but public relations department here at UNA wants to strengthen the tide between the people and the university and work together to get more accomplished. We have proposed a 1-year proposal plan that will promote the advantages of UNA taking over the city property and improving the university’s reputation as a "good neighbor" to the city of Florence.

1st Quarter
RESEARCH
Situation- The city council has basically made their voice known and stated that they oppose the sale of the property to UNA because it is a "bad neighbor" to them. Also, the council wants to know how this will benefit them as well as benefit the University of North Alabama as a whole. In a recent survey in 2008 by economyleague.org, there were several reasons of how colleges help the economy of a city and help with its image as well. Such as:
 Tourism sites for people to visit cities and more business for hotels and reservations to have.
 More attraction to see the main areas of the town; for example, theatres, parks and recreational areas.
 More businesses can begin to form including small businesses
 Banks and other financial institutions will be stable in these areas
 48% increase in sales and financial improvement throughout any cities with a college (Division I or Division II)

ACTION
OBJECTIVE- To persuade the city council of why UNA should get the property and why it would benefit them.
AUDIENCE- The primary audience in this campaign will be the people of the city council of Florence. The residents of West Florence will also be a focus point as well because the property will be around them as well. Enrollment at UNA is continuously growing by the semester and by the fall 2011 semester there will be 35% increase from the past semester as a whole. Although this plan may not develop until the spring 2012 semester, we need to make sure that the city council of Florence understands as well as the residents of West Florence that this will help the town in a long term scenario.
STRATEGY- 1) Start the 1-year plan to include a presentation to the city council of Florence at the Marriott hotel in Florence, AL with a guest appearance from Jerry Jones, an alumni from the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and NFL owner of the Dallas Cowboys, which he will discuss the advantages of branding and positive investment over a collegiate town. 2) Hire volunteers and students to set up around downtown Florence to bring an atmosphere around the city to support the campaign. 3) Look for other universities to help support such as Alabama, Auburn and etc. to help out with the campaign from their cities. Also ask their PR chapters from their respected universities to help out as well. 4) Bring in letters of endorsement from credible sources and from other businesses in the community as well as recognizable alumni as well. 5) Advertise from VNRs(video news releases) and from different radio stations throughout the Shoals area about the impact this could have.
CALENDAR/TIMETABLE- In January, we will begin with some research on how the university can be a positive image for the city to have more resources to be over, and which it will help the city financially. By late January to early February, we will go to the University of Alabama and Auburn to talk to their PR chapters about how we can get support from these cities and compare their financial uprising to Florence and give them a clear sense as to how much of an impact this could become. The later part of February will be for advertising and endorsements. We will have several radio show appearances around the Northwest Alabama area to promote our push for this plan and have several endorsements from different venues. The whole month of March is strictly for the arrival of Jerry Jones to appear and speak before the city council of Florence at the Marriott Hotel & Spa Resort on March 26th by which all of the popular names of Florence and the Shoals area will be in attendance.
BUDGET- The total budget for this campaign is $4,500. The majority of the money used during the 1st quarter will be towards the press releases, video news releases and individuals working towards the campaign. Since Jerry Jones is a proud Alumni of Kappa Sigma Fraternity, he was more than welcome to help out with campaign with no charge except for a few expenses.

COMMUNICATION
TACTICS
 We will first have a meeting with our PR chapter with the other PR chapters from Alabama and Auburn to see what ideas are brought and see the financial differences, and what we could use to our advantage. During February, we will use our resources from our strong social media background with our websites being Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as the sources for our way to get our point across. Our goal during this time is to make sure that the city council as well as the city of Florence and the Shoals area of how much impact this decision could become and how positive it can be and how it has influenced other cities in the state of Alabama. Also, our goal is to get people buzzing about the arrival of Jerry Jones to come to Florence and speak to the people.

EVALUATION
We will analyze how many advertisements; endorsements, press releases and video news releases, and etc. were presented in the outlets and actually find out how the message affected the people of Florence. This also includes the hits on our websites like Facebook and Twitter.

2nd QUARTER
RESEARCH
SITUATION- We knew that this would send a positive atmosphere towards our campaign for the university. We know we have a limited budget but we will provide more scholarships and better investing of advertising. After our speaker, Jerry Jones, comes to visit the city of Florence, we will evaluate the success and failures from the first event and anticipate for the next event.
ACTION
OBJECTIVE- During the 2nd quarter, we will develop our relationship with the city of Florence with a week-long event that will bring the city together for a better cause. We will try to go into our budget as much as possible but will have endorsements from several companies and the same volunteers from the 1st quarter.
AUDIENCE- The primary audience will continue to be the city council of Florence but more attention will be on the citizens of Florence because we want the events to be about the people and all events are free to the public.
STRATEGY- 1) Have a committee meeting during the month of April to find out who will do what in which event. 2) We will have several events during the 4th week of April that will represent our week-long event including a scavenger hunt and an outdoor event for the public. 3) Contact several bands and talk to UNA students about advertising to the campuses as well as advertising to NW Shoals students as well. 4) After the week-long event we will conduct an event for Mother’s Day that will have a potluck dinner at a local venue. 5) Start a month-long even in June with Papa John’s for a special event on every Tuesday that will give 10% of its sales to the university and the campaign.
CALENDAR/TIMETABLE- In early April we will have our committee for the week-long event and have our sponsorships valid by the 2nd week of April. The week-long event will take place in the 4th week of April with a different event going on every day. In May, we will have our Mother’s Day event at Christ Chapel on Cloverdale. By June we will have our month long event with Papa John’s and we will receive 10% of its sale for every Tuesday of the month of June.
BUDGET- We will spend at most $7,500 for the 2nd quarter of our campaign event. Most of this will go towards the 4th week of our week-long event with several endorsements that will help out with the cause. The rest of the money will go towards the potluck dinner that is set up for the Mother’s Day event.

COMMUNICATIONS
TACTICS
 We will have our committee meetings at the UNA campus in the conference rooms to begin planning for the "Fun in Florence" event. We will sell merchandise and shirts for the event; in which, one of the shirts will say "We Will Always Keep It FLOwing in FLOrence." Three bands from Huntsville and Florence will be a part of the outdoor event that will happen during the last night of the week-long event with a karaoke contest the day before. We will have several door prizes and games for children such as a scavenger hunt for the most eggs found, since Easter day is the 4th Sunday of April, and there will be an appearance from the UNA mascot and President Cale. Our Mother’s Day potluck dinner event will happen during the 2nd to 3rd week of May with a guest speaker from the pastor of Christ Chapel along with several other door prizes from our sponsors and a drawing for a spa treatment for Mother’s Day.

EVALUATION
We will look at how much endorsements we have received from the week-long event in April and the investments we received after our donations from Papa John’s month-long event. We will ask around our committee members after the outdoor event and see what our positive and negative comments were and try to improve from that.

3rd QUARTER
RESEARCH
SITUATION- We have the city of Florence beginning to notice how much of an impact we have with this city but we want to make the city council believe that we can be a "good neighbor" for the city as well as a good image for the university. Our focus will be on the city council and what we can do to change their opinion about us being a "neighbor" to them.
ACTION
OBJECTIVE- To focus more on the city council of Florence but make them become a ally rather than make them oppose the university.
AUDIENCE- The city council of Florence will be our main audience.
STRATEGY- 1) July and August will be a pivotal point for our campaign trail as we began to interview some local leaders of the city of Florence and figure out how the city council is taking our campaign approach. 2) Have a community clean-up day with the surrounding schools around Florence in the month of September with a weekend set up for activities for the public as well as several fundraisers. 3) During October and the middle of November, we will have a few interviews around local radio and news stations to promote the university and what message we are sending to the city council. 4) The end of November will display our whole campaign project to the city council in a schedule meeting with them to ask questions about what we are sending.
CALENDAR/TIMETABLE- July and August will be our discussion to the local leaders of Florence discussing what they have heard and what we can do to push our claim for more revenue. September will be our community clean-up day with several activities for fundraisers. October and November will be our push to branch out to the public and especially to the city council about why we are pushing for this campaign to be a success.
BUDGET- Since most of our stuff revolves around fundraisers and other events like that, our budget should be at most $4500, which will include food, refreshments and prizes for the scavenger hunt as well as supplies for community clean-up day.

COMMUNICATIONS
TACTICS
 The plan of action for July and August will be to gain some research from people that interact with members of the city council on a regular basis. We may have to sit with them over a dinner or set up a day to talk to them, but the purpose is to find as much as possible of what they have said about our efforts. September will be about branching to different local leaders about what the university can do to help out the town; also, sponsors will be a major point in our efforts. October and November is when we will put all of our efforts on the members of the city council by answering their questions during our schedule meeting. Be precise as possible with the answers provided and have a good understanding of what they give back as feedback to our campaign.

EVALUATION
We will determine how successful this was by word-of-mouth. People will talk about our efforts to promote and see that we want to continue to help the city of Florence and how much of an impact UNA is. We will calculate how many hits we have on our websites on Twitter and Facebook; also, we will respond to any feedback we have received by the people that give it on these websites.

4th QUARTER
RESEARCH
SITUATION- We are currently at the end of our one-year campaign and have past our last 3 quarters successfully. Our scheduled meeting with the city council went well and they have supported our campaign with good feedback and a great understanding of what to expect from the university. As the end of the year comes upon us, we will look at the final project that we have and evaluate our campaign project from the first 3 quarters to now.
ACTION
OBJECTIVES- The mission is to bring a final message to the city of Florence that will have a lasting image and make a statement of our campaign.
AUDIENCE- The primary audience will be the city of Florence and targeting the local leaders and the city council members.
STRATEGY- 1) Evaluate the responses from the city council members from the meeting in November. 2) On early December, begin to set up a float that will be part of the Florence Christmas parade. 3) Acquire some volunteers, basically the ones that were used during our "Fun in Florence" event in April. 4) Let students from UNA make a VNR for their support of the campaign from the communications department. 5) Be a part of the Florence Christmas parade with our float being used.
CALENDAR/TIMETABLE- In early December, we will begin to set up the float that we will use for the parade. During that time we will let students make VNRs about our campaign and let the UNA campus show their support. We will spend the remainder of the year evaluating the campaign.
BUDGET- We will have a budget of $5500 to work with for this event. The majority of the money will be used for salary of the campaign and the remainder will go towards advertising of the Christmas float.

COMMUNICATION
TACTICS
 The month of December is an evaluation of how our campaign has done. The volunteers will begin with the float on the 1st week of December and will be done on the 3rd week of December just before the parade. We also want the VNRs that the students will be participating in to be very creative about UNA and how it affects them in their lives while being here in Florence. The VNRs will be selected by three members of our campaign team and will be used during our evaluation presentation.

EVALUATION
The one-year campaign to bring more revenue to the university should be successful. Our overall goal is to bring credibility to the situation between the city council and the University of North Alabama. Also, we want to show the city of Florence that we can be a "good neighbor" to them. The mission of this campaign is to make sure that Florence will always have UNA as something that can help make the city grow and become better together.