Session from the AENC Marketing & Communications Conference

1. No Association is
Switzerland
A Geo-Political Guide to
Communicating Beyond Your
Borders

2. Associations are
Little Nations

3. Associations Have Plenty of Internal Affairs to Tend to…
•
Membership needs!
•
Membership growth!
•
Events!
•
Domestic comms

4. Sometimes, External Business Takes Priority
•
On the attack!
•
Repelling a threat!
!
“The art of letting somebody else
have your way.”!
- David Frost

5. Strategery
Defining Victory
•
•
•
What do your members want?!
What is best for the association?!
How do we win a battle without
starting a larger war?

6. Strategery
The Ramp-up
•
Identifying the right tools

7. Tools
Committed
Populace
Messaging!
• Allies: Like-minded individuals and
groups to take up the cause!
!
“He who wishes to serve his country
must have not only the power to think,
but the will to act.” !
- Plato!
•

8. Tools
Ambassadors
•
•
Well-prepared members!
Information

9. Tools
Aggressive Action
•
•
•
•
Advertising!
Press!
Social Media!
Events

10. Tools
Press
Message: From self interest to public
interest!
• Polls!
• Internal call to action writ large!
• Anticipate counter messaging!
!
“Know thy self, know thy enemy. A
thousand battles, a thousand victories.”!
- Sun Tzu

11. Tools
Press
Relationships: Build them!!
• Reporters/editors: Gatekeepers en
route to your goal!
• Relevant reporters should be in your
contact list!
• An intn’l incident should not be the
first time you talk!

12. Tools
Press
Cannon fodder: Useable content!
• Reporters need NEWS, steady drumbeat!
• Events!
• Press releases!
• Studies!
• Op-eds, letters!
• Committed populace, other allies!
But, press loyal only to the ‘story’!
• Be bulletproof in terms of your position!

13. A lie gets halfway around the world before the
truth has a chance to get its pants on.
- Winston Churchill

14. Tools
Advertising
Missile: expensive, targeted and makes a
big boom!
• Not in every association’s arsenal!
• Very satisfying glow!
• Members!
• Public awareness!

15. Tools
Advertising
Arsenal !
• Print: Adjacent to news, attention of
influencers!
• Mail: Expensive, but delivered to their
doorstep, tactile!
• Online: Targeted demos, easily adjustable,
cost efficient!
• Radio: Call to action; specific, engaged
demo!
• TV: Prestige, memorable, budget
considerations & re-use potential

16. Tools
Advertising
Even a flashbang can be seen from far
away!
• Targeting!
• Metro targets!
• I-85 echo chamber!
• Influencer targets!
• Inflating a modest buy!
• Coordination with press!
• Social media !

17. Tools
Social Media
Free, but requires someone to have their finger
on the button!
• A stagnant page becomes a dismissed page
by press and constituents!
• Not as hard as you may think to maintain or
at least give the appearance!
• Hootsuite!
• Interns!
• Don’t overextend with multiple pages
managed poorly!

18. Tools
Social Media
Battle plan!
• Know your goals for posting!
• Clear calls to action for members!
• Making the most out of a hit!
• A study or poll can be broken into
several smaller bites all worthy of
an individual post

19. Dossier
Reframing Through
Press
NC Retail Merchants Association!
• Tax Free Weekend!
• What the opponents said - This is going
to cost the state $11m in lost revenue!
• What the association said - This is going
to save the taxpayers $11m that they’ll
spend elsewhere!
• Tactics!
• Messaging and positioning!
• Direct media relations!

20. Dossier
Call to Action
NC Association of Realtors!
• Land transfer tax, 2007-2008!
• Mass outreach!
• TV, radio, print!
• Micro-targeting!
• Direct mail, chase calls, door to
door!
• Call to action: Contact legislators!
• Generated 50,000 emails and calls!
• 24 referenda = 100% victory

21. You may have to fight a battle more than once to
win it.
- Margaret Thatcher