Project

COURSE: Multimedia Applications for Communication Campaigns

TITLE: WOOFmania project

STUDENTS: Koropouli Kleopatra

Louvari Ageliki

 

About

WOOFmania is a nonprofit organization founded with the aim to rescue, rehabilitation, and placement of homeless dogs in Greece. The project offers shelter, veterinary care and homes for abandoned, lost, neglected and abused dogs.

 

Description

WOOFmania is a non-profit dog rescue organization whose mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and place homeless dogs with new families. We save stray dogs from the streets to the deserts and all neighborhoods in between who are facing a life of misery and imminent death. These stray dogs must forage for food, face predators, exposure, being hit by cars, pain from wounds, and brokenbones from car accidents, infections, parasites, infestations, and sadly unsavory people. We do it without any official support or an official shelter to house these needy dogs up for adoption. There is a network of volunteers, such as veterinarians, dog walkers, trainers and foster parents to help support our efforts to rehabilitate and socialize each dog before a permanent home is found for them.

We also provide follow-up support to the individuals and families who adopt a dog from us. WOOFmania volunteers are always available to provide advice on health and behavioral problems that may arise after an adoption. We are here to help you find the perfect canine companion and to help every dog find a perfect forever home. Even so, we have a “no questions asked” policy in cases where a dog must be returned to us. The main concern is the health and safety of our strays.

 

Mission

The mission of WOOFmania is to rescue, rehabilitate and find permanent homes for homeless, abused or neglected dogs regardless of where they were born. Our basic mission is to restrict the numbers of abandoned and unwanted dogs, through adoption and education. Thus, our aspiration depends upon the love, the sense of altruism and the generosity of people to help stray dogs, as we need more and more volunteers who share the same vision with us in order to fulfill this aim.

 

Mission statement

Woofmania is a nonprofit organization which focuses on:

• Working to find new homes for stray dogs.
• Promoting community awareness of animal issues such as the imperative need that all pet owners have to spray or neutered their pets.
• Increasing the adoptions of shelter dogs.
• Saving the animals most in danger and sharing their rescues through video as it has proven to influence people to adopt animals in need.
• Informing public about puppy mills and why it is so important not to buy pet shop puppies.

 

Vision

Our vision is to live in a community where all forms of life are valued and respected, where no puppies are born on the streets and where torture and cruelty towards animal doesn’t exist.WOOF mania’s plans for the next few years are:

• Reinforce the organization’s image and produce a strong web present through a new website.
• Increase public awareness about WOOFmania though many videos and posters on web.
• Educate people about stray animals and change stereotypes about them.
• Create a catchy slogan and logo in order to seize volunteer’s attention and make them to participate.

 

Site description

The site will be the main tool of information and attract the public. The homepage will have a brief presentation of WOOFmania and its function. There will be a page “ads”, with pictures of lost dogs. A page “adoptions”, there will be pictures of strays where looking for a new family. A page “success stories”, there will be stories care of strays. Finally, there will be contact page for anyone who wants to become active members of our association or to adopt a stray.

 

Establishing goals and objectives

 Goals

Reputation management goals:

• Increase public awareness about WOOFmania.

 

• v Change stereotypes about stray dogs and create a favorable climate in order to attract more people for adoptions.

 

• Produce a strong web presence through the WOOFmania website.

 

• Inform and make the public aware of the problem of stray dogs and its dimensions.

 

• Offer full information, guidance and support services to those who wants to adopt a pet or those who wants to work as volunteers.

 

Task management goals

• Reinforce the organizations image with a view to obtain more sponsors.

 

• Seize volunteer attention in order to make them to help to participate.

 

• Develop a network of skilled individuals.

 

• Increase the public support of the goals of WOOFmania.

 

Objectives

Awareness objectives:

• To have an effect on the awareness of people between the ages of 20-50; in order to increase their interest about organizations action. (10% within six months, and an additional 10% within a year)
•  To have an effect on the awareness of volunteers; specifically to increase the participation of people who want to help the organization to achieve its goals.

 

Acceptance objectives:

•  To have an effect on acceptance of people concerning this issue; specifically to create interest at least 30% of the audience within the following year.

Action objectives:

•  To have an effect on action of sponsors and donors; specifically to obtain an increase in their funds. (10% within a year)

 

•  To have an effect on media; specifically to increase positive images/videos about stray animals as media has the power to widespread messages very easy through social networks. (12% during the following year)

 

Tactics

Selecting communication tactics

Communication strategies are the visible and audible elements of a strategic plan. Those elements formulate the tactics an organization uses in order to communicate with its publics and increase awareness. Billboards, websites and special events are just few of the options an organization has. The challenge though is how to effectively plan and deploy those maneuvers as they can carry a hefty price tag. Nonprofit organizations due to their usually limited budget rely on various media categories in order to communicate as both controlled and uncontrolled media can give a budget friendly solution.An NGO’s website as well as its flyers and brochures are not considered expensive as they can be easily created and distributed by its volunteers.

WOOFmania, as mentioned before, targets mostly to people who share the same vision with the organization. Thus the organization can built communication strategies in the following categories: Interpersonal Communication, Social media, Website, videos.

Public relations experts agree that interpersonal communication is the most persuasive and public engaging tactic as it offers a number of strategic advantages with low cost. It is now evident that WOOFmania has the opportunity by hosting seminars to interact with its publics face to face and exchange information and ideas. Also workshopsand social events would provide the opportunity not only to educate but also to expand the organizations network. Furthermore the aforementioned gatherings provide the perfect opportunity for distributing brochures and flyers and setting up positive information interchanges between the targeted publics. Interpersonal tactics may be inexpensive but they do have downsides as in order for them to be successful they will claim more time and volunteers to plan and implement.

Moreover WOOFmania intends to produce a strong presence on the web. Thus, the organization will set up its own account on the net as through its page the organization would have the opportunity to keep in touch with people who care about animals or those who want to adopt some of the dogs. The aspiration of this nonprofit organization is to establish a strong presence via its website and to provide all the information that a person might be searching for. At this point it has to be mentioned that WOOFmania would also create a FACEBOOK account as if we thought that FACEBOOK only, had about 800 million users worldwide in 2011 thus making it a powerful tool for any public relations practitioner.

Last, in order to reach a bigger audience, the organization aim to createvideos in which more and more people would learn the importance of companion animals in our society to stop the cycle of animal neglect and abuse. Additionally, WOOFmania plans to create videos about the people who aid the NGO to achieve its vision. Let’s not overlook that video is a quick way of stirring interest in the cause as well as a great way of saying thanks to those who took part. Showing impact through video makes it easier for supporters to connect emotionally with the organization. And when they connect emotionally, they’re more likely to give.

Target audiences

Each public is linked with the organization in a unique relationship. There are four useful categories of linkages to identify its relevant public for our program: Customers, producers, enablers and limiters.

•  Customers: anyone who receive the products or services of an organization, in our case new families, anyone who wants to support the organization or/and adopt a stray dog.

 

• Producers: anyone who provide input to the organization (financiers, suppliers, personnel), in our case, investors, donors and volunteers such as veterinarians, dog walkers, trainers and foster parents.

 

•  Enablers: anyone who serve as regulators by setting the norms or standards for the organization, opinion leaders with influence over potential customers, anyone who can help make the organization successful and allies, other nonprofit organizations for the stray dogs and companies which want to support the organization.

 

• Limiters: anyone who can reduce or undermine the success of the organization (such as competitors, opponents and hostile forces), in our case anyone who leaves a dog in the street. The organization doesn’t have competitors, because the organization is a non-profit.

 

There are five stages of Public:

• Non Public is a group that does not share any issues with the organization, in our case it would be people who live in apartments that don’t allow pets. This public can be change if people move to a new building with different rules.

 

• Latent Public shares an issue with the organization but does not yet recognize the situation or its potential; in our case it would be senior citizens who might appreciate companionship of strays. It may invite apartment dwellers to volunteer a couple hours each week to interact the stays awaiting adopting from us, giving companionship and exercise to both the strays and the volunteers, creating knowledgeable people who might serve opinion leaders for others who could adopt a stray, and perhaps fostering future adoptions when the volunteers are in a pet – friendly environment.

 

• Apathetic Public a public that faces an issue and doesn’t care, in our case it might be people who don’t particularly like pets and especially strays.

 

 

•  Aware Public shares an issue but it is not organized to discuss and act on the issue, in our case it may be people who have learned that psychologists believe the companionship of pets improves the quality of life for senior citizens.

 

• Active Public has reached the fullness of what we identify as a public; in our case it might be the local chapter of a senior citizen organization that is actively encouraging senior citizens to adopt strays.