Running head: CONTINUE MISSION COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN

Continue Mission Communication Campaign

Trevor Peterson
Zach Nielson
Tristin Christensen
Jillian Schouten
Kyle Corbett
Salt Lake Community College

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Continue Mission
Continue Mission is a non-profit organization dedicated to veterans and their families.
Their mission is: serving Veterans with service connected physical, mental, and emotional
injuries. We aim to inspire, empower, and involve Veterans and their families and referred
Service Members in recreational and educational programs that promote health and wellness and
positive life changing experiences. We are dedicated to raising mental health awareness and
taking an active role in suicide prevention (n.d.).
Purpose / Objective
The purpose of this communications campaign is twofold, first to raise awareness of
Continue Mission and what they do for veterans and their families, and second to get donations
for a family evening at the aquarium followed by a dinner that the veterans and their families
will be attending. The Continue Mission organization is rather small and is not well known
throughout the state of Utah, so obtaining donations for events is a little different. Currently
Continue Mission does have a way to donate to their cause through their website and we plan to
refer people to this site through the use of radio, television and social media to make donations
rather than setting up an entirely new donation system. Additionally, because the family evening
is not a public event, and we saw that problems could arise around promoting a closed event to
the public, we created an event that will serve as the tool to gather donations for this purpose. We
have organized and will execute a four day fundraiser, put on by all Utah locations of the Pizza
Pie Cafe. Continue Mission does have several sponsors but they do not cover all the costs of
events, and we aim to help with that.

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Audience
The audience to target, according to Deborah Jacobs from Forbes (Aug 8, 2013), is 4967 year olds, otherwise known as the baby boomer generation; they contributed to 43% of
donations. Because veterans affect so many lives we also feel it important to target 33-48 year
olds, or generation X. According to that same statistic given by Deborah Jones 20% of
contributions came from this age group.
Demographics

Age 30-67
White
Men and Women
Utahns
Psychographics

Patriotic
Conservative
Outdoorsman/Sportsman
Music preference rock and pop
Audience Analysis
The audience selected is very broad and because of generational differences, they will
need to be contacted in different ways in order for our message to get across. For this reason
many methods of communication have been selected to reach the intended audience effectively.
According to Michael Patterson (May 4, 2015) 73% of 30-49 year olds and 63% of 50-64 year
olds use Facebook. With this in mind, utilizing Facebook would be a good communication
channel to reach the targeted audience. Although our targeted audience does not use Instagram

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and Twitter as much as Generation Y (18-32 year olds), these are still viable channels to help
raise awareness for Continue Mission, which is one of our main purposes for doing this
communication campaign. When looking at music preferences, David Lariviere (n.d.) helps us to
understand that many of the people in our targeted demographic listen to several different genres
of rock and pop, with the rock stations being geared more towards men and the adult
contemporary/ pop stations being aimed more at women. This provides us with a good medium
to contact our audience to bring attention to this campaign. Another factor in our target audience
would be patriotism since we want to target those compassionate and supportive towards
veterans. Pew Research Center conducted a survey towards patriotism (July 1, 2010) and found
that 57% of 30-49 year olds as well as 69% of 50-64 year olds fly the American flag. It also
showed that of those who fly the American flag 65% were White and 37% were Black. Of those
surveyed 59% who fly the American Flag were Women and 58% were Men. We also need to take
into account the political climate of Utah in general since that is where most of our audience will
be located. According to Jeffrey Jones (January 28, 2009) Utah is one of the top Republican
States in the U.S., meaning that much of our audience will be made up of those who are
conservative in their views towards politics. Polling data from Gallup (2010) shows us that
Republicans tend to be more patriotic with 52% of Republicans calling themselves Extremely
Patriotic, and only 20% of the democratic counterpart claiming the same. Additionally, when
examining conservatives further, we find that their lifestyle aligns more with that of an outdoors
person than that of liberals. According to Pew Research Center (2014) 57% of Americans say
that the phrase outdoors person describes them well, while only 12% of hard liberals agreed

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that the statement describes them well, leaving us with the conclusion that those who hunt, fish
or camp are more likely to be of a conservative nature, aligning them with our target audience.

Messaging Goals
Considering the purpose of the communications campaign these are the messaging goals
that have been selected for the target audience:
Think
To think about those veterans who have served and sacrificed selflessly to protect our freedoms.
To understand that many veterans face daily struggles with issues resulting from their service,
such as mental and physical disabilities, PTSD and sexual trauma.
To know that there is an organization called Continue Mission that is dedicated to helping
veterans and their families overcome these issues.
To know that there is a fundraising event to support Continue Mission.
To know they need to eat at Pizza Pie Cafe between May 23-26 and mention they are supporting
the Continue Mission fundraiser.
Feel

To feel gratitude for those who serve and have served in the military.
The want/need to intervene and impact veterans lives in a positive supportive way
The need to help this cause.
The need to give back.
Do

To take an active stance in supporting this cause by going into Pizza Pie Cafe with family and
friends to eat so that they might contribute.
Key Messages
The key messages that are necessary for this communications campaign to work are
these:

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Create awareness about Continue Mission

Continue Mission needs, and works solely off of donations, from people like you to be able to
provide this program to veterans.
By eating at Pizza Pie Cafe on the specified dates, you can support our veterans.

Channels / Media
Considering the target audience there are several different channels that will be used to
communicate the information to them:
Social Media
Facebook
Instagram

Celebrity involvement/endorsement (options)

Bob Evans, Fox 13 News
Frankie, from 97.1
Hooker and Brook from 106.7

Media(options)
KZHT 97.1 ( Top 40 Hits/ Pop station)
KAAZ 106.7 (Rock station)
Fox 13 News
Print Media (postering at local businesses)

Charity event from a business

Pizza Pie cafe (all Utah locations)

Thayne Center
Facilitating a partnership where students have an ongoing opportunity to learn more about
Continue Mission and get involved to further support them.

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Tactical Planning
The effectiveness of our communications campaign will depend greatly on the timing of
what we do and how we present the information at that time. We have put together this plan to
line out what we will do and when:

WHO

WHAT

WHERE

WHEN

Target Audience

Let people know about

event

Facebook

5/9/16

Patriotic People

Hanging posters

Local sporting goods

stores

5/9/16

Target Audience

Create event on Facebook Facebook

Male and Female GenXers/ Baby Boomers

Fox 13 cover story

Television

5/16/16

Target audience

Remind people about event Facebook

5/23-26/2016

Male Gen-Xers/ Baby

Boomers

106.7 interview

106.7 radio station

Target Audience

Pizza Pie Cafe fundraiser

All participating Pizza

Pie Cafes

Female Gen-Xers/ Baby

Boomers
97.1 interview

97.1 radio station

5/16/2016

5/23/16
5/23/16-5/26/16
5/24/16

Conclusion
With the scale of what we want to do to help raise funds for Continue Mission timing and
presentation will be crucial. We know that Continue Mission needs more than this one time
donation for the event, but we hope that this campaign will help the lay the groundwork for more
connections for the founders and that in turn they can receive more funding for their
organizations activities. We want those who donate to feel a sense of gratitude and pride knowing
that they are going to make a difference.

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References
Continue Mission (n.d.). No Veteran Left Behind. Retrieved from
http://www.continuemission.org
Jacobs, Deborah L. (Aug 8,2013). Charitable Giving: Baby Boomers Donate More, Study
Shows. Retrieved from:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/08/08/charitable-giving-baby-boomersdonate-more-study-shows/#6f81ecda7d78
Patterson, Michael (May 4,2015). Social Media Demographics to Inform a Better Segmentation
Strategy. Retrieved from: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-mediademographics/
Lariviere, David (n.d.) Choosing the Right Radio Format for Your Target Audience. Retrieved
from:
https://www.allbusiness.com/choosing-the-right-radio-format-for-your-target-audience-1
4896329-1.html
Jones, Jeffrey M. (January 28, 2009). State of the States: Political Party Affiliation. Retrieved
from: http://www.gallup.com/poll/114016/state-states-political-party-affiliation.aspx
Pew Research Center (July 1,2010). Proud Patriots - and Harsh Critics of Government.
Retrieved from: http://www.pewresearch.org/2010/07/01/proud-patriots-and-harshcritics-of-government/
Morales, Lymari ( July 2, 2010). One in Three Americans "Extremely Patriotic". Retrieved from:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/141110/one-three-americans-extremely-patriotic.aspx

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Pew Research Center ( July 26, 2014). Beyond Red Vs. Blue: The Political Typology. Retrieved
From: http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/26/section-9-patriotism-personal-traitslifestyles-and-demographics/