ADVERTISING AND MEDIA PLANNING COURSE WORK ( THE MEDIA PLAN)

GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM(G . I. J.)

B.A IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES 

PUBLIC RELATIONS ( WEEKEND LEVEL 400 – “A”).

ADVERTISING MEDIA PLANNING COURSE WORK

A MEDIA PLAN FOR THE “CAST A VALID VOTE” CAMPAIGN.

PREPARED BY :

REJOICE ASEYE GADAGOE: 

BACS 171043

 www.aseyegadagoebacs171043.blogspot.com

and 

JONATHAN DONKOR           

BACS17835

www.jonathandonkorbacs17835.blogspot.com

LECTURER: MR. YAW GYAU

SUBMISSION DATE:19/11/16.     

        

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

This is a media plan for a promotional campaign under the theme “CAST A VALID VOTE”. This media plan is going to outline the who, what, when, how and why behind the promotional campaign.

Upon a careful primary research conducted by members of the team; coupled with literature reviewed on the subject matter, it became obvious there was a clear need for intensive voter

Education to either curb or reduce the incidences of rejected ballot papers.

Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Constituency  happens to be among the areas where the highest rejected ballots were recorded in Ghana in the 2012 General elections. According to the 2012 general elections, out of a total of 11,246,982 votes cast, the electoral commission recorded a total of 251,720 rejected ballots.

The power to rule flows from the expressed and sovereign will of the people, thus states the supreme law of Ghana – the 1992 Ghana Constitution. The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana is the constitutional body set up to, among others, conducts and supervises elections in Ghana; and has executed this mandate six times so far with the seventh just around the corner.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

If the trend of over voting continues in the constituency, the electorates only are wasting their time; and the funds used to produce the electoral materials. Also the winner of the election may not necessarily represent the choice of the people.

Our research revealed that factors responsible for ballot paper wastage in the area include Carelessness, ignorance, Sheer timidity, People swearing to vote for more than one candidate; and Level of education given to the electorates in Eguafo.

 APPROPRIATENESS OF CAMPAIGN THEME:

The theme for this promotional campaign is “CAST A VALID VOTE”. By this, we aimed to press home the message that every vote cast is important and must qualify to be counted among the valid votes cast; and not rejected.

The group members settled on this theme because, looking at the season, it comes across as the most suitable one, since we are in the electioneering period; and Ghanaians will be going to the polls to cast fresh ballot on 7^th December, 2016. This happens to be just 20 days away.

Seasonality: The campaign was pitched against the election season, 2016 and lasted for six weeks.

 MARKETING BACKGROUND:

Elections in Ghana are conducted every four years. 7^th December, 2016, happens to be the date for the next elections. The team therefore, considers this season as the most appropriate time to launch such a campaign. Election education tend to peak during the election campaign season. This is what makes the campaign very timely.

WHAT IS A REJECTED BALLOT?

•  A rejected ballot is where a voter votes for more than one candidate on the ballot paper at a polling centre.
• Unintentional thumb-printing in-between two boxes for two candidates, on the ballot paper; rendering the ballot invalid.
• ›  A ballot paper that does not carry the stamp or a required identification symbol of the Electoral Commission is not valid. And,
• ›  Leaving the ballot blank by not voting for any candidate.

ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES:

Our promotional campaign was designed to target and generate awareness among the voters within the KEEA constituency with special focus on voters within the Eguafo environs.

The constituency recorded the highest rejected ballots in the 2012 election. 

Our major promotional tool was advertising. The categories included, broadcast advertising, print ads, and the out –door advertising.

MEDIA OBJECTIVES:

This campaign seeks to create awareness on the right way to vote among electorates. The demographics of persons who qualify to be electorates in Ghana, is made up of persons of full capacity. That is persons 18 years and above; and of sound minds.  

It is expected that, after a three – month intensive campaign period, the target group will be better equipped to vote properly, be able to cast valid votes; and the team’s goal will be achieved, and the rate of rejected ballots would reduce by 50 per cent within the constituency.

MEDIA STRATEGIES:

The goal is to sensitize eligible voters on proper voting processes. The objectives included visiting the communities, organizing focus groups, and taking them through the proper stages of what amounts to proper voting. The medium of instruction (language) was Akan (Fante), and English.

The various tools used in facilitating the objectives included dramas, flip – charts, flyers, posters, and other advertising tools. The objectives set influenced the team’s goal for Reach, frequency, circulation cost and penetration of our messages.

Some of the strategic tools we adopted include:

• Training of trainers workshop
• ›  Local level training of field staff
• ›  The field staff will distribute the posters
• ›  Flip chart to educate the public
• ›  Interaction groups: Focus Groups
• Television stations and radio stations belonging to the Ghana broadcasting corporation were projected to freely boost the “Cast A Valid Vote” Campaign.

SELECTION AND IMPLEMENTATION:

The total budget for the campaign was C 6,050.00. Out of this amount, media space was bought. The process involved; committing to a particular media provider, submitting the advertisement, and paying the bill.

With the aid of the promotion mix, the team was able to communicate the essence of the campaign effectively to the target group. The tools that assisted the team in persuading and establishing a healthy relationship with the members of the community were all within campaign’s promotional mix. By combining the tools effectively, the team achieved their set goals (Kotler, 2010).

As Public Relations Practitioners, we were very dynamic in dealing with the issue of rejected ballots. We organized evening encounters with community members in their various churches and had community members demonstrate to the audience how rejected ballots come about; and the need to avoid wasting one’s ballot.

The Team went through a media selection process and chose the most cost – effective media for advertising to achieve the required coverage and number of exposures in the target audience.

We then planted convincing news stories on local radio stations, and attracted a number of free publicity from some of the local Television stations within the catchment areas who bought into our campaign.

The vehicles were television, newspapers, flipcharts, posters, radio, and billboards. The vehicles were all tools played effectively employed.

The print ads represented the primary medium because they provided the following advantages to the campaign. These are:

Long message life, repeat exposure, they helped us provide contextually relevant and engaging messages to our target group, and gave us a high reach. Also, Circulation was easier with the number of printed adverts that were produced and sent out.

The broadcast media were the second primary media used. The specific vehicles used were mainly, the television stations in the area which included; Ocean 1 TV., Coastal TV, the people of Eguafo also they have access to Adom TV. and UTV.

The radio stations accessible in the Eguafo area are Ahomka FM and Asafo FM.

The broadcast media were extra effective in the sense that, they represented the biggest source of entertainment for the people of Eguafo; and an excellent way to reach a general audience. The Team seized the opportunity to get the Akan drama troupes to dramatize our voter education to the target group.

By that same logic, the Team made effective use of the various radio stations. Other advantages of the broadcast media include:

• They have a high reach which helped in our awareness creation agenda.
• Television provides sound, sight, as well as motion pictures.
• The television stations allowed us to demonstrate the voting processes to our audience.
• Television covers all kinds of people who spend a lot of time watching.
• Immediacy of messages.

This meant that, television provided the viewers with exciting motion pictures and so they do not get bored. They have glued attention because they can relate to and understand what was being shown since messages are in the local dialect.

• Target:

Since our target group are great funs of both radio and television, reaching them by use of such media was quite easy. And,

• Local coverage availability.  

Of the outdoor category, we only had one billboard mounted in the centre of the Eguafo community; owing to limited budgeting issues. Fortunately, that billboard was donated to the campaign. This was wholly inadequate but highly effective.

The billboard’s advantages include:

• The billboards provided the campaign with a broad Reach. The reach represented the amount of people the message was in front of over a period of time. These were made up of both Eguafo residents and those transiting.
• The Frequency was there like no other medium provided since the average number of times the message in was front of those people was relatively higher.

• Target selectivity was also much easier with the billboard.

The only disadvantage with the concentrated use of advertising to us was that, because it is a paid presentation and promotion, it brought untold hardship on our limited budget.

EVALUATION:

COST OF PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES:

The KEEA Constituency has an estimated voter population according to information provided on the 2012, to be around 144,705 voters.

Eguafo has a voter population of around 30,000.

With a total cost of C11, 000 on print ads, Cost Per thousand (CPM), was therefore:

• CPM (PRINT) = Cost of advertisement *1000

                                       Audience Size

• CPM (PRINT) = 11,000  * 1000

                         30,000

Cost per thousand persons in Eguafo = C3.67

Fortunately for the Team, all our broadcast and outdoor advertisements were paid for by the various sponsors who included the Electoral Commission, National Commission on Civic Education, and the European Union.

ASSESSMENT / PENETRATION:

By the Team’s own assessment of work done, we are confident the necessary awareness on what constitutes a rejected ballot had been created; and the people have been placed in a better state to be able to cast valid votes.

By the end of the campaign, the tagline “FA SI DO YIE, BOB) W NO YIE” had become so popular with the people of Eguafo.

There were difficulties in the buying and negotiating of media. This problem was encountered because the budget for the campaign was woefully inadequate.

References:

Kotler, P., Bowen, J. T., & Makens, J.C. (2010),