Creative Media Strategy and Implementation Plan

This study focuses on developing an effective media strategy and implementation plan for the Red Cross blood service of Australia. The study proposes strategies and plans to reach a large number of target audiences and increase blood donation. The campaign is divided into three phases: campaign design and creative strategy, implementation plan, and execution. The target audience is the millennials and youth, with a focus on NSW University students and employees. The advertising message is 'Save Lives Together' and the communication content emphasizes the need for blood donation and its benefits. The media strategy includes social media, leaflets, and outdoor/transit advertising. The long-term plan is to expand the campaign to other industries and public institutions.

Running head: CREATIVE MEDIA STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATON PLAN
CREATIVE MEDIA STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATON PLAN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CREATIVE MEDIA STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATON PLAN
Introduction
The study focused towards the development of an effective media strategy and
implementation plan for the Red Cross blood service of Australia. The study would propose
effective strategies and plans based that would focus on reaching a large number of target
audiences. The planning of campaign and execution is to be divided in three phases; namely,
campaign design and creative strategy, implementation plan and execution of implementation.
The IMC agency that will engage in the campaign would be Blood Donation Matters.
Rationale
Blood Donation Matters would promote the campaign. The IMC campaign is focused
towards getting more blood donors engaged in Australia. There are lesser number of blood
donors in the country presently. The significant issue is that the number of donors are much
lesser than the ever increasing demand for blood across the country (Valos et al., 2016). The
IMC campaign is focused towards making more people aware and ready for blood donation.
Objectives
 Creating awareness about the weekly blood drives conducted by the Red Cross Blood
Service of Australia especially among the Millennials
 To achieve the significant primary goal of increasing blood donation by 30% in the next
6 months
 To further develop upon the primary goal through organizing more number of blood
donation camps around the country throughout the rest of the year
Theoretical Framework

2CREATIVE MEDIA STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATON PLAN
The theoretical framework that is used for the campaign is the AIDA framework. The
framework consist of the essential parts of Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. Awareness
means to transform the unawareness of millennial audiences to knowledge about blood donation.
Interest refers to the cultivation of interest for blood donation after making them aware about the
process (Akarapu & Chowdary, 2016). Desire is the next process and leads to the creation of
desire to participate in blood donation activities. Action is the final implementation and actual
participation of the audiences in blood donation camps.
Contribution to long term brand equity
Increasing awareness among the millennial target audiences concerning blood donation
services and its implications is the first goal. Subsequently the long term equity would be to
sustain the development of this awareness to project Red Cross as a humanitarian brand and
increasing membership through effective organizational promotion. The idea is to project Red
Cross as an organization with better humanitarian aid network (Australian Red Cross, 2019).
Rationale for decisions
The rationality for the above decisions are that the focus of the campaign is to primarily
increase awareness among the target audiences and use the same to generate interest and
subsequently participation in blood donation. A rejuvenated approach towards donation of blood
is to be created. This will ensure more participation and better engagement that ultimately would
result in the optimal effectiveness of blood donation campaigns of Red Cross Australia.
Creative Strategy
Target audience overview

3CREATIVE MEDIA STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATON PLAN
The target audiences are the millennals and youth. The most important audiences that are
considered also includes people between the age group of 18 to 25 years. As a primary target the
NSW University Students and employees would be in focus. This is because as one of the
country’s premier senior educational institutions it would be an important place to start the
campaign from. Awareness and interest about blood donation can be cultivated among the young
students that would in the future work for some of the biggest organizations of the country. This
will improve the long term value of the campaign and help in the creation of a larger audience
reach.
Development of advertising message
The advertising message that would be used is “Save Lives Together”. The message
would be built on the values of cooperation, humanitarianism and social participation in
responsible activities. The message would appeal to both the youths and the millennials. It would
also promote the central values of the creative strategy. The campaign focuses on the collective
participation of individuals (Dwivedi Kapoor & Chen, 2015).
Communication content
It is important that a more than one communication channels are used to approach the
target audiences. However, the communication mediums should be balanced with each other to
create and optimally consistent message (Finne & Grönroos, 2017). The message that needs to be
communicated should consider the need for blood donation and the implications of blood
donations. The communication content would be based on the most important objectives of the
campaign. The blood requirements across the country should be communicated through facts and
figures. Comparative data in regards to the current rate of blood donation in the country should

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be provided. However, at the same time the message should be kept simple enough to be easily
comprehended by all of the target audiences. The communication would be made in a way to
make it simple but effective. The message will focus on the need for a united effort towards
greatly increasing the rate of blood donation in the country (Porcu, Del Barrio-Garcia & Kitchen,
2017). The benefits of blood donation would be essentially provided through the message. The
communication would be made more participatory through the introduction of challenge videos
like the ice bucket challenges and giving out coffee cards.
Rational for appeals
The emotional appeal in this case would be to save the large number of people who might
not get the blood that is required for them as they suffer from various diseases or accidents in the
country. Challenges are very popular among the youth in social media (Tuten & Solomon, 2017).
Using this can create a very strong audience reach. The most important fact is that through the
challenges, the public can engage better. Moreover, the focus of the public can then be diverted
to the rational reasons for donating blood.
Storyboards
The story would first display a man requiring blood. However, the blood required will not
be available. Then the message regarding the information of blood products requirements and the
actual supply of blood in the county will be displayed. In the later stories the challenges for the
youth will be displayed.
Rationale

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The above decisions were made on the basis of making the campaign more popular
among the youth. The communication strategy is to create better engagement with the youth.
Media Strategy
Media requirements
Media requirements are the channels that are required to promote the campaign in the media
(Kelly, Jugenheimer and Sheehan, 2015). The media channels that would predominantly be used
are social media, mobile application, outdoor transit and catalogues and leaflets. The
communication of the message would remain consistent with the requirements.
Characteristics of Target Audiences
The target audiences are the youth and the millennials. They are much unaware of blood
donation camps and are not much interested in blood donation presently. However, the
inclination towards socially productive activities are increasing among a large section of the
youth. Similar campaigns have gained huge popularity in the recent past. Joining hands towards
a social campaign like this can create great levels of anticipation among the target audiences.
This can be used to increase the participation of the identified audiences in blood donation
campaigns. The target audience is focused towards contributing to social causes. Both male and
female millenials are being attracted towards social causes (Dwivedi Kapoor & Chen, 2015).
Creative requirements and media implications
The video should be attractive, immersive and easily identifiable among the youth. It
should be effective and flexible enough to be shown in a number of different media channels
including the social media (Charest, Bouffard & Zajmovic, 2016). It should be direct in regards

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to the message that is being provided. There should not be any identifiable communication
barriers in the message.
Reach and Frequency
Particulars Reach Frequency
Social Media Close to 800,000 people can
be reached in a weeks’ time
10 times
Leaflets More than 6,000 people can
be reached in a week’s time
5 times per day
Outdoor/Transit Around 50% of the people in
the country can be reached
per month through this
medium.
More than 3 times per day
Media selection- 3 media
Three types of media would be selected for the purpose. Social media, Leaflets and Outdoor and
Transit. These media channels are the most suitable for reaching the target audience. The media
channels would be used effectively towards promoting the message.
Social media- This media would be used to promote awareness among the youth and millennials.
Information can be effectively provided to a large number of audience through this media (Kim,
2016). The goal is to raise awareness about the blood donation campaign. Some of the

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advertisements used in social media would be paid. The media budget is fixed at around 400,000
dollars.
Leaflets- To generate interest among both the internal publics of the NSW University as well as
the non-university related publics outside the university premises. The actual aims of reaching
the target audience remains the same. The focus in on reaching the Millennial publics and the
youth. The budget that has been fixed is 8,000 Dollars. This includes the labor cost of the people
that would be involved in handing out the leaflets, the production costs and other expenses.
Outdoors- The usage of this form of media would be to reach the wider audience outside the
university campus. This form of media would include banners and advertising posters on public
transports. In the vicinity of the University some of the large banners would be installed. The aim
would be to spread the message across a large number of audiences. Setting up more number of
blood donation cams and informing the same would also be significant goals. The budget would
be higher for this media. It has been fixed around 1,700,000 dollars.
Outline of media schedule

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Figure 1: The media schedule timeline
(Source- As provided by the Author)
Rationale
The media choices were made after strong consideration of the effective ways in which
the right kind of audiences can be reached. The three types of media selected would actually help
to reach wider audiences. The aim is to start from the university but actually reach a large
number of public outside the university premises. In view of the same the strategy has been
formed.
Strategy implementation
Total size of marketing budget
The total size of the marketing budget takes into consideration all the three media tools that have
been selected. The budget considers the target market while being formulated.
Media promotion Budget Allocation

9CREATIVE MEDIA STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATON PLAN
Social media 400000 AUD
Leaflets 8000 AUD
Outdoors 450000 AUD
Total 808000 AUD
Allocated budget for product-market strategy
The budget that is allocated for the product market strategy is 300,000 AUD.
Allocated budget for marketing-mix strategy
The budged allocated for the marketing-mix strategy is 180,000 AUD.
Action Plan
Responsibilities
The campaign would be led by the chief campaign manager. The marketing directors,
chief marketing officer, product manager and communications director would report to the chief
marketing manager. The marketing director for strategies would be responsible for forming the
strategies. The marker research director would undertake the market research concerning the
campaign. The chief marketing officer would finalize the market strategies and implement them.
The product manager would coordinate with the others to form the marketing strategy and
monitor them. The communications director would be responsible for both the internal as well as

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the external communication processes. The various campaign coordinators would be below the
chief campaign officer. The coordinator would be responsible for the various different functions.
The coordinators would help to effectively implement the processes. Below the coordinators
would be volunteers and the paid staffs that would be engaged in ground level promotions.
The various customer touch points would be the stalls within the university, the stalls
outside the university and the larger event areas that would be created from time to time. The
coordinators would be present at these stalls. Along with them the staffs and volunteers would be
present. At the larger event areas that would be set from time to time the communications and the
marketing officers would be present. The coordinators would need to effectively manage the
touch points. The staffs would need to keep on informing about how many people were reached.
The in-house activities would be setting up the stalls, organizing awareness programs,
some parts of the social media programs, audio-visual presentation in the classes and the primary
phases of leaflet handouts. The outsourced activities would be the larger part of the leaflet
handling, the larger part of the social media advertising and the entire outdoor advertising. The
organization of the blood donation camps would be shared between the in-house and outsourcing
teams.
Specific campaign plan
The product will consist of the awareness campaign and the blood donation camps for
which the marketing is being done. The market is new hence the product would be designed to
attract the young customers.
The marketing communications aspects that would be used are advertising, promotion
and public relations (Ferdous et al., 2015). These aspects would be used as the identified target

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market can be better reached with the campaign plan. The advertising, promotion and public
relations activities would be effectively coordinated.
Long-term marketing plan
The long term marketing plan would be to primarily engage in similar campaigns across
other industries as well. Moving forward the campaign would be expanded beyond universities
to other public institutions such as hospitals, libraries, recreational centers and health clubs. In
the future various citizens’ forums would be included to make the campaign stronger and cover
the entire country.
Campaign Evaluation
Evaluation
The value of the campaign is based on the publics that have been identified. The
campaign is effective due to the usage of multiple media channels. The campaign seems to be
effective as it can help to reach a large number of the most effective audiences to ultimately
increase the number of participants in blood donation camps. The evaluation process would be as
follows:
- The leaflets would be evaluated through conducting surveys
- The social media would be evaluated though the number of views, likes and shares
- Outdoor activities would be evaluated through conducting random surveys among the
identified people that would be exposed.
Rationale

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The rationale is that the three media devices need to reach the largest possible number of
audiences. The audiences need to know more about the campaign. Hence it becomes necessary
that the views and opinions of the people are known through this process. The more positive
results of the survey would point to a better promotions and advertising campaign of the
organization. In essence, the number of people that are able to come in contact with the
promotional mediums would actually mean the number of people that have been made aware of
the process. The surveys and assessing of the likes and views would actually help the
understanding of the effectiveness of campaign.
Conclusion
The theoretical framework that was used for the task was AIDA. Hence, the major task
was to generate awareness, followed by interest, desire and action. The main aim is to create a
cooperative environment through which the students and employees of the NSW University can
actively engage in blood donation camps to ultimately increase the number of people that engage
in blood donation. It is important that the campaign actually expands to the other areas beyond
the university through the outdoor banners and the social network promotional activities. The
campaign can be more effective with the active participation of everyone engaged with the
campaign and the people that are central to the campaign. The creation of a common goal for
both the audience and the organization becomes very much important for long term success.

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