Elements of a Social Publicity Program

What it is

A 17-page pamphlet from the Russell Sage Foundation's Department of Surveys and Exhibits, printed in September 1920 from a paper Routzahn read at the National Conference of Social Work in New Orleans that April. It opens with Charles W. Hoyt's picture of a manufacturer who buys pencils, blotters and newspaper space on impulse and ends the year having spent more than he meant and gained nothing. Routzahn asks social agencies to plan publicity the way they plan fundraising, around four elements: the objective, the message, the audience, and materials and methods. Objectives should be small and dated, such as two or three things mothers in the Fourth Ward can do to get clean milk. The message should hold one point at a time. The audience splits into staff and board, members, the people served, and the general public. Every project ends with a merciless personal audit.

Why read it now

The four elements, in that order, are what a campaign brief still asks for, and Routzahn is firm that the channel is chosen last, after the goal, the message and the audience. That still holds. His strongest example is the war-stamp line: "feed one soldier for one day" beat "help win the war". Donation research agrees; Cryder, Loewenstein and Scheines found in 2013 that people give more when the impact is concrete and tangible. His warning that "our" public looks large because we rarely leave it is the same trap as judging a campaign by comments from existing followers. His advice to give volunteers very simple written tasks with a deadline, instead of asking a club to "co-operate", fits what behaviour-change work finds about specific requests. What has dated: the channel list (county fairs, exhibits, lodge meetings), and the audit, which relies on talking to critics and strangers rather than counting anything. Use: before an awareness campaign, write one line naming this month's facts, the one group, and the one action you want, then pick channels.

Passages worth keeping

If you start out with a plan for your publicity and educational work that is as definite and clearly laid out as your plan of social activities, you are saved many of these haphazard and unrelated publicity sprees

Four Main Elements of a Publicity Program, p. 4

الخطة الواضحة للإعلام، مثل خطة العمل نفسه، تحمي المنظمة من حملات متفرقة تُطلق بدافع الحماس ولا تتراكم نتائجها.

it was not nearly so effective to say "Buy war savings stamps and help win the war" as to say "Buy 10 thrift stamps and feed one soldier for one day."

The Objective, p. 6

الطلب الملموس الذي يربط مبلغًا صغيرًا بنتيجة يمكن تخيلها يقنع أكثر من الدعوة العامة إلى هدف كبير.

Many of us are often convinced that "our" public is a large one because we seldom get outside of it.

The Audience, p. 8

من يعيش وسط المهتمين بقضيته يظن أن الناس كلهم يعرفونها، والحقيقة أن جمهوره الفعلي أصغر بكثير.

It is your subject that you want people to talk about and remember, not merely the names of people, the cleverness of a device, or the musical features of a program.

Newspaper Articles, p. 12

نجاح الدعاية يقاس بتذكر الناس للفكرة المطلوبة، لا بشهرة الأسماء أو ذكاء الحيلة المستخدمة في لفت الانتباه.

Then seek your chronic kicker and solicit him to unburden himself.

The Audit, p. 16

بعد انتهاء الحملة اطلب رأي أشد المنتقدين، فكلامه وإن كان ظالمًا يكشف ما لا يقوله المجاملون.

What it teaches best

Read the original archive.org

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