Major assignment

Proposal & Position Paper

Course
Specialist Public Relations Practice and Writing COMM2380

Lecturer
Jade Bilowol

Group
1

Student
Dam Le My Hanh s3183107

Due Date
11 September 2010

TABLE

OF

CONTENTS

Table of Contents...................................................................2 Proposal ...............................................................................3 Executive Summary................................................................4 Situation analysis...................................................................4 Communication strategy.........................................................5
Goals...........................................................................................5 Communication Objectives............................................................5 Key Message................................................................................5 Target Publics..............................................................................5 Tactics.........................................................................................6 Timeline & Budget for communication strategy..............................8

Evaluation Strategies.............................................................8 Organization background........................................................9 Conclusion.............................................................................9 Appendixes..........................................................................10

Appendix Appendix Appendix Appendix 1: 2: 3: 8: Social media............................................................10 Instant message......................................................10 Social network.........................................................10 Budget + Timeline....................................................14

Reference List......................................................................15 Position Paper......................................................................16 Reference list.......................................................................22

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PR Campaign

Proposal
PHAN NGOC MINH FOUNDATION NON-SMOKING EDUCATION FOR THE YOUTH

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
With the number of smokers increasing rapidly across Vietnam, smoking cigarettes is a big problem for the country and its future. With the financial support of Mr. Phan Ngoc Minh, a six-month education campaign for the Vietnamese youth is organized from January to June 2011. It aims to help them become more aware of the threats of smoking to them, their family and the environment so they can have enough knowledge, energy and ability to stay away from smoking. Therefore they can protect not only themselves but also people around them. This campaign aims to reach the target publics, who are 15 -24 years old and living in Hanoi and HCMC. Social media is the most used public relations tool in this campaign because of its cost efficiency, and time effectiveness in spreading information. Besides that, traditional media techniques, such as newspapers, magazines, TV and telephone, and controlled media are used to catch the target audience. The chosen tools are used to get attention of target public so that they participate in organized activities relating to smoking such as weekly talk shows on TV, meeting with students, and outdoor activities. Budget for this campaign is $92,000.

SITUATION ANALYSIS
With the sharply increasing number of smokers, especially youth, it is necessary to have an education campaign to educate them how to avoid being another smoking victim. With the financial support from Mr. Phan Ngoc Minh, the six-month education campaign will be launched to raise awareness of the threat of smoking so non-smokers are able to keep themselves away from smoking. In addition, the campaign is run with hopes of changing the youth smokers thinking, behavior, and attitudes about the harmfulness of smoking so they can quit. Activities to educate participants about the issues of smoking; and information on how to avoid and quit smoking can be presented on weekly talk shows on TV, meetings with students at high schools, colleges and universities in Hanoi and HCMC, and outdoors activities.

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To get the youth involved in the activities of the campaign, we firstly need to spread the information about the campaign using effective PR strategies. It is an important step to help people become aware of the campaign.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
GOALS
Raise awareness among youth about the dangers of smoking. Reduce the number of teenagers smoking. Educate the youth how quit smoking or how avoid trying smoking.

COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES
Reach 80% (11,000,000/13,200,000 people) awareness of the Hanoi and HCMC youth after six months campaign (June 2011). Turn 80% of people aware this campaign (8,800,000/11,000,000 people) to believe that smoking is a bad habit and they feel good about not smoking. A 15% reduction in the sales of cigarettes companies by the end of the campaign.

KEY MESSAGE
The key message is Youre not really kool with lung cancer, yellow teeth, bad breathe and unattractive smell. There have been many similar non-smoking or stop smoking campaigns in Hanoi and HCMC and they aimed to tell smokers harmfulness of smoking on their health but they may not get success as they wanted. So that, this time the message is aimed to get attention by emphasizing on the consequence of smoking which smokers get easily.

TARGET PUBLICS
This campaign aims to influence behavior and attitude by educating the Hanoi and HCMC youth to decrease the number of smoking-related deaths. HCMC. Therefore the target audience of this education campaign is female and male in 15-24 year old who are living in Hanoi and

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TACTICS
INTEGRATED MEDIA: With a rapidly increase of the Internet users,
the online integrated media is the cost efficiency and time effectiveness in spreading the message of the campaign to the target audience (See Appendix 1 for more detailed information).

1. Campaigns Website
The website is established for posting of smoking-related articles, researches or pictures. hotline number. In addition, there will be links of websites relating to smoking, social media created by the campaign, and a Time and venue of events, activities will also be updated in this channel.

2. Instant Message: Yahoo!Messenger (YM), and Skype

This media vehicle is used to the key message of the campaign as well as the times and venues of the campaigns events. It provides a chance for people to have private conversations relating to smoking with advisers (See Appendix 2 for more detailed information).

3. Social Network: Facebook, ZingMe, and Goonline.vn

With this channel, participants can post their opinion and experience; and insert posts from other sources relating to smoking. In addition, venue of events, activities will also be updated in this channel. Organizers can also get feedback on how the campaign is working and improve parts of the campaign if necessary (See Appendix 3 for more detailed information).

4. Video sharing (Youtube) and Photo sharing (Flirkr; and Picasa)

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People can share video clips or pictures relating to smoking and posting them on video sharing and photo sharing websites. The images will show smokings negative effects (for example, graphic health images and cigarette butts littering the environment) (See Appendix 4 for more detailed information).

TRADITIONAL MEDIA 5. Representatives (Mai Phuong Thuy and Lam Truong)

Miss Vietnam 2006, Mai Phuong Thuy and the singer Lam Truong will be representatives of the campaign (See Appendix 5 for more detailed information).

6. Press Conference
It will be run twice before and after the campaign launched.

Photobucket

All newspaper and magazine outlets in Hanoi and HCMC are

invited to this conference to announce the appearance (at the first conference) and results (the second conference) of the six-month education campaign. Representatives of the campaign they will be there with the campaigns founder to announce the launch of the campaign (See Appendix 6 for more detailed information)

7. Speech
The founder, Mr. Phan Ngoc Minh will deliver the speech at the press conference his story and the reason for establishing the campaign. His real story is very touchy and it may catch peoples attention so they will respond positively and actively.

8. Media release
Media releases are sent to all media outlets in Hanoi and HCMC to inform an appearance of the campaign, posted on the campaigns website, and social networks. MR can be sent several times during the six months to update the development of the campaign.

9. Controlled media

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Controlled media focused on anti-smoking has been an important cigarettes control tool in the West. Information pamphlets, posters and banners will be distributed to, and multimedia displays will be set up at, high schools, colleges, and universities in Hanoi and HCMC. Graphic images of some parts of the body damaged by smoking will appear in these materials.

10.

Hotline

This free hotline is available everyday from 7am 7 pm. Everyone can call to ask questions relating to quitting smoking. quitting cigarettes. Consultants are educated in the field with ambition helping people avoiding and

11.

Event
a. Meeting with students at high schools, colleges, and universities. b. Weekly talk show on VTV6 and HTV7 c. Posters, banners contest d. Outdoor activities

(See Appendix 7 for more detailed information).

TIMELINE & BUDGET

FOR COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Total budget for the whole campaign including before and during six month is $92,000. In addition, activities and events will be launched in different time for specific purposes (See Appendix 8 for more detailed information).

EVALUATION STRATEGIES
To evaluate the effectiveness of the communications of the six-month campaign, some evaluation techniques will be used. They are surveys, focus groups, and the record of people access on online mediums (mentioned in Tactics part). A survey will be put on social network tools (mentioned in Tactics part) to get statistics and effectiveness of each tactic tools reach. number of people accessing each tool. Focus groups will also be used to get the opinions of participants about how In addition, the effectiveness of each communication tool can be evaluated by measuring the

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the education campaign has been run and the influence of the campaign on changing their behavior.

ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND
ABC Group is an international media company which has worked in the field for 12 years in 15 countries. During five years working in Vietnam, ABC has worked as a PR agency for Tan Hiep Phat Beverage Group, Raffles University, Mai Linh Express Taxi, and Yamaha Motor Vietnam. In addition, ABC Group helped these organizations succeed in interacting with target publics.

CONCLUSION
Thanking Mr. Phan Ngoc Minh for the chance to ABC group work with you. We hope this proposal provides satisfied information for you for the PR strategy to get Hanoi and HCMC youth attention to come to the non-smoking education. successfully. ABC group hopes the campaign will run smoothly and

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APPENDIXES
APPENDIX 1: Social media
The number of Internet users in Vietnam has grown gradually in recent years and the majority of them (60%) is the youth which also is the target audience of this campaign. Thus, this campaign will mainly focus on communicating with the youth via the Internet such as the campaigns website; controlled media such as information pamphlets; online, instant message; social network; photo and video sharing. Social media encourages users to actively contribute to the content of posts. For example, they can post their story and experience, comment on others posts and share information of other sources. With this social media, it is very easy to reach the target audience by organizers adding and/or suggesting the page to their friends in friend list. After that, the process will be repeated and the more people accept invitations the better for raising the awareness of the campaign.

APPENDIX 2: Instant message

91% of the Internet users are using instant messaging so YM and Skype are suitable media vehicles to spread the key message of the campaign as well as the times and venues of the campaigns events. This is similar with telephone hotline but it is online consultation where people can have private conversations relating to smoking with advisers.

APPENDIX 3: Social network

This channel can be seen as the most effective channel where users can be active in contributing content. For instance, they can post their opinion and experience; and insert posts from other sources relating to smoking. Similarly with the campaigns website, time and venue of events, activities will also be updated in this channel. if necessary. In addition, with this channel, organizers can get feedback on how the campaign is working and improve parts of the campaign

APPENDIX 4: Video and Photo Sharing

The campaign also encourages the target audience to share video clips or pictures relating to smoking and posting them on video sharing and photo sharing websites such as Youtube, Flirkr, and Picasa. The images will show

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smokings negative effects (for example, graphic health images and cigarette butts littering the environment).

APPENDIX 5: Representatives
Miss Vietnam 2006, Mai Phuong Thuy and the singer Lam Truong will be representatives of the campaign. Lam Truong has been famous in more than ten years so he has a strong influence on his fans which are at various ages. Mai Phuong Thuy is popular by social activities and charities. They are famous not only at their jobs but also and are known as living healthy and nonsmokers.

Image of Lam Truong

Image of Mai Phuong Thuy

APPENDIX 6: Press Conference

It will be run twice before and after the campaign launched.

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At the first conference, all newspaper and magazine outlets in Hanoi and HCMC are invited to this conference to announce the appearance of the sixmonth education campaign. Representatives will say the key messages and announce the launch of the campaign, and journalists will be provided with interesting information including facts and figures related to youth smoking and the costs of smoking to society, information about the campaigns events. In addition, Mr. Phan Ngoc Minh will deliver a speech about his story behind the foundation. It is a real story which may be touchy many people so they will respond the campaign positively and actively. At the second conference, the same media outlets, which were invited at the first conference, will be invited. Results of the campaign will be announced such as does it achieve its goals and objectives, and how the youth react with the campaign.

APPENDIX 7: Events
Meeting with students at high schools, colleges, and universities. There will be meetings between doctors and students at high schools, colleges and universities in Hanoi and HCMC at the weekly meeting between schools and their students. Meetings aim to talk to students the bad influences of cigarettes on peoples health and tips for quitting smoke. In addition, extra classes at these schools will be opened to help students have more knowledge about facts of cigarettes with reasons and consequences of the increase of smoking in our country. Weekly talk shows on VTV6 and HTV7 Generally weekly talk shows are similar with meetings at schools but they provide more detailed information. They are divided following topics for each week with celebrity/(ies). Celebrities, who can be nonsmokers or used to smoke, come to the shows with their personal stories relating to smoking and their experiences in not smoking or quitting smoking. Monthly posters, banners and songs creating contest Participations will create images, slogans, banners or songs relating to non-smoking. This activity can get the target audience involve to the campaign because they will get award if they win and their

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product will be used as a part of the campaigns controlled media. They will present what they feel and think about cigarettes and their product can gain attention of others. It is because they are at the same age so easily share the same point of view, attitude with each other. Monthly award can be $100, $200 or $300 base on each the 3rd winner, 2nd winner or 1st winner. Outdoor activities This activity get the target audience going out and enjoy outdoors activities so it could make them feel there are a lot of interesting and healthy activities.

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APPENDIX 8: Budget + Timeline

De c10 Jan -11 Fe b Ma r Ap r Ma y

Tactics Website Instant Message Social Network Video Sharing Photo Sharing Press Conference Media release Controlled Media Hotline Events

Channels khongthuocla.com Yahoo Skype Facebook ZingMe Goonline. Vn Youtube Flirkr Picasa

Jun

Cost 10,000

1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1

15,000 1,000 50,000 1,500 200,000 24,000 3,600 180,000 485,100

Meeting with students Weekly talk shows Contest Outdoors activities

Total

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REFERENCE LIST
Asian youth in the context of rapid of globalization 2007, Youth and the United Nations, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/documents/wyr07_chapter_1.pdf> Project description/ Target public: Define who is called the youth. Dan so va lao dong (Population and labour) 2009, General Statistics Office, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://www.gso.gov.vn/default.aspx? tabid=387&idmid=3&ItemID=9865> Project Description/ Communication objectives Tactics. Mai Phng Thy tham gia chng trnh Tt 2010, image, VTVC+ Truyn hnh cp VitNam, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://vctv.vn/201001300841520p110c111/mai-phuong-thuy-tham-giachuong-trinh-tet.htm> Appendix/ Appendix 5: An image of Mai Phuong Thuy. Da, V 2008, Lam Trng v nhng chng ng, image, Yeu Am Nhac, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://www.yeuamnhac.com/cbeta/newsdetails.php?id=2902> Appendix/Appendix 5: An picture of Lam Truong. Dam LMH 2010, Proposal, paper submitted 24 July for COMM2380 Specialist Public Relations Practice and Writing, RMIT University, Vietnam: Organization Background Jade Bilowol 2010, Assessement 7: Major Assignment, lecture notes distributed in COMM2380 Specialist Public Relations, 2 July 2010, RMIT University, Vietnam Situation Analysis. Rigby B 2008, Mobilizing Generation 2.0, a practical guide to using web 2.0, Jossey-Bass, USA. p. Project Description/ Tactics/ Social Network: effectiveness of using social network. Tench, R & Yeomans, L 2006, Exploring Public Relations, Harlow, England, p. 208 250. Project Description/ Tactics; Evaluation Strategies. Wakefiel M 2003, Appraisal of anti-smoking advertising by youth at risk for regular smoling: a comparative study in the US, Australia and Bristan, Tobacco Control, December, vol 12, issue 2, pp. 82-86.

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Position Paper
DO
YOU REALLY KNOW THE REASONS FOR AND CONSEQUENCES OF A SHARP INCREASE IN SMOKING IN VIETNAM

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Smoking cigarettes is a significant issue in many countries around the world because it causes a lot of dangerous health problems for smokers and people around them. Asia has the highest rate of smoking and is home to 60% of the worlds smokers while Europe has 10%, America has 8% respectively (Smoking statistics 2010). In addition, with 17 million smokers out of 86 million people, Vietnam is rated as a country which has the highest rate of smokers in the world (Population and labor in Vietnam 2009 & Van 2010). There are many causes of the high rate of smoking cigarettes in Vietnam which are reactions of the government in controlling smoking and the new marketing segmentation of cigarettes companies. increase. Thus, more youth are becoming addicted to smoking, and smoking-related diseases continue to

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Lets begin with some facts relating to components of cigarettes and smokingrelated diseases. In cigarettes, there are 250 out of 4,000 chemical components which are harmful and 60 of them are classified as carcinogens, co-carcinogens or tumor promoters (Ten facts in second hand smoke 2009). Moreover, the risk of smokers, which includes active and passive smokers of getting cancers, is three times higher than non-smokers (Sleeping with a killer 2008). Besides lung cancer, smoking can cause cancers of other parts of a body such as stomach, liver, kidney, mouth, throat, etc. There are a high number of smokers in Vietnam is the due to lax anti-smoking laws. Although Vietnam has joined in WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in December 2004 and has other laws to control smoking in public places, laws have not been done seriously and strictly. For example, being a member of FCTC, Vietnam has to increase tax to increase retail prices but this change is not strong enough to cause a significant decrease in cigarettes sales. 2010). Instead of increasing the tax to 70-80% according to the suggestion of the World Bank, the government has increased to 45% (Le In addition, although smoking in public places is banned following FCTCs policy, it is very easy to see people smoke in offices, universities, parks, cinemas, restaurants, and coffee shops, etc. It is because there is no punishment for those who smoke in public places so smokers are free to smoke and throw butts everywhere they like. Finally, at any cigarettes retailers, there is banner with selling cigarettes for teenagers under 18 years old is illegal but it is just a law and people of any age continue to buy cigarettes, flouting to law disobeying. As a result, laws are not applied strictly with punishments leading to the number of smokers further increasing.

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The new market segmentation of cigarette companies is another reason of the high rate of smokers. In the past, females and teenagers were not heavily However today, they have turned these targeted by those companies.

potential customers to get more profits. In Vietnam, on alarming 50% adult males smoke while 2% of adult females are addicted to cigarettes. In addition, according to research about Smoking and Gender, cigarette companies are targeting females to replace a half of male smokers set to die due to smokingrelated diseases (Le 2010). It means cigarette companies are targeting on females in an attempt to replace these dying smokers. By using the power of the media, such as images of super stars on movies with cigarettes, and many different clever advertising, sponsoring and marketing campaigns of cigarettes companies, the meaning of liberation, looking cool and unique, losing weight, keeping slim, relaxing and de-stressing by smoking have strongly affected on the ideology of women and teenagers (WHO research, cited in Le 2010 & World no tobacco day 2010 2010). Thus, when they try to look cool by In addition, smoking, they are soon addicted to the nicotine contained in cigarettes for their whole lives and this is what cigarette companies want. attractive labels on cigarette boxes, such as light cigarette, very light cigarette, or light nicotine (Le 2010), make consumers, especially women, misunderstand the medical components of cigarettes or feel less guilty when smoking. According to research of WHO about smoking addicting, smokers have to get the same amount of nicotine from each smoking so with the light cigarettes or light nicotine, they will take a longer breathe and keep the smoke longer in their mouth and lung to satisfy their need (research of WHO cited in Le 2010). Furthermore they probably consume more light cigarettes than the normal cigarettes and instead of consuming one box of cigarettes per day, now with the light cigarettes they will need two boxes. Finally, there are more than 25 kinds of cigarettes in Vietnam with different tastes and box sizes to catch all needs of consumers (Le 2010). Many ways and techniques have used to attract customers of cigarettes companies, they achieve in making females and teenagers believe in the magic cigarettes bring to them.

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However, many people do not even recognize that they are being influenced by the media and cigarettes companies to smoke. Many serious and dangerous diseases result in a lot of deaths every year in Vietnam due to smoking. Some statistics relating to smoking in Vietnam need to be concerned which are according to the WHO 60 million passive smokers in the society on account of 17 million active smokers and 40,000 people die each year (Tobacco control n.d). There are terrible consequences for passive smokers including children who have no choice of avoiding cigarettes smoke of family member/(s) at home. A lot of research proves that passive smokers, who breathe in other peoples smoke are much risk of getting smoking-related diseases as active smokers. According to WHO, there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke (Article 8 of the WHO FCTC cited in Ten facts of second-hand smoking 2010). It means if one member in a family smokes, the whole family will share the same hazard of getting cancers or other diseases relating to smoking. Unfortunately, 31% of passive smokers who get smoking-related deaths are children (Ten facts of second-hand smoke 2009). In addition, the only way to protect people from the harmful effects of cigarettes smoke is creating nonsmoking environments (Ten facts of second-hand smoking 2010). The influences from the family are very important in setting up characteristics of children including smoking habit. According to IARC, having one member in a family smoke, such as father, mother, or sibling, can influence to the children to smoke or not smoke (Smoking statistics 2010). However, about 40% of all children are regularly exposed to passive smoke at home (Ten facts of second-hand smoke 2009). It leads to children becoming addicted to the Then, when they grow up they will nicotine from other family member(s).

actively look for cigarettes to supply their demand. For instance, according to research by WHO, children who used to be passive smokers at home, are up two times to be smokers comparing with children not exposed to smoking (Ten facts of second-hand smoke 2009). It is difficult to quit smoking once people are addicted to the nicotine contained in cigarettes. In addition, smoking is very popular in Vietnam so even if smokers want to quit, they will be affected by others smoke on the air and it is difficult not to smoke around friends. Thus, smokers need a lot of time, effort and support from other people to quit.

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To sum up, statistics and research show how badly smoking affects smokers and other people. Due to the high rate of smokers in Vietnam, it is very necessary to have an education campaign about the bad influences of smoking on people in order to help for the youth in Hanoi and HCMC have fundamental knowledge to stay away from being cigarettes victim. The youth is the future of our nation so helping them is saving our country.

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REFERENCE LIST
Population and labor in Vietnam 2009, General Statistics Office, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://www.gso.gov.vn/default.aspx? tabid=387&idmid=3&ItemID=9865>. Sleeping With A Killer: A Report from Health Canada's Tobacco Control Programme 2008, Health Canada, viewed 30 August 2010, <http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hc-ps/pubs/tobac-tabac/swk-dat/facts-faits09eng.php>. Smoking Statistics 2010, Cancer Research UK, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/types/lung/smoking/>. Ten facts on second hand smoke 2009, World health organization, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/tobacco/en/index.html>. Tobacco control n.d, World health organization, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://www.wpro.who.int/vietnam/sites/dhp/tobacco_control/backgroun d.htm>. World No Tobacco Day 2010 calls for stronger efforts to protect women 2010, World health organization, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/E960DDDE-10BC-411F-955448495539E252/0/WNTD2010_NEWS_VTN.pdf> Le, H 2010, Thuoc la du phu nu, Tuoi tre online, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://tuoitre.vn/Chinh-tri-xa-hoi/Song-khoe/381339/Thuoc-la-duphu-nu.html>. Van, K 2010, Thuc trang hut thuoc la tai Viet Nam: Moi nam xoa so nua huyen (The fact of smoking in Vietnam: Each year delete a half village), Gia Dinh, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://giadinh.net.vn/2010053108071603p0c1044/thuc-trang-hutthuoc-la-tai-viet-nam-moi-nam-xoa-so-nua-huyen.htm>.

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