Non-profit

Public Relations - Media Relations

Situation

Outward Bound Atlanta (OBA) delivers a continuum of experiential education programs that reach more than 2,600 students at critical junctures in their academic careers, providing them with the skills needed to graduate from high school. Each year, OBA holds an annual fundraiser, Atlanta Adventure, to support its programming and students.

Challenge

Though Outward Bound Atlanta has existed for more than 10 years, the organization has struggled to build awareness of its local youth programs and Atlanta Adventure. c21 was charged with increasing the organization's visibility in the local community prior to Atlanta Adventure - just four months away.

c21 Solution

To make the public more familiar with OBA, c21 lent its media relations and e-mail marketing expertise on a pro bono basis.

• c21 focused on generating awareness of OBA's programming, including its ropes course initiatives, by promoting an event where students from various Atlanta-area schools worked as a team with Arab and Jewish students from Haifa, Israel to complete a high ropes course in southeast Atlanta. The program was titled the Palestinian-Israeli Unity Project.
• Next, c21 worked to boost Atlanta Adventure ticket sales by securing media coverage in various publications' calendars prior to the event.
• Finally, c21 used Direct Dialogue, its proprietary e-mail marketing system, to build excitement and anticipation around Atlanta Adventure, and ultimately increase tickets sales among the nearly 500 recipients.

Results

• c21 secured coverage of OBA's role in the Palestinian-Israeli Unity Project on NBC's 11 Alive news and NPR's local affiliate WABE, as well as in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Atlanta Jewish Times.
• c21 secured event listings for Atlanta Adventure in an unprecedented number of publications, including Access Atlanta, Creative Loafing, Jezebel Magazine, Points North Magazine and skirt! Magazine. Media relations efforts resulted in more than $65,000 worth of coverage for OBA.
• Two e-mail campaigns had strong open rates above the industry average. The second mailing, detailing unique Atlanta Adventure auction items, commanded a 52 percent open rate - a 136 percent increase from the industry average of 22 percent.