Hayley Gonzalez, Susana Pastrana, Rebecca Reynolds, Sara Ryan

PR Campaign Conceptualization
Campaign: Our campaign is to inspire people from the communities surrounding the
Charles River to help clean up the river for future generations.
Research: We plan to conduct research on the current quality of the Charles River water
and figure out how far it has to go to be a clean, safe body of water. We will inquire within
environmental organizations around Boston for more information about the Charles River
and current action being taken. We will also conduct a survey of 1,500 Boston area
residents, ages 18 and over. Among other topics, the survey will focus on the following
issues:

Current knowledge about the cleanliness of the Charles River

Assess participants interest in improving the Charles environment

Determine how often participants use the Charles and its riverbanks for recreation
and activities

Evaluate how likely each participant would be to either donate or volunteer

Situation Analysis:

Strengths: Many people frequent the Esplanade and the Charles River for personal
pleasure and public events.

Weaknesses: People dont think they can be of help because they cannot always
take physical action. Also during the summer months, there will be fewer students in
the Boston area.

Opportunities: Earth Day in April will help raise environmental awareness, the Head
of the Charles Regatta 50 year anniversary will help people get excited to clean up
the Esplanade and be a part of the community at large.

Threats: Because our opening and closing events take place outside, there is always
a threat of bad weather.

Objectives:

To improve awareness of Charles River environment by 20 percent

Raise $80,000 (the river is 80 miles long) to help clean up the river

Recruit 400 volunteers

In turn, to increase revenue for local water sport businesses by 20 percent

Audience: We are targeting different communities surrounding the Charles River. This
includes students at colleges, such as Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern
University, and Harvard University. We are also targeting local environmental groups, such
as Greenovate Boston, Environment Massachusetts, Charles River Conservancy, CWRA,
Esplanade Association, and Environmental Mass, because they are passionate about the
environment. Additionally as local environmental groups, they have stronger connections to
the environmental concerns in the Boston area. All of these people will be interested and
active in efforts to improve the conditions of the Charles River.
Strategy: Our strategy is to have six months of constant promotional activity to raise
awareness of the poor water quality of the Charles River and encourage Bostonians to take
action. We plan on doing so by holding a kickoff event, sending speakers to local
colleges, We want to enhance the quality of the water for environmental reasons but also
for economic reasons, such as increasing the popularity of water sports and in turn
increasing revenue for small businesses.

Tactics: Our campaign tactics will focus on pairing social media and traditional, visual
tactics.

Visual/ Tangible Tactics

o

Flyers and banners about events on local college campuses, businesses, and
T station stops

Goodie bags filled with The Esplanade Association (T.E.A.) tea bags and mini
water testing kits.

Social Media
o

Instagram photo contest: submit photos of the Charles with a caption

featuring what your favorite thing to do on the Charles (tag your photos
#CleanMArivah)

Facebook page dedicated to events and links to our website

Start a crowdsourcing campaign through a site such as GoFundMe.com

Calendar: This six month campaign will launch on Earth Day on April 19, 2015. It will
continue until the Head of the Charles Regatta, October 17, 2015. We selected this time
frame because of the weather conditions during the summer. Boston is heavily populated in
the late spring and summer months with residents and visitors, many of whom frequent the
Esplanade. Kayaking, sailing, canoeing, and other water sports are popular during these
months, so we hope to make the water safer for those participating in these extracurriculars.

April: Earth Day kickoff event at The Hatch Shell

o

Experts and advocates to local colleges to inform students and seek out
volunteers: Boston University, Northeastern University, Boston College,
Berklee College of Music, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Fenway Schools

Send advocates to local environmental groups to bring them on board

May: Walk the Esplanade Fundraiser (Walking On Water)

June: Government action: petition local and state government officials to dedicate
funds to future clean up of the river

July: Clean up the river banks

August: Boat cruise for donors with bar revenue going to cleaning up the Charles

September: Head of the Charles Regatta 50 year anniversary celebration on the

Esplanade

Budget:
Staff Time

Cost

Out of Pocket Expenses

Cost

5 Supervising Employees

$180,000

1,500 Flyers

$579.99

Travel Expenses

$1,000

1,500 Trash bags

$825

2 social media interns

$0.00

Water for Walkers

$250

2 administrative interns

$0.00

Goodie bags:
pH paper
T.E.A.* tea packs

$2,400

Food for volunteers

$500

Boat rental

$1,900

Sub-total

$181,000

Sub-total

$6,454.99

Contingencies

$20,111.11

Contingencies

$717.22

Total

$201,111.11

Total

$7,172.21

GRAND TOTAL:

$208,283.32

*The Esplanade Association

Evaluation: We will determine the success of our campaign based on whether or not we
achieve each of our objectives. We will conduct a second survey, asking the same
questions, and determine if there is a significant (20% increase) difference between the first
survey results and the second one. We will obviously keep detailed records of both

volunteers and donations, so it should be easy to determine whether or not we reached

those goals. Finally we will compare last summers waterfront business profits to this
summer and next summers profits and see if our campaign and cleaning up the river
increased the amount of money made.