Implementation And Evolution Of The Communications Strategy Over Five Years
Customized Plans
While the core components of the champions award communications strategy have been consistent over the past five years, many elements of the plan are customized annually to reflect the backgrounds of the honorees. In addition to regular placements to inform policymakers in Sacramento, the paid media plan must accommodate placements in the awardees’ hometown media or in trade or professional publications – all of which shift significantly from year to year depending on who receives the award. In 2007, for example, all three award honorees were Southern California–based physicians, leading to a paid media strategy quite different from the previous year when the honorees included physicians in Sacramento and San Francisco and a university administrator in Los Angeles. The balance between the general market and ethnic media also shifts from year to year. A heavier emphasis is placed on outreach to Spanish-language media in years with Latino honorees, particularly if they can give interviews in Spanish.
 Maximizing Ad Buys in Expensive Markets
With a limited budget, an extensive print ad strategy in as many as three different media markets is not possible. Because they are read by policymakers and other influentials statewide, the Sacramento Bee (in our state capital) and Los Angeles-based La Opinión have become anchors. Local papers in honoree communities – both ethnic and general market – are purchased when possible. In the last two years, online advertising has become a key element in extending the campaign’s reach. Banner or button ads that link to the newsroom on the Foundation’s website have appeared on newspaper sites including the San Francisco Chronicle and blogs followed by journalists and policymakers (e.g., LAObserved.com and CAMajorityReport.com). These ads are responsible for driving a significant portion of the total visitors to the newsroom.
 Honoree Profile:
Rolland Lowe, M.D.
2006 champions award honoree
Dr. Rolland C. Lowe provided high-quality health care to low-income residents and mentored young doctors in his Chinatown-based private practice in San Francisco. He also promotes cultural competency and workforce diversity through public health policy, planning and advocacy both within organized medicine and through his foundation work. Lowe aided in the formation of the Chinese Community Health Care Association, which helped create a culturally and linguistically appropriate health education center. At the Chinese Hospital, he has held many key positions, including chief of staff and chairman of the board. Lowe was involved in forming the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum, a recognized national voice of the Asian Pacific Islander community on health issues. As the first Asian-American president of the California Medical Association (CMA), he advocated for and helped create a voting section for ethnic physicians in the House of Delegates within the CMA. As president of the CMA Foundation, he founded the Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations.
In the media kit materials developed to announce his award, Lowe described an advocacy role for ethnic minority physicians:
“We all want to narrow the health disparities in the United States. How do we do that? By working with the community at large, and by educating the people we work with to develop a louder legislative voice, so that the community can help improve health care. Ethnic-minority physicians, because we are respected in the community for our one-on-one service, need to extend that trust to be sure that the community can work together to be better advocates for their own care.”
Lowe’s award, which coincided with his retirement, received extensive coverage throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. In a feature article in the San Francisco Chronicle, he described how definitions of community have changed over time, affecting advocacy strategies. “In my dad’s generation, when you ask, ‘What is his community?’ he would say China. In our generation, we say, ‘Chinatown is my community.’ The youngest now think globally. How do you tie the three generations together? How can we be cohesive? That’s the big challenge.” |
“The difference here is that the award identifies individuals making impact at the local level and helps to develop models that can be replicated.”
— Dr. Linda Burnes-Bolton, ’03 champions award honoree
New Media
In 2006, the champions communications strategy added a new multimedia dimension with the addition of an audiovisual component. We began producing short video introductions of the honorees to show at the awards banquet. The three-minute pieces contained the interview footage and B-roll secured at the initial meeting with the honorees. To broaden the reach of this footage, the vignettes were repackaged as a series of quotes from each honoree and made available for use by broadcast media as video news releases. While most English- and Spanish-language television and radio stations now have policies against using materials produced externally, Asian media made extensive use of the clips and the strategy broadened TCWF’s reach into those communities.
 In 2007, following upgrades to the website’s infrastructure, it became feasible to embed high-resolution video footage directly into the Foundation’s site for easy viewing. The video vignettes were added to the champions newsroom and were viewed more than 400 times. We will continue to explore options for maximizing these new online technologies and opportunities to extend the communications messages.
All of these factors reinforce the important role of the consultant team in helping Foundation communications staff to manage outreach to multiplatform, multilanguage media in locations throughout California.
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