Kimberly Loehr
Information for the Media- Category #50 Media Kit – Tools to gain media coverage
Lightning Safety Awareness Week campaign – Lightning Protection Institute (LPI)
Objectives: Digital press kits were created and loaded to USB flash drives to provide information about the Lightning Safety Awareness Week campaign for media, partner information and Lightning Protection Institute (LPI) member use. The media kits were created to:
* Identify partnering organizations supporting the campaign and to further public support
* Provide up-to-date facts and statistics about lightning
* Dispel common myths about lightning safety and lightning protection (infographic)
* Provide safety tips for media and general public use.
* Introduce media and public to a new video PSA featuring a fire chief
* Provide social media content calendar for “sharing”
* Provide information about the Building Lightning Safe Communities kickoff event
Media Contacted: Flash drives were provided to attending media at the Lightning Safety Awareness Week kick-off at the University of Maryland’s Earth Science System Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) facility. (Press conference attendees included reporter, Kevin Ambrose of the Washington Post Capital Weather Gang.) Links to campaign website materials were also communicated in LPI press releases during June 2014. (examples provided with entry)
Audience Targeted: Meteorologists, disaster preparedness, fire safety and mitigation groups, insurance groups, students (higher education), nonprofit partner organizations and general public were audiences targeted. USB flash drives with media kit were provided to insurance communications managers at the June 16, 2014 Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) Communications Conference. Media kit materials were also loaded onto the LPI website for member access and use at www.lightning.org
Theme/Timetable: “Building Lightning Safe Communities” was campaign theme with June 2014 timetable to support Lightning Safety Awareness campaign efforts.
Budget: Total budget for campaign was $12,000 with expenses shared between LPI and the Lightning Safety Alliance (LSA). Flash drives and PSA production = $9,000 of total budget.
Follow-up: Media follow-up with Washington Post Capital Weather Gang provided a prominent news story on June 27, 2014. Follow-up with insurance communications managers provided additional campaign PR in web posts, support of PSA, use of infographic and social media posts.
Evaluation: Media kits achieved the objectives and helped expand exposure for the Building Lightning Safe Communities campaign. LPI members and nonprofit partners (especially I.I.I. partners), utilized media kit materials to spread messages about lightning protection and lightning safety in their communities, as well.
Results: Media utilizing press kit materials included: newspaper, radio, t.v., online web services, blogger sites, consumer periodicals and freelance writers (clips provided). Nonprofit partners at FLASH, I.I.I., IBHS, NOAA/NWS and NFPA also utilized media kit materials in their organizations communications. Support for the Building Lightning Safe Communities campaign saw a dramatic increase with approximately $200,000 in donations for fire station lightning protection system installations cited in October 2014. (See press release and news clips.)
