Part I: Strategy Brief

1. Background research

The opioid epidemic is a horrific crisis taking place within our community in which, our
client has dedicated substantial time and effort towards. According to The National Institute of
Drug Abuse, every day, more than 115 people in the United States die after an overdose on opi-
oids. Out of the 34 communities within Essex County, Salem, MA had the third most overdoses
in 2017. The number of opioid overdoses in Salem increased from 184 to 215 in just one year
and the number of opiate-related deaths has also increased from 15 deaths to 21 deaths. Our
client, the Salem Board of Health, has helped to combat the opioid epidemic significantly over
the last decade. Because overdose fatalities are so prevalent in the region, they have worked in
conjunction with law enforcement to learn more about why people are using at such alarming
rates and what can be done to lower the number of overdose deaths In the past, other Salem
State students have worked with the Salem Board of Health to raise awareness of the cri-
sis. Their goal was to educate and inform the public about the dangers of opioid use, as well as
gain insight into personal experiences and public opinion.

The biggest stakeholder for the Salem Board of Health is the general public of Salem.
Salem residents are very concerned with the opioid epidemic, and with good reason. Not only
are their families at risk of exposure to the drug in their neighborhoods but they also must be
aware of the drug-related crimes such as breaking and entering and larceny.

The Salem Police Department is another large stakeholder and ally of the Salem Board
of Health. Collaborative efforts between these two organizations save lives, and even prevent
possible first-time users from starting. Our team is very excited to begin work with the Salem
Police Department and see how much we can accomplish together during the semester.

Another stakeholder includes the recovery facilities in the North Shore who also act as
members of the coalition with the Salem Board of Health. The numbers of people who are af-
fected by this crisis are a major concern of theirs and they need to be well prepared for the ca-
pacity as well as the resources available.

As always, the media also takes part as a secondary stakeholder.

2. SWOT analysis

The SWOT analysis of our client and their goals for us provides our team with spe-
cific information that is crucial to the success of our overall goal, which is to help de-stigma-
tize addiction in the Salem community.

Strengths: Our clients strengths are extremely significant as they are a major contrib-
utor to public health in the community. This is something that we are trying to help our client
take advantage of as they have a major influence on the community with the knowledge and
skills that all Salem Board of Health employees possess including data and statistics. The
Salem Board of Health plays a major role in the city and provides a variety of services for
those suffering from addiction. This is a key factor in the strategy to de-stigmatize this dis-
ease and reiterate the services provided by the city via social media and events. Another
strength is that the community of Salem is very involved with each other when it comes to
the issue of opioid overdoses whereas the law enforcement know the people who suffer
from this addiction by name, and regular visit them within the time-frame to try and get them
to seek recovery, as they are more susceptible to help within the first 24 hours.

Weaknesses: The main advertising/public relations problems that exist within the Sa-
lem Board Of Health include social media presence. Our team collectively thinks that an-
other thing that could use improvement is the amount of planned events within the commu-
nity of Salem. When we asked to see if there were any events we were informed that there
was only one coming up in November and that the police Department usually takes the lead
on it. It is one thing to address the opioid epidemic but the issue lies with the fact that the
Salem Board Of Health has to let the target audience know that they are the ones putting
out the message to inform and educate people on this subject. The city of Salem needs to
know that they are the ones engaging in the public to create awareness, especially if one of
their main objectives is to let people know the services and resources that are available.
These are some areas that we plan to help our client with throughout the semester.

Opportunities: There is a major opportunity for word of mouth as well as networking

opportunities since the community is already very close. There is opportunity to get some
help from some city councilman, as we discussed with Professor Haines today to try and
get them to lead some social media traffic to our pages. There are many resources in terms
of people who could help us accomplish our goals for the client this semester.

Threats: A major threat to the Salem Board of Health during this time of the year is
the fact that there are so many tourists in the area, for Halloween, as we have already dis-
covered take up a lot of the police departments time and efforts. This could be considered a
distraction to our main target audience, as well as lowers the chances of us getting a hold of
the police department to aid with events, etc. Salem Board of health’s competitors would in-
clude other foundations/ hospitals in Salem trying to do the same thing; destigmatize and
raise awareness on the issue. Instead of competing though, it is a good idea to familiarize
ourselves with those same foundations and companies to see what they do well to gain fol-
lowers and what they are lacking in so we don’t make the same mistakes. Ongoing social
media development comes with backlash and debate from opposing sides that are against
the overall goal. There is a divide on the topic of addiction that threatens the public image of
our client as well as the goals they are trying to accomplish. This divide can brief arguments
and debate on social media.
3. Key strategic decisions
There are a lot of different factors that go into developing a relationship with a client
over time, and our team is dedicated to taking the steps to further our relationship with
Emily Chi, the Salem Board Of Health and the community of Salem.

Objectives:
-Increase traffic on social media presence with a completely new Instagram
account and building off of their Facebook page with a complete focus on opiate overdose
awareness.
-In terms of our campaign specifically, our overall objective is to help de-stig-
matize the opioid crisis in the community of Salem as well as hopefully the North Shore
community.
-We are working towards educating our target audience with an event on the
Salem State University campus in order to get the community talking about the issue with
an educated point of view on the Salem Board of Healths behalf.
-We also plan to demonstrate and speak on resources that will hopefully de-
crease the number of overdoses including those that are fatal.

Target audience: As previously mentioned, our target audiences for our campaign
are the community of Salem, Massachusetts and the students of Salem State University.
We believe that with our circumstances, skill sets, and connections, we will be able to edu-
cate these audiences on the physical makeup of an opioid addiction as well as what the
consequences and effects on an opioid user are, both physical and mental, and inform them
of resources that are available in the area for those that are suffering from the affliction of
addiction. The big idea is to de-stigmatize Salem.

Demographics - people of any race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or education.

Most likely ages 15 and up (anyone who is able to understand the concepts
of addiction and the opioid epidemic.)

Geography - local, specifically the Salem community and the North Shore.

Attitudes - those who perceive those suffering from opioid usage and addic
tion as any different from those suffering from any other sort of disease and
assuming that addicts are able to stop using whenever they feel like it.

Media habits - where our main media focus is going to be social media for
this campaign, those who use social media applications such as Instagram,
Facebook, and YouTube.
 Culture - those from any cultural background, most likely those who speak
and read English because of the language barrier between our team and
those who speak and read other languages.

Brand position: The point of difference that the Salem Board Of Health has is that
there are many members of the community that are a part of their coalition. This makes is
so much easier for them to spread their message that is meant to de-stigmatize addiction
when people of the community come together to lend a helping ha and offer their own re-
sources. This shows that others recognize the issue at hand. Another advantage that they
have includes the fact that they are a board of health, the message coming from them will
include all facts especially when physicians are available to say that addiction is in fact a
disease. The message about health would be much more respected coming from a reliable
source.

Media strategy: Social media presence has been a major weakness for the Salem
Board of Health in this ongoing effort. The Board is utilizing our communications skills to de-
velop a more robust social media presence and develop a better public image via social
media. Many opportunities are there for the client in terms of increasing social media
productivity and public image. These opportunities arise from not only the services they pro-
vide, but possible events that can take place in the community as well. A major factor that
goes into all of these opportunities is the willingness that the Board of Health provides to be
more active on social media and promote their services and goals.
There are many strategies that our team will be using to combat these threats that
are including but not limited to factual information, education resources alike and a pres-
ence of well respected community members who are looking to achieve the same goal as
our client.
Part II: Creative Brief
A. Client objective
The purpose of this campaign is to gain the opioid-crisis focused aspect of the Salem
Board of Health a larger social media following and increase its overall media presence as well
as to share a variety of information surrounding the opioid crisis (awareness of the crisis, treat-
ment options, different perspectives and stories, etc.) to locals, the North Shore community, and
the students of SSU.

B. Persuasive communication
The largest messages that we are trying to spread throughout our Salem Opioid Aware-
ness media campaign is to show consumers that opioid addiction can happen to anybody from
all walks of life and that a large part of addiction is the physical debilitation that it brings (many
refer to addiction as a disease, which is completely accurate.) alongside the mental effects that
it can have on users; we want to show people that the stigma surrounding addiction a lot of the
time is false and that those who use opioids and opiates are not just able to stop using—even if
they want to—as many assume. We also want to show that there is a wide variety of treatment
options for addiction available in local communities that people may not necessarily know are
available otherwise.

C. Creative insight
The Salem Board of Health is a very well-liked institution in the North Shore community
and is greatly involved in a wide variety of different things around the community of Salem spe-
cifically. Because our campaign does not have to worry so much about creating a good reputa-
tion for the Salem Board of Health (as they have already done so over the years), our biggest
job is to maintain that good reputation by sharing factual and emotionally-connectable content
with the public so that more awareness can be spread of the opioid crisis specifically.

D. The words: message and tone

Erasing the stigma surrounding the opioid crisis. (7 words)

E. The visuals: look and feel

As far as color scheme goes, we have been consistently using purple—since purple is
the color of opioid awareness—for things such as our campaign logo and our YouTube channel
banner. The campaign logo is a purple medical plus sign to represent the Salem Board of
Health with the silhouette of a witch flying on a broomstick to represent the city of Salem. The
YouTube channel banner is a purple sunrise to represent the hope that the stigma surrounding
the opioid addiction can be erased and that opioid users can be helped. For endeavors such as
the Instagram account, we have been using a combination of both photos and videos along with
links to external articles and information webpages so as to convey different types of information
surrounding our campaign.
Part III: List of Proposed Projects
SALEM OPIOID AWARENESS MEDIA CAMPAIGN:
1. Instagram account (salem_opioid_awareness)
-created: 9/27/2018.
-made by: Samuel Copans with input from the entire team.
-service: deliver information surrounding the opioid crisis.
-client deadline: 12/21/2018.
-internal deadline: 12/21/2018.
-first edit completed?: yes (ideas brainstormed by the entire team).
-peer edit completed?: yes (account and content created).
-final proofreading completed?: yes (account made public).
-submitted to client: yes (client approved of the account).
-date submitted to client: 10/5/2018.

2. YouTube channel (Salem Opioid Awareness)

-created: 10/17/2018.
-made by: Deanna DeBenedictis with input from the entire team.
-service: post content that sheds light on the opioid crisis.
-client deadline: 12/21/2018.
-internal deadline: 12/21/2018.
-first edit completed?: yes (content created by members of the team).
-peer edit completed?: yes (entire team approves of content).
-final proofreading completed?: yes (channel made public).
-submitted to client: no.
-date submitted to client: N/A.

3. Logo for media campaign

-created: 9/26/2018.
-made by: Jesse Wogan with input from the entire team.
 -service: have imagery that represents the campaign.
-client deadline: 12/21/2018.
-internal deadline: 10/1/2018.
-first edit completed?: yes (logo ideas brainstormed by the entire team).
-peer edit completed?: yes (Jesse drew the logo, entire team approved).
-final proofreading completed?: yes (logo used on social media).
-submitted to client: yes (client approved of the logo).
-date submitted to client: 10/5/2018.

4. Information session/NARCAN demo event at Starbucks on SSU campus

-created: 10/5/2018.
-planned and held by: the entire team.
-service: spread awareness of the crisis and support options on campus.
-client deadline: 12/21/2018.
-internal deadline: 12/21/2018.
-first edit completed?: yes (manager of Starbucks talked to about the event).
-peer edit completed?: no.
-final proofreading completed?: no.
-submitted to client: no.
-date submitted to client: N/A.

5. Music playlist created for #DestigmatizeSalem

-created: 10/17/2018.
-made by: Deanna DeBenedictis with input from the entire team.
-service: relate the struggles of drug use/abuse to listeners through music
-client deadline: 12/21/2018.
-internal deadline: 10/19/2018.
-first edit completed?: yes (artist ideas brainstormed by the entire team).
-peer edit completed?: yes (playlist created, entire team approved).
-final proofreading completed?: yes (playlist made public on YouTube).
-submitted to client: no.
-date submitted to client: N/A.

5. Filmed interview(s) with local recovering addicts

 -created: 10/10/2018.
-conducted by: the entire team.
-service: show viewers the opioid crisis from different perspectives
-client deadline: 12/21/2018.
-internal deadline: 12/21/2018.
-first edit completed?: yes (Jesse Wogan interviewed a local friend).
-peer edit completed?: yes (first interview uploaded on YouTube channel).
-final proofreading completed?: no.
-submitted to client: yes (client approves of the filmed interviewing concept).
-date submitted to client: 10/5/2018.

5. In-person meetings with client Emily Chi

-began: 9/14/2018.
-meeting place and time: Salem Board of Health office every other Friday.
-service: keep everyone in the loop of campaign objectives and progress.
-client deadline: 12/21/2018.
-internal deadline: 12/21/2018.
-first edit completed?: yes (Emily reached via e-mail, meeting scheduled).
-peer edit completed?: yes (meetings held on a consistent basis).
-final proofreading completed?: no.
-submitted to client: yes (client was on-time and had clear goals and input).
-date submitted to client: 9/14/2018.

6. Billable time summaries

-records kept beginning: 9/14/2018.
-organized by: Deanna DeBenedictis with input from the entire team.
-service: make sure team is keeping track of time spent on campaign work.
-client deadline: 12/21/2018.
-internal deadline: 12/21/2018.
-first edit completed?: yes (first time summary submitted on Canvas).
-peer edit completed?: yes (second time summary submitted on Canvas).
-final proofreading completed?: no.
-submitted to client: no.
-date submitted to client: N/A