ES

H E K
T LA

FI N G E R
IS...

PUBLIC RELATIONS
CAMPAIGN
South Hill P.R. Firm
Gabe Altamuro, Tessa Belmonte,
Grace Bowman, Paige Florin, Alexis Lujares
LETTER TO THE CLIENT
Dear Elaine, Nana, and the GrassRoots Family,

On behalf of my team and I, of South Hill P.R. Firm, we wanted to write

a thank you for allowing us to work with you this semester. From what we
learned during our meeting with you, our team understood the need for
more volunteers at future festivals was a critical goal of yours and we wanted
to achieve this. To accomplish this desire, South Hill P.R. Firm performed
critical research that involved implementing your common values in order to
align with an ideal target audience. This information gave us knowledge on
how to accurately promote GrassRoots and gather volunteers for the coming
summers. 
“GrassRoots Is…” is the name of our campaign. We wanted to create a
name that is memorable and purposeful. Our team knows the impact of how
friends turn into family at this event, thus, this is the overarching theme we
chose to promote. Simultaneously, we are communicating other key
messages your event promises that match up with our target audience’s
beliefs to increase your volunteer numbers. We do want to recognize how
the festival will not be occurring this summer due to the recent health crisis
of COVID-19; however, please do know that this campaign is useful for next
summer and will continue to be an aid for future years. Once again, thank
you for allowing us the freedom to design a campaign that is authentic to
your organization and one that is also promising to your needs. We hope you
enjoy and see improvement.

Sincerely,

Paige Florin
Account Manager of South Hill P.R. Firm

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
& LIST OF APPENDICES
LETTER TO THE CLIENT...................................................................................................i

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY.................................................................................................1-5

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS.............................................................................................6-21

RESEARCH REPORT...................................................................................................22-37

CAMPAIGN PLAN.......................................................................................................38-53

IN-TEXT CITATION & REFERENCE LIST..................................................................54-57

IMPLEMENTATION MATERIALS..............................................................................58-67

APPENDICES................................................................................................................68-81

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CAMPAIGN SUMMARY
The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance is an annual event hosted by the Ithaca
community in Trumansburg, New York. Every July, various musicians, artists, and
music lovers set up camp surrounded by the beautiful Finger Lakes region for four
blissful days of dancing, making memories and discovering new bands. Celebrating
their 30th year, The GrassRoots Festival has been fostering happiness, community
and unforgettable experiences through music and dance for some time now.
Throughout the past three decades, those that were once a member of a volunteer
crew, or a face in the crowd, have now become part of the GrassRoots family.

What started out as a one time event to bring the community together during the
AIDS crisis turned into much more. Furthermore, three bands performed together to
create a feeling of unconditional support in a time of stress. Since then, The
GrassRoots Festival has retained attendance by the annual festival goers.
Addtionally, the organization has kept their sponsorships from vendors who reside
in the Ithaca community and have also continued to rely on the common
stakeholders that make the festival happen. Nevertheless, although these segments
have been consistent throughout the many years, volunteer numbers have declined.

As noted by the client, and through our research, South Hill P.R. Firm has found that
the GrassRoots Festival has had a decline in volunteers for the past five years. In
order to bring the numbers back, and further exceed prior volunteer rates, our team
concluded that our efforts should focus on building a larger awareness about
GrassRoots’ volunteer offering. Not only do we want to expand the brand messaging
relating to the festival and their need for volunteers, but we also want to begin
offering incentives, other than free admission, to show gratitude for volunteers by
celebrating their efforts in making the music festival happen.

With the collegiate environment surrounding the area, the amount of festival
attendees and volunteers could be reinvigorated by college-aged individuals. The
festival has not necessarily drawn a large attendance from this age group in the past.
We want to continue the GrassRoots tradition, but with a larger volunteer base. The
GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance is largely dependent upon volunteers.
However, over the past five years, the festival organizers have seen a decline in
volunteer sign-ups and commitments. This is a significant issue to attend to because,
if it were not for this extra help, the annual event would not be able to run. In order
to regain the number of volunteers from prior years, South Hill P.R. Firm’s campaign
efforts will solely focus on recruiting more volunteers to help out at the annual 1
festival.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY
In order to achieve this need, our team created a survey that included sixteen
questions. The survey started with broad questions and then funneled into more
specific ideas that would describe the beliefs and preferences of the individual
answering. This quantitative research tool was sent out to college students and
passed on to others by prior respondents. This provided us with answers from
individuals of all different ages. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, our team changed
our original qualitative research plan. Instead of a traditional focus group, we sent
out a miniature open-ended survey, digitally. The answers we were given were
meaningful, thus it helped us grasp the emotional side of what The GrassRoots
Festival of Music and Dance promises.

Some of the key findings that we discovered through our quantitative research was
highly based upon the 18-25-year-old age category. Significantly, we found that
those who were third year and fourth year college students, as well as
postgraduates, represented a majority of our data. Within this age group, our team
was informed about how this age category cares highly for climate change and
women's rights. Also, we learned that these individuals value education, family, and
sustainability. Another finding told us that those within this age category are
influenced by their friends and family. The data showed us that both social media
and the internet are most commonly used as a news source for this demographic.

We also found out about this age’s past history and experiences with volunteering
which have been with education and youth groups as well as local and nonprofit
organizations. In accordance with volunteering, our data displayed the incentives
needed to increase the volunteer numbers for the festival. These options include a
free four-day pass along with free food and drinks available to helpers as a way to
entice and retain the volunteers. It was also noted that this age group lacks
awareness and recognition of the festival.

In our qualitative research, our team consolidated the individualized responses into
two common themes which were labeled as, “friends are the family you choose”
and the “pain of missing friends”. This data provided an emotional side from
participants regarding their relationships with others and what it means to be away
from the people they love. This information collected was very helpful as it told us
more about personal experiences rather than just basing our campaign on
numerics. 2
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY
Our campaign is designed to accomplish two necessary goals. These goals include
increasing awareness and raising current numbers of volunteers with our primary
target group. As we found within our research, those who are in the 18-25 year-old
age category are our target. The majority of these individuals are third and fourth-
year college students and recent graduates; thus, we are making this specific
population our primary target to reach and achieve the desired goals. Since most of
our communicative efforts will be in a collegiate environment, we declared that first
and second year students, as well as school faculty and staff, will be included in our
secondary target group. The messages we send out will inadvertently be shared with
this population and gain their attention.

Our campaign is called “GrassRoots Is…”. We took all the data that reflected our
target’s needs and desires and further matched them up with the festival’s beliefs
and common messages. This data provided us with what we need to accomplish our
two goals of increasing awareness across our target audience and further increasing
volunteerism numbers for the festival with this age category.

For our first goal, we want to increase awareness among our primary age target of
the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival by 20 percent in the next six months. To
achieve this need, our first strategy is to improve our audience engagement by
utilizing the GrassRoots Festival Instagram and Facebook pages. Using these two
social media accounts will help us to reach our target demographic of 18-25-year-
olds. Our first tactic will be a modified, interpersonal communication campaign. We
will encourage past volunteers to send out videos talking about their experience with
the festival and the concept of family throughout the volunteers. We will post these
to the GrassRoots social media accounts with the hashtag, #GrassRootsIs. Our
second tactic is to implement an oriented static advertisement and promotional
campaign. We want to focus on Instagram and Twitter because we understand that
it is important to focus on the platforms that our target audience uses the most. On
these social media accounts we will highlight different experiences that volunteers
have had, whether that was meeting new people, making stronger friendships,
finding a sense of community spirit and so on. By boosting this content, our
intention is to help raise awareness for the festival.

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CAMPAIGN SUMMARY
The second goal we have set for our campaign is to promote the need for volunteers
to our target age group of 18-25-year-olds. Our objective is to increase the amount
of volunteers by 25 percent for GrassRoots Festival by May of 2021, which will then
be measured by the number of individuals signing up to volunteer via the event’s
website. In order to achieve this goal, our team will adopt a proactive communication
method of generating news as well as a proactive audience engagement stratgey.
Each is going to increase awareness about the need for volunteers and further
acquire sign-ups from our target population. The first strategy's tactic will
incorporate local news media, ranging from student run newspapers to community
letters. We will also include key newspapers from the Northeast region, as we plan to
send out one press release after the festival to reflect upon the event and media
advisory at the beginning of the following year, emphasizing the festival’s need for
volunteers. The second strategy's tactic will be executed through interpersonal
communication, more specifically, an organization on-site implementation. This
means that we will set up booths in high-traffic areas, such as community events
organized by the Ithaca Festival Board or the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, where there
will be newly designed flyers detailing the GrassRoots event and encouraging
volunteerism. Ideally, past volunteers would run the booths to share stories about
GrassRoots to interested patrons.

These two goals will be evaluated by the heads of the festival. Moreover, due to
many of the social media platforms supplying promotional materials for the user, the
individuals can check on their own time at the end of each month to see the number
of clicks, shares, and demographic reach. This ability also goes for volunteer sign-ups
as well. The festival heads can count volunteer numbers at the end of each day or
month to see if there is an increase in those who chose to help, specifically among
this age category. These capabilities can both be followed through with each year as
they are both tasks that are solely dependent upon the organization itself.

Our team proposed an eight-month public relations plan that begins in January
and ends at the beginning of August. We are initiating more communication to be
sent out between the months of April and June-right before the festival begins. Our
campaign incorporates social media promotions, a print advertisement and news
media, as well as interpersonal communication methods to boost awareness and
increase volunteerism numbers. With a budget of $1,000, the majority of publicity
efforts will go towards paid social media posts and the printing of flyers for booths
at local events. All tactics are under budget ($898.99) and will accomplish what is
4
desired.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY
“GrassRoots Is…” is more than an annual event. It is a place for family, friends, music,
and volunteers to all come together in one place. Through the use of these
objectives, strategies and aligned tactics, awareness and volunteerism numbers will
each be increased among this target age group. It is recommended that this
campaign be followed for coming years as these strategies will perform what they
promise creating desired results for the GrassRoots organization and family.

5
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

6
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance is an annual event hosted by the Ithaca
community in Trumansburg, New York. Each year, individuals come together and
participate in this fun event the celebrates music, friendship, and love.

During the early 1990’s, community members of Ithaca were responding to the AIDS
crisis. Thousands were feeling vulnerable, thus, in order to renew the prior peace,
three bands came together and performed for the Ithaca community. Funds were
raised and donated to the AIDS support system in Tompkins County which provided
free information and support to those in need. The original performance at the State
Theatre initiated the creation of the GrassRoots Festival and two of the three original
bands still make an annual appearance. What was first established in the Finger
Lakes portion of upstate New York has now moved to two other locations including
Shakori Hills in North Carolina and Virginia Key in Florida. All locations allow festival
goers to experience the GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance during all four
seasons.

The production of the festival not only relies on the 13,000 festival goers to buy
tickets and attend the event, but they also heavily depend upon the numerous
stakeholders who help make the event happen. These stakeholders include the
variety of bands who are asked to play, the specific food and drink and merchandise
vendors that are spread out around the festival grounds, and local advertisers who
either become an annual (or specific year) sponsor. These stakeholders are the
necessary foundation for the festival because they all play a part in the event’s
smooth turnout.

As noted by the client, and through our research, South Hill P.R. Firm has found that
the GrassRoots Festival has had a decline in volunteers for the past five years. In
order to bring the numbers back, and further exceed prior volunteer rates, our team
concluded that our efforts should focus on building a larger awareness about
GrassRoots’ volunteer offering. Not only do we want to expand the brand messaging
relating to the festival and their need for volunteers, but we also want to begin
offering incentives, other than free admission, to show gratitude for volunteers by
celebrating their efforts in making the music festival happen.

7
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The GrassRoots Festival is beloved by local families and music lovers alike but, with
the collegiate environment surrounding the area, the amount of festival attendees
and volunteers could be reinvigorated by college-age individuals. The festival has not
necessarily drawn a large attendance from this age group in the past. We want to
continue the GrassRoots tradition, but with a larger volunteer base.

8
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance is largely dependent upon volunteers.
However, over the past five years, the festival organizers have seen a decline in
volunteer sign-ups and commitments. This is a significant issue to attend to because,
if it were not for this extra help, the annual event would not be able to run. In order
to regain the number of volunteers from prior years, South Hill P.R. Firm’s campaign
efforts will solely focus on building awareness of the organization to recruit more
volunteers to help out at the annual festival.

SITUATION ANALYSIS
A situation analysis is an overview of internal and external factors, relevant
stakeholders as well as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a
company or an organization. An anlalysis is then conducted to help the client identify
problems and future opportunities for their current business situation.

INTERNAL FACTORS
MISSION
As a mission-based (501-c3) organization, the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of
Music and Dance is aimed to work with, “...local artists and talent while reaching
around the globe to bring world music and culture to new audiences, creating
environments that inspire creativity and foster community building” (Finger Lakes
GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, 2019).

VALUE
The organization has seven core values that are in support of the community, family,
music, arts, local needs, education, and sustainability (Finger Lakes GrassRoots
Festival of Music and Dance, 2019). These values are implemented each year for the
consistency of the event and for those who routinely show or are just being
introduced.

9
VISION
The organization has served to both engage and give back to the local and regional
communities in which it exists by providing financial and organizational support to
impact positive change. GrassRoots reiterates that their festival’s main focus is on all
who attend to have a great time and to generate a feeling of community. Although a
sense of belonging is a core value during the event, their vision extends far beyond
the four-day festival. Giving back to the community and creating inclusivity are two
relative aspects the organization always pushes forward during their off-months
(Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, 2019).

ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY
In the early 1990s, a time of crisis for many Americans due to the rise of the AIDS
epidemic, there was a desire to bring people together during this period of
vulnerability. To meet this goal, three bands came together and performed at the
State Theater for the Ithaca community, raising $10,000 for the AIDS support system
in Tompkins County. These bands included: Donna the Buffalo and friends, The
Horse Flies, and Neon Baptist. Overwhelmingly, this production exceeded
expectations of the number of people who attended this event. Due to its
unforeseen success, the Ithaca community wanted to continue this tradition for the
attendees as well as grow their philanthropic desires of giving back. The GrassRoots
Festival for Music and Dance was created and has become an annual event that
many locals look forward to, especially with their upcoming thirty year celebration
(Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, 2019). Since its start,
volunteerism has been a component that the GrassRoots Festival has valued.
Without a community of helpers, the festival would not be where it is today. Family is
another integral value, especially for those who participate and choose to help out at
this event. In regard to valuing volunteers’ time, volunteers are asked to work around
three to four hours a day and are then compensated with a free weekend pass to
the event for their efforts (Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance,
2019). Also, a change in policy is being implemented this coming year. The
GrassRoots Festival is now promoting safety and security within the festival grounds.
With this change implemented, a health and safety fee has been added to ticket
costs; $3.00 per day for tickets offered to the public (Finger Lakes GrassRoots
Festival of Music and Dance, 2019).
10
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Each year, various groups apply to be a part of the GrassRoots Festival of Music and
Dance. Within a Google form, the application requests the group’s name, e-mail, city,
state, phone number, the type of performance (i.e. dance, music, and more), the
group’s Facebook page, website, and a video of a prior performance. Once these
specifics are all submitted, the festival organizers then sort out the applications and
choose performers on a basis of popularity, music and artistic genre, and among
other reasons.

In order to promote this event effectively, there are a few important people to
recognize. First, Dave Burbank is the festival’s photographer. His pictures are placed
on the GrassRoots website, on their social media pages, and are used to advertise
both during and after the festival. The festival organizers also have multiple social
media accounts including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. People who work for this
organization are responsible for creating and uploading content to social media
during the off-months as well as when the festival is running. The organization also
has ad placements in the Ithaca Voice which is used as another local promotional
outlet (Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, 2019).

This event is mainly run by volunteers. From those who opt to help with the event’s
set-up, to the workers who assist during the event, and the individuals who help with
post-festival break down, many hours and allocated for the specific job and people
placed in that shift. With thirty areas or crews to volunteer, there are various
functions to assist at. These include, “Kids and Family” fun activities to other
workshops like “Food and Craft Vendors,” “Beer and Wine Gardens,” “Healing Arts
and Yoga,” and more. One of GrassRoots’ unique selling points is their “Culture
Camp” where festival attendees can pay an additional ticket fee to experience a four-
day long workshop that offers dinners, dances, and other community-inspired
events.

The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance also hosts their annual event in two other
places. Twelve years after Finger Lakes initiated their annual GrassRoots Festival of Music
and Dance, Shakori Hills in North Carolina was added as another spot to experience this
event in both the spring and fall seasons. In 2012, the festival wanted to add another
season for those to experience the fun. Virginia Key has been added to host this festival
in the winter (Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, 2019).
11
FUNDING
Ticket sales are a major money maker for the GrassRoots Festival. Now that an
additional fee for health and safety has been added to the original ticket price, the
cost for event tickets has increased. Festival organizers offer an “early-bird special”
where the earlier a reveler purchases a ticket, the less expensive it will be for them.
Festival participants can either purchase a four-day pass (currently priced at $125.00
until May 1st) or can purchase single day tickets which are valued at different rates;
all are dependent upon the day (i.e. in advance and gate ticket purchase vary). On-
site camping tickets are sold separately from admission tickets and are slated to go
on sale February 24th at 9am. Both admission and camping tickets are non-
refundable. Children under 12 years of age can attend the event free of charge but
must stay with a parent at all times. GrassRoots is also sponsored by local favorites
like the Ithaca Beer Company, Renovas Solar, and Liquid State Brewing Company.
Although these are the main sponsorships for their annual event, the festival is
always looking for other companies and organizations to advertise at the festival
(Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, 2019).

POSITION AND REPUTATION

With over 2,800 followers on Twitter, 3,600 followers on Instagram, and close to
26,000 likes and follows on Facebook, it can be concluded that GrassRoots Music
Festival is held in high regard to local families and music lovers. Past attendees
frequently express gratitude, nostalgia and excitement about the event through
their social media channels. Due to the Ithaca community being relatively small and
niche, this festival brings in a wonderful mix of the people that make up the funky
and unique group of festival goers. The festival itself allows attendees and volunteer
crews to build a strong community within the Finger Lakes region and those who
travel from near and far places.

Additionally, the festival website is regularly updated and contains important information
pertaining to the festival. Unlike other festivals, GrassRoots was created in response to
the need of love and support in the community during a crisis. From humble beginnings
as a three-band relief effort performing at the State Theatre for a noble cause has now
turned into something even more powerful. The roots of the GrassRoots event are held
so deeply in the hearts of first-time and long-returning festival attendees alike.
Togetherness is how GrassRoots began and it is what has kept the festival alive to
celebrate its thirtieth year. 12
EXTERNAL FACTORS
TRENDS
According to the Corporation for National and Community Service (2018), in the
state of New York, 25.8% of residents volunteer in local groups or organizations,
while 12.73% of residents engage in some form of music, performance, or other
artistic activities. Additionally, 28% of New York residents volunteer for sport, hobby,
cultural or arts. In 2018, Rochester, ranked number two nationwide for volunteering
among cities. Statistics show that 45.6% of their resident’s volunteer.

In accordance with Generation X participants who volunteer, a research study

performed by the Corporation for National and Community Service gathered
information regarding the likelihood of those who are Generation X to volunteer. As
noted, this generation had the highest volunteer rate among age groups at 36.4%.
Baby Boomers had the highest number of hours at more than 2.2 billion. Millennial
volunteering increased more than 6% since the last report and has now risen to
28.2%. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2015,
25.7% of college students volunteered. This is valuable information as it surfaces
upon volunteer rates and who GrassRoots should be looking for to volunteer at their
event.

COMPETITORS
Within our findings, our team discovered four competitors that GrassRoots should
be aware of.

The first of GrassRoots competitors is Cayuga Sound. Although their

festival is not during the same time of year as the event put on by
GrassRoots, it targets a huge college-aged population. Their social
media following is smaller than GrassRoots, but all their Instagram and
Facebook accounts are verified. Curated by the X Ambassadors,
Cayuga Sound implements various bands and artists of multiple genres
and creates a fun environment for those who attend (Cayuga Sound,
2018).

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COMPETITORS
The Great Blue Heron Festival is another competitor of GrassRoots that is providing a
festival in Sherman, New York around July 4th. This festival integrates multiple genres
and artists to perform at their event. Not only is this festival around the same time as
Finger Lakes GrassRoots, but they also integrate a volunteer effort. As a volunteer
there are multiple areas to lend a hand. To thank one for their time, a free ticket, an
early entry to the festival, and a way to grow one’s circle of friends and family are the
givebacks that the festival promotes. The coming summer’s festival is celebrating their
twenty-ninth summer. This provides us with insight that this event will draw many
individuals to its celebration. This organization has 2,500 followers on Instagram and is
verified via Facebook (Great Blue Heron Festival, 2020).

Although the Otis Mountain Get Down Festival is only a two-day weekend festival that
occurs in September. This event promotes values of diversity and community which
are shared with GrassRoots. Similar to GrassRoots, Otis Mountainis highly dependent
upon its volunteers. As noted on their website, close to 3,000 people sign up to help.
Having to fill out an application, the individual then gets to purchase a discounted
weekend pass. Then, the volunteer is able to choose where they work and the hours
of their shift. The options are between two, three-hour shifts or one, five-hour block.
As a way to thank their helpers, the festival gives them a volunteer t-shirt, a “volunteer
of the year prize,” and a reimbursement of the weekend pass bought. Their Instagram
following is a tad larger, but their followers on Facebook are drastically smaller (Otis
Mountain Media, 2019).

The last competitor of GrassRoots is the Pitchfork Music Festival. Occuring during the
same dates as GrassRoots, the event is celebrating their fifteenth anniversary held in
Chicago, Illinois. As a way to promote their fifteenth Anniversary, Pitchfork has hosted
multiple events to “kickstart” their July-anniversary celebration. Similar to GrassRoots’
core values, The Pitchfork Music Festival also believes in promoting sustainability.
Having a bit over 900,000 followers via Instagram, over 52,300 likes on Facebook, and
3.3 million followers on Twitter, the Pitchfork Music Festival has made its way as top
competition. (Pitchfork Music Festival, 2020).

14
CHALLANGES
While the GrassRoots Festival has been an annual event for many years, their
volunteer help in the set-up, running, and take down has started to decline. Although
plenty of their volunteers have been supporting the organization for years, additional
necessary spots have been hard to fill, and the commitments have been hard to trust.
The fear of the lack of volunteerism will create fear of the event not returning.

RELEVANT PUBLICS & STAKEHOLDERS

TARGET AUDIENCE
For our campaign, we are aiming to target 18-25 year olds. Specifically, we would like
to primarily focus on third and fourth-year college students and recent postgraduates.
As we acquired in our research, 25.7% of college students volunteered. Although
others above this age have increased their volunteerism status rates (i.e. Baby
Boomers have the most amount of volunteer hours), we believe that college-aged
individuals are the ideal target. We also found how various college campuses promote
volunteerism, thus this information fits well with the festival’s needs.

OPINION LEADERS AND INFLUENCERS

In recent years, the music festival scene has expanded into mainstream popularity and
has created a cultural gathering space for young adults that is reminiscent of the
flower power, activism focused, peace and music-loving days of the 60s. For the
GrassRoots campaign, our opinion leaders are local figures and organizations that are
both involved in volunteerism and music. These opinion leaders represent part of the
Ithaca population on both levels. For the most part, previous GrassRoots festival
volunteers have been individuals who are thirty years of age and older. To gather the
college level target, we are looking for opinion leaders and influencers who can speak
to this younger audiences.

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OPINION LEADERS AND INFLUENCERS
Ithaca Underground is a local non-profit organization that seeks to provide Ithaca and
surrounding areas with quality underground musical artists and shows through
community partnerships. As an organization, Ithaca Underground strives to retain the
heart and locality of the grassroots movement that inspired the organization at its
beginnings in 2007. Their staff consists of volunteers, mainly college students, to assist
with front door and ticket sales, photography, and more at the shows that they run.
Ithaca Underground’s mission resonates with the GrassRoots mission. Specifically,
they nurture a sustainable, all ages (especially youth), radically inclusive environment
for those with do-it-yourself ambitions and to ensure that new and challenging music
and art outside of the mainstream is able to flourish (Ithaca Underground, 2019).

Funk ‘N Waffles is a restaurant in Syracuse, New York that is known for its live music.
We can utilize their popularity with college-aged individuals who love music to increase
volunteerism for the GrassRoots Festival. It also provides us with the opportunity to
reach students from both Syracuse University and Le Moyne College; this further
expands our reach for GrassRoots into other areas of Upstate New York (Funk ‘N
Waffles, 2018).

Phil Blackman is the department head of Ithaca College’s Entertainment and Media
Management graduate program. This inaugural program works closely with the
music and entertainment industry in Ithaca and other parts of Upstate New York.
Phil would be a great person to work with as he has the ability to inform his
students about GrassRoots and appeal to their need for volunteers (Ithaca College
News Staff, 2019).

Lastly, The Haunt is a bar in Ithaca where local bands and undiscovered artists can
perform live at this venue. The GrassRoots festival can use this as an opportunity to
get The Haunt’s customers and performers to volunteer at the festival. Many of The
Haunt’s customers are individuals who love music. We believe including a free four-
day pass, along with free food and drink incentives at the festival, will be enough to
get this music-loving crowd to volunteer (The Haunt, 2017).

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MESSAGE DISTRIBUTERS
Due to the main festival occuring in Ithaca, we would want to reach out to Ithaca based
news coverage from the Ithaca Voice, the Ithaca Journal, 14850 online news, Press and
Sun Bulletin, Ithaca.com, and NYSmusic. Currently, many of the news outlets have
already reported upon the GrassRoots Festival, thus we feel keeping the relationship
and consistency for the community is crucial for our volunteer campaign. In order to
reach other students and individuals of the target age, our team wants to expand to
other schools outside of the Ithaca area. Specifically, Syracuse, Binghamton, Rochester,
and Geneseo.

The Daily Orange is Syracuse University’s student-run newspaper and a good majority of
its content has to do with volunteering. We believe advertising the needed volunteer
efforts to this group of students will increase GrassRoots’ numbers in those who
choose to help (The Daily Orange News Staff, n.d).

Similarly, Binghamton University also has a student-run newspaper called Pipe Dream.
This news outlet features numerous articles relating to volunteerism. This medium
could be another useful way to inform students about wanted volunteers for the
GrassRoots Festival (Pipe Dream News Staff, n.d).

As noted by Spectrum News (2019), the city of Rochester has the second highest
percentage of volunteerism compared to other locations. Using this data, we want to
reach out to the University of Rochester and create a partnership between the
GrassRoots Festival and the college as we think the numbers will rise above the festivals
previous volunteer numbers. The last area outside of Ithaca we would like to connect
with is State University of New York of Geneseo as they had mentioned GrassRoots in
an article this past September. With this prior recognition, our team believes this could
work in the festivals favor as it can build brand awareness and acquire the needed help
(Jones, 2019).

17
MESSAGE DISTRIBUTERS
In effort to reach our desired target widely, we also would like to use the festivals own
social media accounts. Specifically, we would like to use the organizations already
created Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. Key messages will be distributed
on these sites to inform the desired target audience as building awareness of the
organization towards this target age is essential to increase future volunteer numbers.

KEY INFORMANTS
For our campaign we want to speak with individuals who are both in college and out of
school. These people can either be in the Ithaca area or elsewhere in the nation. We
will first target our campaign towards individuals in Trumansburg, New York.
Moreover, we will be communicating with students who study at Ithaca College,
Cornell University, and Tompkins County Community College. These efforts will then
expand beyond our primary target in order to gather more key insights from other age
groups. Acquiring information from multiple ages will inform us of who knows of the
GrassRoots Festival, who is interested and, who would like to volunteer. This
information will further our team’s understanding of what we need to focus on and
promote in order to increase volunteer numbers for the GrassRoots Music Festival.

THREATS
If we do not supply the correct messaging in gathering volunteers, our target may not
respond the way we were hoping, thus hindering our efforts. It is important that we
understand our target extremely well to ensure we are able to create a positive
response and outcome for this campaign plan.

STAKEHOLDERS
Among those who attend The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, there are a
few key stakeholders to appreciate. First, we want to recognize the bands who
perform. As stated by the client, many bands apply to be a part of this event, but only
a number of them are chosen. Some are smaller local bands, while a few are bigger
groups traveling from a further distance. Each band chosen is a different genre such
as bluegrass, country rock, and more that are shared with the community. These
bands help promote this event as they raise awareness for their feature and drag
attendees to watch.
18
STAKEHOLDERS
Food and drink vendors are also a huge stakeholder during this event as they supply
food to the people at the festival. Like Ithaca Beer Company, other vendors are
providing their brand to individuals. This not only generates revenue for the festival, but
it simultaneously creates recognition for the companies that are involved. Merchandise
vendors are also important to recognize as clothing may be needed during a four-day
concert and community festival. Essentials are needed and its important these
necessities are at the attendees convenience.

Another significant stakeholder are the locals. Without these individuals, GrassRoots
would not be as big as it is now. These key returners help gather their families, friends,
and other music lovers to soon become a retained GrassRoots festival goer.

Without advertising and sponsorships, the GrassRoots organization would not be

where it is today. Ithaca Beer Company, Liquid State Brewing Company, and Renovus
Solar are three main advertisers for the event, but the festival is always asking for
others. Advertising supplies money for the festival so that GrassRoots can use the
acquired funds for their own advertising and other promotional material (Finger Lakes
GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, 2019).

19
S.W.O.T ANALYSIS
Strenghths
Strong community base (has
reached music lovers in the Finger
Lakes Region)
Inclusive/family oriented
Offers various activities at the
festival
Various locations, seasons to
experience the festival
Opportunities
Rise in music festival popularity   Competing festivals
Colleges and Universities located
in Finger Lakes/East Coast region
could be a potential for lots of
college student volunteers
Larger appreciation for
volunteers
Messaging can be presented
earlier    
Weaknesses
Festival goers are willing to pay
for tickets rather than volunteer
No current incentives for
volunteers other than scattered
show attendance
Lack of social media following
other than Facebook
Advertising efforts are delayed
Threats
Decline of volunteerism
Students in the area go home for
summer and generally do not
come back for events (distance,
jobs, etc.)
Other events take attendees due
to the similar dates
20
CURRENT SITUATION
DEVELOPMENT
In past years, the amount of volunteers for the GrassRoots Music Festival has been
decreasing. The festival is a nonprofit event and, because of the help the organizers get
from their volunteers, they are the fundamental units that keep the festival alive. There
seems to have been no past public relations efforts from GrassRoots, although they are
open to suggestions. Their goal is to increase the number of volunteers for the coming
summer’s festival and all future festivals. We would like to note that it is not beneficial to
create a campaign that does not recognize the current health emergency situation. As
such, we restructured what we created so that it reflects today’s situation. Furthermore,
this campaign can be pushed for future usage for summer 2021 and others that follow.

CURRENT POSITION
Currently, the GrassRoots Festival is looking to increase the number of their volunteers
through a public relations campaign. The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance is
celebrating their thirtieth anniversary and the more volunteers they have, the smoother
this celebration will run. The organization is open to any means of obtaining new
volunteers as they know volunteers are essential.

DIRECTION
The GrassRoots Festival is willing to create more incentives for volunteers as a way to
show their appreciation for those who opt to help. They are looking for an increase in
volunteers with a creative public relations campaign that falls into their $1,000 budget
and would like to continue these efforts for the years that follow.

OBSTACLES
There are some challenges that may come up during this campaign. A major problem is,
with the raise of minimum wage, individuals are more willing to pay for their tickets than
to volunteer for free tickets. The reason for this is that a helper may not want to miss out
on the festival while working. Individuals may also see the $150.00 volunteering deposit
and steer away from volunteering or going to the festival if they cannot afford this. There
have also been instances of individuals volunteering and backing out at the last minute.
This campaign will have to promote the correct ideas to the target audience in order to
infleunce their choice of volunteering for the coming festival. 21
RESEARCH REPORT

22
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
South Hill P.R. Firm gathered research to primarily understand which segmented group
should be our target and how to effectively reach them. In order to gather this data, we
worked together to come up with a plan that would provide a maximum response rate
and validate which target audience would be best to pursue. We came up with four
research questions and two objectives which helped us develop our quantitative and
qualitative research instruments. As a team we created a survey that included sixteen
questions. The survey started with broad questions and then funneled into more
specific questions that would describe the beliefs and preferences of the individual
answering. This quantitative research tool was sent out to college students and passed
on to others by prior respondents. This provided us with answers from individuals of all
different ages. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, our team changed our original
qualitative research plan. Instead of a traditional focus group, we sent out a miniature
open-ended survey, digitally. The answers we were given were meaningful which helped
us grasp the emotional side of all the aspects The GrassRoots Festival of Music and
Dance promises.

Some of the key findings that we discovered through our quantitative research was
highly based upon the 18-25-year-old age category. Significantly, we found that those
who are third year and fourth year college students, as well as postgraduates,
represented a majority of our data. Within this age group, our team was informed
about how this age category cares highly for climate change and women's rights. Also,
we learned that these individuals value education, family, and sustainability. Another
finding told us that those within this age category are influenced by their friends and
family. The data showed us that both social media and the internet are most commonly
used as a news source for this demographic. We also found out about this age’s past
history and experiences with volunteering which have been with education and youth
groups, as well as local and nonprofit organizations. In accordance with volunteering,
our data displayed the incentives needed to increase the volunteer numbers for the
festival. These options include a free four-day pass along with free food and drinks
available to helpers as a way to entice and retain the volunteers. It was also noted that
this age group lacks awareness and recognition of the festival.

23
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In our qualitative research, our team consolidated the individualized responses into two
common themes which were labeled as, “friends are the family you choose” and the
“pain of missing friends”. This data provided an emotional side of the participants
regarding their relationships with others and what it means to be away from the people
they love. This information collected was very helpful as it told us more about personal
experiences rather than just basing our campaign on numerical data.

Using the quantitative and qualitative data collected, our team justified the numbers
and quotes into an interpretation for our campaign. With what we were able to gather,
many of the facts presented matched up with GrassRoots’ story, background, values,
and beliefs. Significantly, those within the 18-25-year age group showed us that many of
their wants and beliefs are similar to the festival’s. For example, this group considers
climate change and women’s rights as being important. This is notable as the festival is
led by women and focuses on being environmentally friendly. Through our findings we
also found that this age values education, family, and sustainability. This data is
important as The GrassRoots Festival implements educational experiences, promotes a
family-oriented place for all to enjoy, and pushes for environmentally friendly practices
within the festival grounds and outside of the annual event. Being that the The
GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance is a nonprofit organization that builds upon the
educational experience, this will gravitate towards this age group as a majority of them
have had past volunteer history and experience with organizations alike. This festival is
all about building friendships with others that soon turn into family. Those who are in
the 18-25-year age group long for these types of relationships. In order to effectively
communicate these shared preferences with those in the target audience, we will have
to increase usage of the festival’s social media and internet capabilities as this age
group primarily gets their news from these two channels.

With the information presented, it is clear that this age group is ideal to target as many
ideas are commonly shared between them and the festival.

24
PRIMARY RESEARCH
RESEARCH GOALS
The purpose of our research was to gather data that would help our team decipher our
target audience. Furthermore, this segmentation will lead us to understand what this
target audience values most when it comes to certain practices, what their beliefs and
preferences are towards frequently discussed political and social issues, and what
channels they use to gather messaging form. We will aslo acquaire the meaning for
relationships among a select group on individuals. The data collected will then provide
us with an accurate representation of who we should focus on most in order to
increase the volunteer numbers of The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance.
Simultaneously, we will also learn about the level of awareness our target audience
currently has regarding this festival.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
RQ1: How should we segment our target audience?
RQ2: What core values are most significant to our target audience?
RQ3: What messaging channels are needed to reach our target audience? 
RQ4: What types of message appeals drive our target audience to participate in
volunteering?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
RO1: Survey 174 individuals by Monday, March 30th
RO2: Survey 6 individuals; 2 juniors in college, 2 seniors in college, and 2 postgraduates
through an open-ended questionnaire by Monday, April 6.

25
METHODOLOGY
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Our team decided to send out a survey to individuals of all ages in order to understand
what demographic is most appropriate to target. This survey told us the beliefs and
preferences of the target. It also provided us with the reasons the target age chooses
or chooses not to volunteer, and the certain incentives that are needed for the
classified group to initiate their choice to help out. Also, this research informed us
about the target population’s current level of awareness of The GrassRoots Festival of
Music and Dance.

Population: Our target population was more open-ended. Specifically, our

team chose a broader approach that allowed individuals of multiple age
ranges to participate. This survey included current college students,
recent and past graduates, students who were not in college yet, as well
as people who did not attend college (N: 209,128,094) (United States
Demographic Statistics, n.d.).

Sampling and Sampling Technique: For our survey, our team’s proposed
sample size was 174 responses (n: 174). In order to gather multiple
responses quickly, we sent out our survey to students via Facebook
groups. We also posted this instrument on our own Facebook news feeds
to allow people of various ages to participate. Our friends who took the
survey also reposted it to their newsfeeds on Facebook. This method of
gathering responses represented a non-probability, convenience
sampling technique as well as non-probability, referral type of snowball
sampling technique. We threw our survey to a random pool of students as
well as individuals and many of them passed the questionnaire along to
others outside of where we started.

26
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Instrument: The survey we generated started out with a quick description
of why we were sending out this questionnaire. The small blurb also gave
an estimated time of completion (anywhere from 7-10 minutes) as well as
a thank you. We chose to begin with broad questions about the
participant such as: what year of school they are in, where they attend (or
did attend), and their current age and major. Our survey continued with
more relevant questions pertaining to what our team needed to find out
in order to understand which age group was best to target as well as how
to effectively reach them. Specifically, we asked how the participants
primarily acquire their news and how they spend their summers. More
personal opinion questions, such as the level of importance certain
political and social issues are to each participant, were asked. For each
question, we insured that all were both mutually exclusive and mutually
exhaustive so that each participant could answer comfortably. As a total
of sixteen questions, this survey provided us with the needed knowledge
as to who we should target, and how to do it effectively, in order to
increase the volunteerism for the GrassRoots Festival (Appendix A).

Data Collection Procedures: Our survey was sent out on March 9th and
closed on March 30th. We extended our initial timeline as our Spring
break was lengthened and we believed we could use the time to reach
more people, thus gathering more answers. In total, we gathered 174
responses. For our survey, we utilized Google Forms as well as Google
Sheets. As soon as responses started to roll in, we connected the survey
to a spreadsheet. This automatically organized all answers individually by
each question.

27
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Data Analysis Process: Our group utilized the shared spreadsheet via
Google as a way to run tests. We first recognized what our independent
variable would be and then compared them to other chosen dependent
variables based on our survey questions. Specifically, we chose to rely
solely on age (18-25) as our only independent variable and numerous
dependent variables. We ran multiple nominal and interval tests. Nominal
tests were used for data that did not have numerical rankings while the
interval tests were for the scaled questions (i.e. rate from really not
influential to very influential). Since our scaled questions provided answer
choices in the form of words, our team had to go back and convert those
answer choices into numbers so that interval tests could be calculated
accurately. The nominal tests provided us numerical data in terms of
percentages and frequencies. The interval tests we ran gave us data in
terms of averages (or means) and standard deviations (Appendix B).

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Our team was not able to return back to school due to the pandemic outbreak of
COVID-19. In order to fulfill our need for personalized responses remotely, our team
created an open-ended questionnaire to gather responses that would evoke emotion.
We asked about the participants' most memorable summer experiences and gathered
an understanding of what the words ‘family’ and ‘friends’ mean to them, especially
during this national health emergency.

Population: Based upon a majority of our survey respondents being in the

18-25 age range category, specifically the highest numbers representing
third and fourth-year college students and recent graduates, we wanted
to utilize this data to help further develop our campaign. Our target
population was a total of 6 responses (N: 6). Ideally, out of our target
population, we wanted 2 individuals who were third years (juniors) in
college, 2 individuals who were fourth year (seniors) in college, and 2
responses form former postgraduates. These people did not have to be
Ithaca college’s students or alumni.

28
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Sampling and Sampling Technique: Our sample size included 6 (n: 6)
responses. In order to gather meaningful answers to the open-ended
questions, our team decided to use a purposive, non-probability sampling
technique. This technique is primarily used for data collection that
includes sensitive topics, thus we felt it would be the most beneficial for
this type of research. Furthermore, we each hand-picked the participants
of this questionnaire. We chose people we knew and believed would
answer the questions well and purposefully.

Instrument: We created a survey that began with a quick introduction as to

why we were sending it out and what it entailed. This description helped
the respondents in knowing what to expect by participating. In the quick
briefing we also added an approximate time length for this open-ended
survey (around 10 minutes to complete) as the majority of our questions
were personal responses and we wanted our participants to take time in
answering them. Our first question was simple as it asked their year in
school. Open-ended questions then followed that prompted the
responder to answer with personal memories and opinions. This survey
was a total of four questions, three of which asked the individual to
respond on their own (Appendix D).

Data Collection Procedures: This open-ended questionnaire was created

and sent out on April 3rd. Due to only asking a total of 6 individuals to
answer (and choosing them on our own), we believed we would be able to
close the survey by April 6th. This was successful. We all prompted the
individuals to participate in the survey via text messages. This ensured for
easy access and a quick response. The survey was created and collected
through the use of a Google Form. When all answers were in, we closed
the survey and then transferred each participant’s responses to a shared
Google document so that we could see the responses from each
individual easily and in relation to others.

29
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Data Analysis Process: As soon as we gathered all of our responses, we
began coding the Google document. By coding, we mean we marked up the
“transcripts” (or written responses) of what people stated in their answers.
In this process, we noted similarities between the individuals' answers.
Following this step, we then categorized those that were alike into sections
that represented a common theme and connected with the client's overall
messaging and beliefs (Appendix E).

FINDINGS
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Through the 174 acquired survey responses, the data was very helpful and informative.
First and foremost, we found that a majority of the survey respondents were within the
18-25 age range. Specifically, 69 (or 39.7%) of participants chose this age category. In
order to discover the breakdown of this number, our team ran a test to figure out
which class year or post college responses were the largest. As shown through the data,
26 (or 14.6%) of respondents stated that they were third years in college, 27 (or 15.5%)
stated that they were fourth years and 86 (or 49.4%) said that they had graduated
college. Due to this demographic being the bulk of our answers, we decided to run tests
that then focused on this group.

To start, we ran a test that provided statistics of what age groups have volunteered
before. First, we looked at the general 18-25 age category. From the survey data, there
was a reported frequency of 64, thus meaning 92.8% of 18-25-year-olds have volunteered
before. This is 36.8% of the entire sample size and also the majority. We then wanted to
look further and break up this age group. Looking at the ‘Yes, I Have’ category for
responses, we found that third year, fourth year, and graduates of college provided data
higher than other options. For third year of college participants, this age group had a
frequency of 26. This means that, of the people who chose this age category, all of them
validated that they have volunteered before; a 100% for ‘Yes I Have’ responses. In regard
to fourth year participants, data showed a frequency of 23. Of this age, 85.2% of them
stated they had volunteered. Lastly, the group who has graduated college had a
frequency of 83. This means that, of those who had graduated college, 96.5% of them
have had volunteer experience.
30
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
It was important to us to find out what types of organizations 18-25-year-olds have
volunteered at. From the compiled data, 110 (or 63.2%) of 18-25-year-olds have
volunteered at education and youth programs, 93 (or 53.4%) of them have helped out
at local organizations, and 118 (or 67.8%) have reported that they have helped out at
nonprofit organizations. Another test we ran compared age with what medium was
believed to be the most compelling news source. Of the 18-25 age group, the top two
commonly used media were the internet and social media. Numbers displayed for the
internet reported a frequency of 38. This means that 55.1% of this age group chose
the internet to be the most persuasive medium. Also, social media was highly
recognized by this age group. The data shows a frequency of 23 which means 33.3%
of those in the 18-25 category believe this platform to be most compelling.

Our team then ran more tests to understand which political and social issues were
most important to this age group. The two issues that were shown to be most
important for these individuals were climate change and women's rights. For those
who were in the 18-25 category, the mean (or average) for climate change was 4.4 and
had a standard deviation of 0.8. Women’s rights’ numbers were equivalent as the 18-
25 age range provided a mean of 4.4 and a standard deviation of 0.8 in response to
this issue.

Another test was run to help us generate an idea of what this age group likes to do
during the summer season. The answers received represented that this age group
prefers to spend time with family and friends and travel. Of those that chose family
and friends, there were 141 responses (or 81.0%). This answer choice was the
majority. Another leading choice was traveling which was chosen by 73 (or 42.0%) of
the participants. In order to assess what type of travel this age is involved in, we ran
tests to see where the majority of the numbers stood. We found that road trips were
big among this group. Of those who were 18-25, the data displayed a mean of 3.8 and
a standard deviation of 1.1. The data also told us that this age group preferred
domestic travel rather than international travel. For those 18-25, the statistics showed
the mean for this choice was 4.0 and the standard deviation was 1.0.

31
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Our team also discovered what the 18-25-year-old age group values. Out of what was
provided, the top three were education, family, and sustainability. In terms of the level
of value education is held in the 18-25 age group, the mean was 4.5 and had a
standard deviation of 0.5. Relative to education, this group of individuals rated family
very high as well. Family had a mean of 4.5 and a standard deviation of 0.8. Lastly,
sustainability was also important to this age group. This option had a mean of 4.3 and
a standard deviation of 0.6.

Our data also reported that 18-25-year-olds are mostly influenced by their friends and
family. Specifically, this age group showed friends as being the highest. Numbers
showed a mean of 4.0 and a standard deviation of 1.1. Family was close as its mean
was 3.9 and had a 1.2 standard deviation among this age group.

Another key finding our data showed was the level of awareness this age group had
about GrassRoots. While the statistics collected showed that 44.9% of this age group
heard about the festival, 55.1% have not. In response to those that have heard, 25 (or
14.4%) of individuals have heard of the event through community word of mouth and
22 (or 12.6%) have seen content from social media.

We then found out what is needed to pull this age group to volunteer. As shown
through the acquired numbers, 18-25-year-olds will be persuaded by free food and
drinks as well as a free four-day pass. Statistically speaking, the mean of free food
and drinks was 3.8 with a standard deviation of 0.9 for this age group. The option for
a free four-day pass showed the highest mean of 4.2 with a standard deviation of
1.1. (Appendix B, Appendix C).

These findings through our quantitative research provided us with knowledge of

what to focus on for our campaign in order to effectively reach our target group.

32
QUANLITATIVE RESEARCH
Although we were not able to hold a traditional focus group, our open-ended
survey still allowed us to gather more emotion-driven insight. As a group, we were
able to find two common themes represented by the answers we were given.

The first theme we created was “friends are the family you choose”. This was
developed as we were given numerous quotes specifying how friends are the people
who the participants are very close with. For example, participant 5 explained how
their most memorable summer experience was with their track teammates. This
individual wrote, “My teammates, who were my best friends…would meet every
morning and run around our town...This summer was memorable because we all
knew it was our last time we would spend together before our lives changed”.
Similarly, Participant 2 stated, “...friends, they mean so much to me…I love them all very
much”. Lastly, the most telling quote we observed was written by participant 6. They
said, “I consider some of my ‘best friends’ my family” (Appendix E).

The next theme we created was the “pain of missing friends”. Since we were able to
conclude upon how friends represent family, we saw a pattern in responses on how
separation is taking a toll on all of the participants using our current health
emergency. Participant 1 described how they reach out to family and friends.
However, it's the people who are important that make the most impact. Participant 1
noted, “…a sense of loss that it is for the people I'm customary to seeing and talking to
every day”. Participant 2 reflected this same feeling of separation as they explained, “I
miss my friends SO MUCH. I miss them all and for different reasons. I miss things just
like driving around or drinking with them at bars or happy hour”. Participant 4
remarked upon how they feel, “...very distant from my friends and alone” when they
are not together. The meaning of friends and family evoked feelings in these
individuals and, when they are separated, it creates a sense of longing. Emotions were
“observed” by these responses which prompted similar answers from all the
participants (Appendix E).

33
INTERPRETATION
The data we collected gave us a large amount of insight on how to properly reach
our target audience of 18-25-year-olds (specifically those who are third and fourth
years in college and postgrads). Learning that a majority of the 18-25-year-old age
group has volunteered before, we can assure that this demographic will be useful in
increasing volunteer efforts. Since many of them have volunteered before at
educational youth groups as well as local, nonprofit organizations, this information
proves to us that the 18-25 age category will be highly responsive to the
communication targeted toward them due to The GrassRoots Festival being a similar
organization. We learned through our acquired survey data that this age group is
highly responsive to news via the internet and social media, thus, we are able to drive
a majority of our content through these two platforms using the festival’s accounts
and other internet capabilities. Another key factor that we learned was how both
women’s rights and climate change were important social and political issues for this
age group. First off, The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance is run by women.
This data will be useful in our campaign as it is cared for by our target audience. The
festival also promotes the environment, specifically sustainability, thus this idea
should resonate and produce action within the 18-25-year-old age group.

Summer is when this festival happens; it's about spending time with family and friends
and traveling to this destination together. As noted by many of our participants who
took part in the open-ended survey, their ideal summers are to be surrounded by
others, like family and friends. Moreover, participant 5 vouched that, “Friends and
Family are everything. They have your back when you need it, and you have their back
when they need it.” Within our opened-ended responses, all answers also presented
personal opinions about what it feels like to be away from friends. The summer is one
portion of the entire year, thus, if people make friendships at GrassRoots, they will be
more than likely to return because they will miss the people they met. Also, through
survey data, we found that many within this age category love to travel. Ideally, they
prefer road trips. This is significant as The GrassRoots Festival promotes attendees to
come together from near and far and then reconnect at the festival grounds. A few
individuals of this age group stated that they help out local organizations during the
summer months. This data tells us that GrassRoots needs to prioritize this age group
over others.

34
INTERPRETATION
Our team’s data reported that the 18-25-year-old age group focuses on education,
family, and sustainability as being core values that hold significance. Of the seven core
values we took from the GrassRoots Festival’s website, these are three of the seven.
This is another reason why this age group is highly needed to boost the volunteer
numbers. We found out that our target audience is highly influenced by their friends
and family. To reiterate, the festival dwells on the fact that the friends made at the
event will turn into family. When this age group begins their volunteer efforts with the
festival, we can ensure that many of them will stay as they are individuals who value
family-like relationships.

It was discovered that more than half of the 18-25-year-old age group lacks awareness
regarding The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance. This key insight promoted us
to devise a campaign that focused mostly on messaging and other communicative
efforts in order to increase the organization’s recognition and knowledge among this
age group. When informing those who fit this age category, we will be prompting the
call to action with incentives that resonated with our target. These include free food
and drinks as well a free four-day pass (no down payment to enter). We believe that if
people are volunteering, payment should not be required as the time and effort they
put into helping them is their way of ‘paying’ to attend and enjoy the event. All of this
data tells us that the 18-25 age category is the best group of individuals to target and
we will create a campaign that generates response and future action among these
individuals.

Although a majority of our reasoning is backed up by the data we acquired, there may
be decisions made that lack such support. Nonetheless, all conclusions are made from
what we were presented with from the data and will be used to further the campaign.
We also wanted to mention that our quantitative research (or survey data) may have
been pursued more by college students as that is who we reached out to first.
However, many of those within this age group then sent it to their personal social
media feeds that allowed for other ages to take part. In regard to our qualitative
research methodology, this was a quick readjustment to what we had originally
planned out, thus it may not be as telling. Nevertheless, we used our resources to the
best of our ability to provide this type of data and use it for our campaign.

35
INTERPRETATION
Furthermore, while conducting our qualitative portion of research, a huge limitation
that we encountered was the spread of COVID-19 and the subsequent shutdown of all
academic activities. Due to this obstacle, our group was unable to conduct the focus
group that we planned to have in order to gather more information about our target
audience. Despite these unprecedented conditions, we were able to gather our data
digitally via an open-ended response survey sent out to a select group of our target
audience--juniors and seniors in college and postgraduates that our group is familiar
and possibly close with. Our parameters for the open-ended survey included
thoughtful and meaningful responses from our participants in order to simulate
detailed and emotionally evocative responses that we would have collected in a focus
group setting.

Due to knowing that the majority of our target age group of 18-25-year-olds primarily
gathers their news from the internet and social media, these are the two media we will
communicate The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance on. We will develop social
media posts that reflect summer and stress upon the ideas of family, friends, and
travel. We will also create content that stresses their need of volunteers. This
information will be delivered through college online newspapers and community
letters. As it was found through our statistical data, this target will be more than likely
to help out if a free four-day pass is offered (without the down payment) along with
the promise for free food and drinks at the event. We will prioritize all of this
information within our promotional materials to increase volunteer numbers among
this age group.

With discovering that more than half of this age group is unfamiliar with The
GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, we need to increase the group’s awareness.
To do this effectively our strategy is to deliver content about the festival to this target
digitally and in-person. These efforts should start a few months out to the festivals
starting  dates. Our first proposed tactic is the use of social media to inform those of
prior volunteers and what the event meant for them. We also would like to showcase
more digital content via the GrassRoots social media accounts to highlight developed
messaging in order to increase awareness and recognition of the festival. Our next
objective is to increase volunteer efforts. Moreover, we plan to use news outlets to
inform the public about the volunteerism GrassRoots has and further gather
participant sign-ups at Ithaca community hosted events.
36
INTERPRETATION
All of this material would be targeted towards our primary audience to then include
them in this activity. Our campaign is proposed to start in the beginning of the year to
increase recognition, gather early-bird sign-ups and then ramp up in April through June
to increase awareness and gather more volunteer sign-ups. These measures will
benefit GrassRoots in awareness and volunteer numbers among the intended target.

37
CAMPAIGN PLAN

38
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our campaign is designed to accomplish two necessary objectives. These objectives
include increasing awareness and raising current numbers of volunteers with our
primary target group. As we found within our research, those who are in the 18-25
year-old age category are our target. The majority of these individuals are third and
fourth-year college students and recent graduates. Thus, we are making this specific
population our primary target to reach and achieve the desired goals. Since most of
our communicative efforts will be in a collegiate environment, we declared that first
and second-year students, as well as school faculty and staff, will be included in our
secondary target group since the messages we send out will be shared with this
population simultaneously.

Our campaign is called “GrassRoots Is…”. We took all the data that reflected our
target’s needs and desires and further matched them up with the festival’s beliefs and
common messages. The key theme of our campaign is: “The Finger Lakes GrassRoots
Festival of Music and Dance is a memorable summer experience that transforms
friendly relationships into everlasting family bonds”. This matches the core beliefs of
our target audience, which we believe will help increase awareness and volunteerism
at the festival.

To stay consistent with our theme, our campaign will have supporting key messages.
Our first message is “The GrassRoots Festival is the place where friends turn into
family.” Our target audience stated they enjoy spending their summers with friends
and family, and this message communicates that the friends made at the festival
become family. Another key message is “The GrassRoots Festival is a time to give back
to your community.” This message will continue to instill the idea of friendship and
family bonds while also implentening the need for volunteerism and helping the
community. Finally, we created two final messages that will be used between both key
messaging tactics. They are “The GrassRoots Festival is a road trip to the beautiful
Finger Lakes region.” and “The GrassRoots Festival is for music lovers.” By bringing up
these qualities in our messaging, we are more likely to spark an interest in our target
audience, and they are more likely to bring themselves and their friends to the festival.

39
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For our first goal, we want to increase awareness among our primary age target of the
festival by 20 percent in the next six months. To achieve this goal, our first strategy is
to improve our audience engagement by utilizing the GrassRoots Festival’s Instagram
and Facebook pages. Using these two social media accounts will help us to reach our
target demographic of 18-25-year-olds. We plan to get our target market more
engaged and aware of the festival in advance so a connection to GrassRoots can
begin. We have multiple tactics planned out in order to meet this objective.

Our first tactic will be a modified, interpersonal communication campaign. Due to the
current state of our country, we are not able to interact face-to-face, therefore we will
switch to a video platform. We will encourage past volunteers to send out videos
talking about their experience with the festival and the concept of family throughout
the volunteers. We will post these to the GrassRoots social media accounts with the
hashtag, #GrassRootsIs. Our second tactic is to implement an oriented static
advertisement and promotional campaign. We want to focus on Instagram and Twitter
because we understand that it is important to focus on the platforms that our target
audience uses greatly. On these social media accounts we will highlight the different
experiences GrassRoots offers such as meeting new people, making stronger
friendships, finding a sense of community spirit and so on. By boosting this content,
our intention is to help raise awareness for the festival.

The second goal we have set for our campaign is to promote the need for volunteers
to our target age group of 18-25-year-olds. Our objective is to increase the amount of
volunteers by 25 percent for GrassRoots Festival by May of 2021, which will then be
measured by the number of individuals signing up to volunteer via the event’s website.
In order to achieve this goal, our team will adopt a proactive communication method
of generating news as well as a proactive audience engagement stratgey. These tools
will further awareness about the need for volunteers and further gather the desired
numbers of volunteer sign-ups among our target population.

40
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For our first proposed strategy, the tactic will incorporate local news media, ranging
from student run newspapers to community letters. We will also include key
newspapers from the Northeast region as we plan to send out one press release
reflecting upon the festival’s most recent event with volunteers at the end of the
summer. To follow, one media advisory will be sent out at the beginning of the
following year emphasizing a need for volunteers. In response to our second strategy,
the tactic will be executed through interpersonal communication, more specifically, an
organization on-site implementation. This means that we will set up booths in high-
traffic areas, such as community events organized by the Ithaca Festival Board or the
Downtown Ithaca Alliance, where there will be newly designed flyers detailing the
GrassRoots event and encouraging volunteerism. Ideally, past volunteers would run
the booths to share stories about GrassRoots to interested patrons.

Our team proposed an eight-month public relations plan that begins in January and
ends at the beginning of August. We are initiating more communication to be sent
out between the months of April and June-right before the festival begins. Our
campaign incorporates social media promotions, a print advertisement and news
media, as well as interpersonal communication methods to boost awareness and
increase volunteerism numbers. With a budget of $1,000, the majority of publicity
efforts will go towards paid social media posts and the printing of flyers for booths
at local events. All designed tactics are under budget ($898.99) and will accomplish
what is desired.

41
TARGET PUBLICS
Discovered through our research tools, our target public are individuals within the
18-25-year-old age range. Specifically, the primary target we aim to reach are those
who are in their third and fourth year of college as well as recent postgraduates. This
age group is our primary target because the data presented showed us that this age
group shares common values with The GrassRoots Festival organization. These
similarities include the importance of specific political and social issues such as climate
change and women’s rights. Our primary age group also highly values education,
family, and sustainability. From our survey, we also know that a majority of our primary
age group has volunteered in the past with education and youth groups for both local
and non-profit organizations. Coincidentally, these past experiences have been with
organizations just like GrassRoots. These findings lead us to believe that this audience
will be responsive to a call for volunteer efforts.

Due to many of our communicative efforts being targeted towards upperclassmen

college students, we believe that our secondary target are students who are in their
first and second-year of college. We also will be communicating with college faculty
and staff. As shown through the data, first and second-year college students have all
had volunteer experience. Since this activity is shared among our primary age group,
we believe this target will easily be reached without needing much more effort.
Moreover, because our communicative tools will already be implemented in the same
environment as our primary target, these individuals will be informed inadvertently.
These decisions will result in an increase in volunteerism at the current summer’s
GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance.

42
CAMPAIGN PLAN
Our primary target includes individuals who enjoy traveling during the summer
months and making memories all while being surrounded by others. We also
discovered the strong emotions that are tied into our target audience when they are
not able to see their friends and family that they love; this age group longs to finally
reconnect. These findings tell us that our target age group prioritizes their
relationships and memories with loved ones. In order to properly grasp this age
group’s attention, our team wants to promote these key findings and incorporate
them into one common theme and a few supporting messages.
Theme: The key theme our team will be communicating is the idea of how
The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance is a memorable
summer experience that transforms friendly relationships into everlasting
family bonds. This theme encompasses all components that are important
to our primary target, thus we believe our efforts will work to increase the
festival’s needed volunteer efforts.
Key and Supporting Messages: In order to stay consistent with our campaign’s
theme, our messages will relay information that relates. One of our key
messages will reiterate that “The GrassRoots Festival is the place where
friends turn into family.” This message will promote the idea that friendships
are made at this event and further communicate that all relationships are
strengthened through the bonding experience that occurs at the GrassRoots
Festival. Since many of our primary target respondents stated that they enjoy
spending summer with friends and family, this message will identify this
shared preference and it will draw an increase in awareness and interest of
the festival. Another key message our team came up with is, “The GrassRoots
Festival is a time to give back to your community.” We know that a majority of
our target has volunteered at a variety of organizations, more importantly,
with organizations that are alike to GrassRoots. This message will be used to
implement a need for volunteer efforts at the festival and stress the incentives
included when helping. Lastly, we created two supporting messages that will
be used between both key messaging tactics. The first one being, “The
GrassRoots Festival is a road trip to the beautiful Finger Lakes region.” The
other being, “The GrassRoots Festival is for music lovers.” We learned that this
age group likes to travel during the summer, specifically road-tripping, and be
placed in a fun environment where music surrounds. Adding these activities
into our messaging will increase awareness as well as attendance and
volunteerism. 43
GOALS, OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES,
& TACTICS
GOAL 1: Our team would like to attract a greater attendance from our primary target
group at The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival for this summer and coming years.

Objective 1: To increase awareness of The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival among

the 18-25-year-old age group by 20 percent within the next six months as
measured by social media clicks and follows.

Strategy 1: To achieve this goal, our strategy will involve audience engagement.
This strategy is used to encourage involvement by our primary target audience
members. By utilizing The GrassRoots Festival’s social media accounts,
specifically their Instagram and Facebook pages, we will generate greater
awareness regarding the upcoming summer’s festival among our intended
target. Specifically, the use of these platforms will increase the festival’s
recognition by the 18-25-year-old age group and simultaneously implement
interaction among those who are trying to reach. By getting our audience more
aware and involved prior to the festival’s start date, these individuals will start to
feel a connection to GrassRoots and begin to feel a part of their “family”.

Tactic 1: Our first tactic will be a modified, interpersonal communication

campaign. Due to many states implementing a “stay-at-home” order, the
ability for us to hold face-to-face conversations is not easily accessible. Thus,
we will switch to a video platform. We will encourage former festival-goers to
send in videos talking about how The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of
Music and Dance has been a great experience with others. Also, we would
have them explain how the people they have met have turned into family.
Once we gather these personal stories, we will then begin to post and further
boost this content through GrassRoots’ social media accounts where people
can like, comment, and share these stories with others. On each post, we will
create copy that implements all messaging ideas and add the #GrassRootsIs
hashtag. It is also important to continue the engagement by sharing these
posts to your personal accounts to increase awareness beyond GrassRoots’
own followers. For instance, on Facebook, click the share button in the
bottom right hand corner (arrow icon) and add new comments such as
incentive messaging and reactions to generate more informartion to others.
This messaging can be, "Free food and drinks are provided for those who
help!" (See pages 59 and 60). 44
GOALS, OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES,
& TACTICS
Tactic 2: Our second tactic for our audience engagement strategy is to create 
GrassRoots Festival oriented advertisements through a promotional
campaign. These creative postings would be sent out via GrassRoots’ social
media accounts. Our main focus is to promote this developed content on the
platforms that our target audience uses most. These include Instagram and
Twitter. The postings we plan to create will include ads highlighting a few of
our messaging ideas. First would be the travel experience (i.e. road trips) to
the festival. The content will emphasize the travel experience and include the
tagline of, “GrassRoots is a road trip you will never forget”. Another aspect we
will focus on is the importance of how the friendships made turn into family
bonds at the GrassRoots Festival. These social media ads would use actual
photos of festival-goers in the past years with the tagline of, “GrassRoots is
where friends become family”. We will also incorporate the message that a
variety of music is played through this event. Specifically, “GrassRoots is a
music lover's environment”. Our last message is, “The GrassRoots Festival is a
time to give back to your community.” This will inform individuals of the
volunteerism that occurs at the event. By boosting this content during certain
months, this will help raise awareness of The GrassRoots Festival of Music
and Dance to our target audience. When these tactics are made it is also
important to continue the engagement by sharing these posts to your
personal accounts to reach others who are not linked to the festivals social
media platforms. As an example, when posts are made to public accounts on
Instagram, a user can share the content to their own profile. In the bottom
left hand corner under a post, click the arrow. Then, design your own content
to then share the post to your personal followers. Once a caption is added,
click the circle below labeled "your story" for your followers to see (See pages
61-64).

45
GOALS, OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES,
& TACTICS 
Evaluation: This objective will be evaluated by the number of social media clicks,
shares, and responses you get. This will be monitored every day by using the
engagement features that are set through Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We
will be able to see how we achieved our objectives by the amount of followers, likes,
and comments gained by the end of each month.

Stewardship: By using the tools that are already built into social media platforms,
such as the insights automatically calculated by Instagram, the individuals in
charge of running these platforms can easily continue this method of
communication and check the current status. For this summer (and future
festivals) the numbers displayed will describe the current relationships among
the target demographic and will drive the necessary amount of content in order
to maintain awareness.

46
GOALS, OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES,
& TACTICS
GOAL 2: Our team would like to promote a need for volunteers within this age group
for this summer’s festival.
Objective 1: To increase volunteerism numbers among the 18-25-year-old population
by 25 percent by May of 2021-as measured by sign-ups via the event’s website.

Strategy 1: In order to achieve this goal, our team will adopt a method by
generating news about the GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance. This strategy
will continue to increase awareness, but its sole purpose is to gather volunteers
among the 18-25-year-old age group.

Tactic 1: Our first tactic will involve news media as we plan to send out one
press release at the end of the summer This is included as a way to follow up
on what occured at the most recent festival. Additionally, we intend to send
out one media advisory at the beginning of the following year to inform
individuals for the need of volunteers. These two sets of  information will be
distributed to key newspapers around the Northeast region. Some cities
include Syracuse, Binghamton, and others. This information will be primarily
targeted to student run newspapers as well as community letters regarding
the festivals need for volunteers (See pages 65 and 66)

Strategy 2: In order to increase volunteer numbers among our primary target

audience, we will encourage the implementation of the proactive action strategy
of audience engagement. This choice will involve the intended target and
encourage them to participate in volunteer efforts with the current summer’s
festival.

Tactic 2: Our tactic will be using interpersonal communication. Specifically, an

organization on-site implementation. We plan to set up booths in high-traffic
areas, such as Ithaca community hosted events (i.e. Chili Festival), where there
will be newly designed flyers all about GrassRoots. Also the individuals working
the booths will sell the idea of needed volunteers and further persuade
community members to sign-up. We will also attempt to acquire one band or
musician who is a yearly performer at all of the previous GrassRoots Festival to
induce a festival-like atmosphere. The people working these booths would
ideally be people who have volunteered at GrassRoots before so they can
share their story of why they volunteer at the festival (See page 67). 47
GOALS, OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES,
& TACTICS
Evaluation: This strategy, with its aligned tactics, will be evaluated by the number of
signees that GrassRoots has a set periods of time. We can monitor it short-term by
checking the status of our sign-up list every day and long-term by checking 
progress at the end of each month. This will provide insight as to understand what
is working and what is not, and further help us see if we reached our objective.

Stewardship: In order to continue volunteer sign-ups for the coming summers, it

is important that those in charge of GrassRoots follow up with a plan for a news
release at the beginning of August and plan for a media advisory in the
beginning of the following year. These tactics will create a manageable timeline
as they will continue to update and inform. Regarding the set up booths, it is
necessary for GrassRoots to also plan out which events they would like to table
at in an optimal time. Specifically, this tactic should be planned for periods when
the majority of college students are around, like February’s Chili Cook-Off and
other populated community hosted events. Once a relationship is made, this will
secure a spot for the future booth set-ups at these events which will continue
volunteer sign-ups, especially early ones.

48
IMPLEMENTATION AND BUDGET
TIMELINE

Our campaign will begin in January and end at the beginning of August. Our first
planned tactic is social media. Although those in charge of GrassRoots Festival’s social
media should always be posting to generate more buzz regarding the organization
itself and the festival, we believe that there should be a scheduled set of months that
our tactics should be implemented. Most importantly, Facebook should be used prior
to other social media platforms due to GrassRoots holding a majority of its following
on this site. Starting in April 2020, this is when the interpersonal communication tactic
will be implemented along with our planned tactic of audience engagement. We
believe it is important to begin increasing awareness among our 18-25-year-old age
group as soon as possible, thus starting in the month of April will be ideal.

49
TIMELINE
Following this timetable, after the first month of Facebook posts, we then push for
GrassRoots to incorporate the use of their Instagram and Twitter accounts to
generate more awareness among this age group. We plan using the included boost
tools for this content on these platforms throughout April, May, and June to reach as
many individuals as possible who are in the 18-25-year-old age category. During this
time of drawing interest with our primary target, we also urge GrassRoots to continue
to post content about the festival during and after the event to maintain awareness
and recognition. These postings will not involve a promotional payment. It is important
that this calendar for social media postings is followed in coming years as recognition
will continue to grow and numbers of attendees will also increase among 18-25-year-
olds. The two social media tactics will be evaluated throughout the year with
demographic, click, and site visit statistics which are already included through each of
these social media platforms

Our next strategy is using two types of news media tactics. Our first one being a news
release which will be sent out at the beginning of August. This is right after the current
summer’s event. This media tactic will display the numbers of volunteers from the
current summer’s festival while providing information about the helpers’ efforts.
Another promotional media tactic we would like GrassRoots to use is a media
advisory. This communicative tool is aimed to be sent out at the beginning of the year.
This will not only remind individuals of the festival, but it will also call out for
volunteers' help for the coming summer. These two written media materials will be
distributed to college campuses in the Northeast and other local community
information websites.

We also want to implement another audience engagement strategy using an

interpersonal communication tactic. Moreover, we believe having an organization-site
method will be useful. Our team would like to see the festival set-up its own booths at
Ithaca’s community events during the month of February. As an example, we plan for
The GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance to utilize space at Downtown Ithaca’s Chili
Cook-off event. This event occurs in the Winter. Along with our social media postings
already planned to generate awareness among the targeted age group, having a
physical booth at a populated event will help create recognition and provide
information about volunteerism. This will also gather early-bird volunteer sign-ups. We
will also try to book one or two returning bands and musicians (who annually perform
at GrassRoots) and ask them to perform at the festival’s tabling site in order to
familiarize the public with the coming summer’s event and environment.
50
TIMELINE
These use of news media and in-person tactics are crucial to informing about
volunteers and increasing sign-ups. The number of volunteer sign-ups will be counted
at the end of the sign-up window which will inform the festival heads about numbers
of volunteers for the coming summer’s event. They will also be able to compare
numbers to prior events and analyze the totals to understand which of the individuals
who chose to help are in the 18-25 year-old age group.

BUDGET

The tactics we declared are all useful in ways of generating awareness and increasing
volunteer numbers among our primary target age group. The highest fee among all
expenses in the implementation of social media promotion. As we are choosing to
boost content during the month of April via The GrassRoots Festival’s Facebook page,
this cost is $12.00 per day (which is 30); the total cost for this site is $360.00. This
purchase will approximately reach 200-700 individuals who are within the targeted
demographic (Wolter, A., 2020). Instagram posts are aimed to be promoted during the
month May. The expense to reach a wide range of individuals through this platform is
cheaper than Facebook. Specifically, Instagram is $5.00 daily and we are urging the
organization to boost content for all days of the month of May (31 days) which will
result in an end-of-the-month expense of $155.00 (Promotions Guide: Pricing, n.d.).
Lastly, Twitter is the most cost efficient among all platforms. To take advantage of this
less expensive option, we decided it would be best to boost content during the months
of April, May, and June. Each boost is $2.00 daily, thus costs for each of the listed
months would be two costs of $60.00 for the months of April and June one cost of
$62.00 for the month of May (How Much Does It Cost…, n.d.). These buys will result in a
total expense of $184.00. In total, the cost for all social media material is $699.00
51
BUDGET
Thankfully, the planned media advisory and news release are both free-of-charge. The
next expense is the printing of our newly designed flyers. In order to supplement all
events that we believe the festival should table at, we recommended for 500 flyers to
be printed at a local Staples store for a fee of $159.99 (Flyers: Custom Flyer Printing…,
n.d.). The fee to table at one of the Ithaca town hosted events is approximately $40.00.
There is a $20.00 mail-in application charge and an approximate $20.00 charge for
tabling (dependent upon the amount of materials needed (2020 Downtown Ithaca…,
n.d.).

All together, the expense falls under the assigned maximum budget of $898.99. Due to
us not using the full $1,000, we do want to push that the organizers of GrassRoots can
increase promotion on social media platforms if desired. They also can print more
flyers, and implement other means of advertising that they feel may be necessary to
further this campaign.

52
CONCLUSION
In order to initiate an increase of volunteers for this summer’s GrassRoots Festival of
Music and Dance and for this year’s event and those following, our team understood
two crucial objectives that need to be achieved. First, more awareness of the
organization has to increase among this age group. The research we gathered showed
us that our primary target enjoys similar activities and shares beliefs that are important
The GrassRoots Festival. This knowledge helped us understand how to properly target
these individuals via social media posts that allow for response and further research
regarding their presence if they choose. After we acquire a boost in recognition,
implementing the need for volunteer help among 18-25-year-olds will follow.
Specifically, those who are third and fourth-year college students and recent
postgraduates. Through the media and other interpersonal tactics we have included in
our campaign, we believe the number of volunteer sign-ups will go beyond what is
expected. All methods that we have planned for GrassRoots to use are within the
GrassRoots presented $1,000 budget. We have full confidence in this initiative and
cannot wait to begin this process.

53
IN-TEXT CITATION &
REFERENCE LIST

54
IN-TEXT CITATION & REFERENCE LIST

55
IN-TEXT CITATION & REFERENCE LIST

56
IN-TEXT CITATION & REFERENCE LIST

57
IMPLEMENTATION
MATERIALS

58
GOAL 1: TACTIC 1: INTRODUCTORY
VOLUNTEER POSTS
INSTAGRAM

59
GOAL 1: TACTIC 1: INTRODUCTORY
VOLUNTEER POSTS
FACEBOOK

SHARING EXAMPLE

60
GOAL 1: TACTIC 2: SOCIAL MEDIA
MESSAGING POSTS
TWITTER

61
GOAL 1: TACTIC 2: SOCIAL MEDIA
MESSAGING POSTS

INSTAGRAM

SHARING EXAMPLE

62
GOAL 1: TACTIC 2: SOCIAL MEDIA
MESSAGING POSTS
EXTRA MESSAGING

63
GOAL 1: TACTIC 2: SOCIAL MEDIA
MESSAGING POSTS
EXTRA MESSAGING

64
GOAL 2: TACTIC 1: NEWS MEDIA
MEDIA ADVISORY

65
GOAL 2: TACTIC 1: NEWS MEDIA
NEWS RELEASE

66
GOAL 2: TACTIC 2: NEWLY DESIGNED
FLYER AND BOOTH

67
APPENDICES

68
APPENDIX A: SURVEY

69
APPENDIX A: SURVEY

70
APPENDIX A: SURVEY

71
APPENDIX A: SURVEY

72
APPENDIX A: SURVEY

73
APPENDIX A: SURVEY

74
APPENDIX B: NOMINAL AND
INTERVAL PIVOT TESTS EXAMPLES
(FROM GOOGLE SHEETS)

75
APPENDIX C: SURVEY RESULTS
(SIGNIFICANT GRAPHS)

76
APPENDIX D: OPEN-ENDED SURVEY

77
APPENDIX E: CODED OPEN-ENDED
SURVEY

78
APPENDIX E: CODED OPEN-ENDED
SURVEY

79
APPENDIX E: CODED OPEN-ENDED
SURVEY

80
APPENDIX E: CODED OPEN-ENDED
SURVEY

81