ADVOCACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE FOOD INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVES 87 TH ANNUAL CONVENTION PARK CITY, UTAH NOVEMBER 14, 2014 CASSANDRA WALKER PYE APCO WORLDWIDE

 Global communication, stakeholder engagement and business strategy firm founded in 1984  Headquarters in Washington, D.C., with 33 locations around the world  More than 600 people with diverse experience and backgrounds  Independent and majority employee- and women-owned  More than $120 million in revenue  Clients include six of the top 10 companies on the Fortune 500  Accolades include “Public Affairs Agency of the Decade” from The Holmes Report WHAT IS APCO WORLDWIDE

WHO IS CASSANDRA PYE  Senior Counselor, APCO  DC-Native-turned-California-Girl  Food and Consumer Products Practice Group – Retail Lead  FMI, CGA, CRA Alum  “Digital Mom”

WHAT WE’LL COVER  The New Communication Landscape  Influencers, the Media and Policymakers  Food for Thought  Three Case Studies

THE NEW COMMUNICATION LANDSCAPE

CASE STUDY #1: ANTIBIOTICS IN PORK Challenge: Inoculate industry from misleading attacks Tools: Build relationships with (12) influential food bloggers Outcomes:  From neutral to ally  4m blog and website impressions  11m Facebook timeline content  4m Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest  1m ongoing content All Positive

TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING

BECAUSE WE’RE IN AN AGE OF…

AND, EVERYBODY HAS A SAY…

THE OLD MONOLOGUE… Industry

HAS LED TO THE NEW CONVERSATION Issue Industry Policymakers Bloggers Social Media Media Activists Consumers Members

“INFLUENCERS” ARE INFLUENCED BY THE CONVERSATION

POLICY EMERGES FROM “INFLUENCERS” AS MUCH AS FROM POLICYMAKERS

90% of Americans have access to high-speed internet 85% of American adults use the internet Source: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

CASE STUDY #2: GEOTHERMAL AWARENESS CAMPAIGN Challenge: Raise awareness on a unique energy source with regulators, potential customers and the media (positive messaging) Tools: Facebook ads, microtargeted banner ads (on political and major media websites) and audio ads on Pandora to drive traffic to a company-sponsored microsite Outcomes:  More than 10m impressions overall  Nearly 6m impressions with close to 6k clicks through to the site  Average click-through rate is under 1%  500+ newsletter subscribers

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES HAVE CREDIBILITY WITH DECISION MAKERS

DC POLICY STAFF SEE THE BENEFITS

CASE STUDY #3: NO ON PROP 46 (CA) Challenge: Build, from scratch, a digital campaign to reach a critical mass of voters with “no” campaign messaging Tools: Target health care bloggers, launch Facebook page, Twitter highly integrated campaign Outcomes: By 12:01 am on Election Day, we had…  94,209 Facebook “fans”  Of those fans, an average of 82,440 (87.5%) were online every day in the week leading up to the election  64% are women; 35% are men  9% are years old; 11% are 35-44; 13% are 45-54; 14% are and 11% are 65+  At least one gentleman liked our page and then died before voting (true story)

NO ON PROP 46 (CA), CONTINUED… In the week leading up to Election Day…  4.3 million unique users were reached via our FB content  About half of those saw one of our final three video ads (also in Spanish)  104,210 people were “engaged” meaning they liked, commented or shared our content  We averaged:  275 comments per day  3,488 content “likes” per day  440 shares of our content per day  A single phone received a notification for each one of those; roughly 4,000 notifications per day. In the 28 days leading up to Election Day,  5.7 million unique users were reached via our FB content

WHAT’S AN EXEC TO DO?

CONDUCT A DIGITAL SWOT ANALYSIS Who are your association’s digital stakeholders?  Members  Lawmakers  Regulators  Policy Staff  Voters  Who else? Are you engaged in any kind of conversation with them? Regularly? Will you need to engage stakeholders on a legi/reg issue this/next session?

AND, THEN ASK… WHY invest in social? WHO should we target? WHERE do they hang out online? WHAT content do we need to deliver? HOW should our messages be delivered? WHEN do need to get social? WHAT ELSE can we learn through social engagement to support our cause?

A FEW WORDS OF CAUTION…  Beware of “social media gurus”  The professionalism and expertise of your digital team is as important as that of your traditional communication team  Do not assume that younger people have more expertise than the “more mature”  Your approach to traditional media and digital communication should be different, but coordinated. Either way, it should be strategic

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