cat003: glorified press releases
DESCRIPTION
The Creative Activist Toolkit is a series of PDF booklets designed to help today’s youth impact the world through creativity and social entrepreneurship. Produced by the Global Youth Fund and the Creative Visions Foundation, the toolkit chapters are offered free to download. Email us if you would like to contribute a chapter. This chapter helps young changemakers create press releases that will get them noticed.TRANSCRIPT
Glori!edPRESS
ReleasesMake your stor y stand out.!
Creative Activist Toolkit 003
in partnership with
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At some point, every social change project needs to get the word out – in a pretty BIG way. Not just to Facebook friends, classmates and relatives.
glori!ed press releases
What you want is for the world (or at least
your town) to know what you’re doing.
In other words, you want the media
spotlight.
Creative Activist Toolkit 003
glori!ed press releases
The most common way to get the media’s attention is to write a press release and send it to media outlets.
You can still do that. But there’s one major problem...
Creative Activist Toolkit 003
There are thousands of press releases sent out every day, competing not just with one another but with news events that don’t need press releases: bank robberies, murders,
hurricanes, etc.
glori!ed press releases
Creative Activist Toolkit 003
glori!ed press releases
So, how do you stand out?
Let’s consider alternate ways of communicating your story - using what I call “glorified press releases.”
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Case Study 1:Invisible Children
glori!ed press releases
Creative Activist Toolkit 003
In 2006, the youth-led organization, Invisible Children, planned a nationwide event to raise awareness of the civil war in northern Uganda, and the innocent children caught in the conflict. They asked American youth to walk to their nearest city centers and sleep there – the same way Ugandan children have to seek shelter every night in order to avoid being kidnapped by rebel soldiers.
InvisibleChildren.com
glori!ed press releases
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Invisible Children wanted media outlets everywhere to cover this event. So they created this video:
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glori!ed press releases
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This is, essentially, a video press release. Like all good press releases, it answered all the key questions: who, what, where, when, why and how.
But what the video did that no words can do was give TV outlets a preview of the ACTION they can film. More than anything else, that’s what TV crews want: to see action unfold. The video press release helped Invisible Children show the action they can deliver.
glori!ed press releases
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Case Study 2:Ashoka’s Youth Venture
glori!ed press releases
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In 2009, Ashoka’s Youth Venture ran a global campaign - Invent Your World - to recognize and support youth who are inventing for social change. (This is a campaign I helped manage.) When the time came to let the world know about the top five winners, I knew I wanted to offer something that others could easily forward or copy and paste.
glori!ed press releases
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Since we couldn’t produce a video – the winners were all far away from us – we produced two other types of content instead...
glori!ed press releases
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a) PresentationsUsing photos and brief text, we created a brief presentation showcasing the winners and another one showcasing the grand prize winner’s project. We then uploaded them to Slideshare.net. Click on images below to view them.
glori!ed press releases
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b) InterviewWe also conducted a text interview with the top prize winner, 15-year-old Javier Fernandez-Han, and posted the interview, along with the presentations, on Change.org.
glori!ed press releases
Click image to read interview.
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By creating these pieces of content, we wanted to achieve the following:
produce actual content, not just press releases
show people who the winners are (using pictures)
give reporters a taste of what an interview with the top prize winner would sound like (through quotes and our own interview)
most importantly, offer content that others can easily copy/paste and forward
glori!ed press releases
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As you can see on Slideshare.net, more than seven thousand have viewed the two presentations and at least 25 websites have embedded the presentations. Also, media outlets including PBS and BBC have contacted us about the winners.
glori!ed press releases
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ConclusionIn this day and age, YOU are the media. Don’t just issue press releases, CREATE CONTENT. You can tell your story better than anyone. Just look at how Invisible Children documented their Global Night Commute.
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glori!ed press releases
Creative Activist Toolkit 003
Check out other chapters...
Creative Activist Toolkit 003
glori!ed press releases
Creative Activist Toolkit 003
glori!ed press releases
and the six habits of highly effective social entrepreneurs.
about the author
thanksThe Creative Visions Foundation
The Vancouver FoundationThe Steve Nash Foundation
Jon and Amy Eldon Turteltaub, Joanne MarienElaine Munro, Debbie Riopel, Jaspal Lisa RaiBruce Johnson, Brooke Kuhn, Serge Martin
creditsAmy Eldon Turteltaub Executive Producer
Charles Tsai Managing Director
Photos from Invisible Children, Ashoka’s Youth Venture
Creative Activist Toolkit 003
Charles Tsai is the founder and Executive Director of Social Creatives. Previously, he worked for Ashoka’s Youth Venture as Director of Virtual Program and at CNN as a reporter and producer. www.charlestsai.com
creative activist toolkitThe Creative Activist Toolkit is a series of PDF booklets designed to help today’s youth impact the world through creativity and social entrepreneurship. Produced by Social Creatives and the Creative Visions Foundation, the toolkit chapters are offered free to download. Email us if you would like to contribute a chapter.
Copyright ©2009 Social CreativesFeel free to pass this booklet on but you may not alter the content or charge for it. You may quote brief sections if you credit Social Creatives and provide a link to socialcreatives.org
Social Entrepreneurship Educator
Charles Tsai
Charles Tsai is a journalist, writer, speaker and consultant for social entrepreneurs.
A former reporter and producer for CNN, Charles ventured into the social sector to
help youth design and implement their own solutions for change. He then helped
Ashoka launch its first global campaigns to support youth-led social ventures.
Now, he has launched SOCIAL Creatives, a new framework to learn, teach and
practice social entrepreneurship.
Charles [email protected]
www.socialcreatives.org