Strategic communication strategies for establishing a high school football team

Public Speaking Advertising Policy Planned Events

The objective of this study is to write an in depth analysis of a public speaking advertising policy planned event specific to football and to identify the stakeholders and their motivation. The event will be evaluated from various dimensions such as social psychology, planning logistics and finance management.

Brief Overview and Description of Organization and Event for Analysis

Strategic communication is used for information of persuasion purposes and has a purpose of constructing understand as well as "support for ideas and causes, services, and products." (Oussoumanou, 2002, p. 3) Public relations must be a regular practiced by strategic communicators. Public relations are reported to be "the most common embodiment of strategic communication…" (Oussoumanou, 2002, p.3) The organization and event for analysis in this study is that of the formation of a football team at a local high school and how support for the formation of the football team can be gained from the public community and its businesses.

III. Description of the Target Audience

The target audience at this event will be community members, parents of children attending the high school, businesses in the community with the capacity to assist with funding of the high school football program, and other funding sources in and about the community within which the high school is situated.

IV. Organizational and Staffing Arrangements

The event will be held at a local Holiday Inn banquet room. The invitees include five hundred individuals from the community representative of the high school Board of Education, Principals, potential coaches and other key employees of the high school. Member of the community will include parents of children attending the high school and who are interested in playing football and representative members of the Chamber of Commerce and businesses within the community in which the high school is situated.

V. Promotion and Advertising

Promotion and advertising will be accomplished through informative news reports in the local newspaper and on radios and television. Flyers will be distributed throughout the community as well as posters that will be posted in local businesses in the community. There will also be a special meeting called during PTA to discuss the event.

VI. Financial Arrangements (Expenses and Sources of Income)

Businesses in the area will be contacted for support in the form of food items for the banquet, tables and tablecloths and tableware. Parents of children attending the high school who are supportive of the formation of a football team for the high school will be asked to volunteer their time in preparing and serving food for the banquet. Fundraisers are also planned to fund the event including a car wash to take place at the school in the location of outside water hydrants and hoses will be donated by the local Wal-Mart as will soap and washing sponges and other necessary items. As well, there are to be donation jars placed around town in various businesses and restaurants to solicit donations for the banquet and should serve to garner some support from individuals who are in favor of a high school football team.

VII. Description of the Event's Environment (Location, Areas, Facilities)

The event will be held at the local Holiday Inn Banquet room and will be by reservation only through tickets that are sold purchased to reserve seating for the event. The banquet room is a large-capacity room capable of seating 500 people to dinner. Following the meal being served there will be various speakers invited to speak who will provide information about the high school football team formation, the guidelines, policy matter and other information necessary to inform the public and gain their support of the formation of the high school football team and the local high school.

VIII. Social Psychology, Planning Logistics and Finance Management

The work of Camire, Trudel and Forneris (2008) reports that it is generally believed that "sport can be used as a tool to promote life skills and positive youth development." (p. 1) Additionally reported is "In order to enhance youth's psychosocial development and reduce the occurrence of negative experiences, Petitpas et al. (2005) developed a framework for planning youth sport programmes. According to the framework, youth are most likely to experience positive development in the presence of (1) an appropriate environment (context), (2) caring adults (external assets), and (3) when they are provided opportunities to acquire life skills (internet assets)." (p. 3) Before becoming involved in high school sports, it is related that some of the athletes reported that first they were required to "negotiated with their parents the school in which they were going to enroll, as some schools in the region offer specialized sport programmes called 'sport-etude'. Generally, competitive sports are practiced after regular school hours; however, at 'sport-etude'schools, sports are integrated into the school's regular curriculum. A typical school day consists of doing academic work in the morning and practicing a chosen sport in the afternoon." (Camire, Trudel and Forneris, 2008, p. 5) It is reported that the reasons stated for negotiation with parents included the "possibility of playing high school sport, some for financial reasons and others for logistical reasons." (Camire, Trudel and Forneris, 2008, p. 6) For this reason the necessary financial and logistics for individual players must be addressed to overcome the barriers that present for some young people to participate in the high school football team.

IX. Analysis

The event was a success in that the parents and other stakeholders were on the receiving end of information that was necessary in gaining their support for the formation of the high school football team. The servers were adept at serving the meal which was food prepared with a football theme that kept the attendees in reminder of why they were attending the event and which allowed the speakers to reference food items served at the banquet to make their points and leave a lasting and pleasant impression on those who attended the banquet. The decor was also accomplished using a football theme and it is notable that servers were dressed as football players, cheerleaders and mascots to give the banquet a festive air. Large screens dominated each wall of the banquet room and vintage high school football team games were played throughout the banquet at a low volume. During the break in between speeches the halftime performances of various bands in the region were played to keep the momentum moving and build the excitement of those attending the banquet and to give the room the aura of a high school football game. Individuals who had played high school football were invited to stand and tell what playing on a high school football team had meant to them and what playing football in high school had done to make them better people and to further their own personal development.

A raffle for door prizes took place with prizes including such as stadium seats, shirts that had been printed to represent the school's future team. The table centerpieces were formed by poms that were the schools colors and the entire room had a festive air and one that was anticipatory of a great school football team.

Donations were taken at the end of the banquet and the school raised a total of $19,298.00 to support the formation of a high school football team.

The information provided by the speakers was persuasive and informative and served to garner more support than was originally hoped for at this initial event.

Ten high school teachers stepped forward to assist with the team in various ways including one teacher volunteering as a cheerleader sponsor. One business offered to print jerseys with no charge and two businesses offered to make arrangements for transportation of the team to and from practice so that any students who wanted to play on the team would not have problems getting to and from practice.

Another business said they would donate all the refreshment items for the concession stand for the first football season and another business donated the cups and a popcorn machine.

Three high school teachers with associated degrees for coaching offered to take over and coach the team without being paid for the first two seasons.

A fabric store in town offered to donate the material needed for cheerleader costumes and band costumes for the first season and a seamstress in town said that she would make the costumes for a 75% discount for the first season.

A shoe store in town offered a 50% discount for all sports shoes needed for the football team, cheerleaders and band members.

Summary and Conclusion

The event was an overwhelming success and the conclusion of the event includes that a high school football team will be formed in this location and this was concluded for many reasons including a great deal of support for the team, the advantages of development that this would serve to provide for students involved and the advantage that this would provide for the town as a whole.