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#Liveforblank

final client report


Otterbein university

Suicide prevention and awareness

public relations campaign

2016

table contents
of

Executive Summary
Research
Initial Planning
Opportunity Statement & Goal
Objectives, Strategies & Tactics
SWOT Analysis & Evaluation
Strategic Decisions & Changes
Implementation
Timeline
Event
Photos
Results
Social Media
Website
members &
Event
Account Executive: Ashley Legin titles
Survey
Assistant Account Executive: Lauren Meader
Evaluation
Financial Coordinators: Logan Peterman & Kristen
Recommendation

account

Heslop
Social Media Manager: Ali Kriebel & KC Brown
Open Mic Coordinator: Ally Hurd
Health Fair Coordinator: Kyle Burrowes
Website and Video Developer: Sean Feverston
Creative Team: Polly Sellers, Ken Huang, Xiaoxi Liu

#Liveforblank

executive summary
This semester, the #LiveforBlank group was assigned the task of creating a campus wide campaign
that brought suicide awareness to Otterbein students. As a group, they brainstormed and created
strategies to create a campaign that they felt would reach Otterbein students.
The mission of the campaign is to create awareness and change the view on discussing suicide
and depression while also explaining Otterbeins counseling resources.

In order to create an impactful campaign, the group created surveys to gauge how knowledgeable
Otterbein students were of the services offered at Otterbein. After seeing the results, the group
knew that it was a call to action. Being that the counseling center is looking to expand throughout
the next few months, it is important that the group brought awareness to the services being offered.
That being said, they spent weeks creating materials including flyers, stickers, posters, t-shirts, and
business cards. All of the materials were created to encourage interactiveness with our target audiences.
The group distributed materials throughout the main areas of campus, and they also staffed booths
in the Campus Center to pass out these materials. At these booths they incorporated the interactive
materials with students who showed interest in participating. Since social media is prevalent
throughout the campus, the campaign created a twitter with the handle @LiveForBlank. This was
used to promote this campaign and start a hashtag to spread the message and information about
events.
The campaign culminated in the Suicide Open Mic Night. The event consisted of a Cross the Line
activity which helped students to break the ice. After that, the floor opened up for students to
share their experiences with suicide and mental illness. The students who attended the event
felt it was a safe space to share their stories and felt inspired to take the campaign further
and spread it to their friends. They also raffled off a Chipotle gift card and #LiveForBlank
t-shirts to thank people for attending.

Overall, the campaign was a great success on Otterbeins campus. The campaign generated
positive feedback from students, faculty and people that have been affected by suicide and
depression. This campaign was created to be able to be implemented for future years to come.

#Liveforblank

Initial planning
Opportunity Statement
The Office of Wellness and our campaign have the opportunity to increase awareness of our
mental health services, erase the stigma associated with seeking help, and advocate for a
community that is aware of the warning signs of depression and suicide and actively works to
help its students create a mentally healthy environment through the use of interactive materials and social media.

Goal
Our goal is to increase awareness of mental health and suicide prevention services available
on Otterbeins campus and create a healthy and safe environment for students

Target Audiences
We decided to focus on targeting the student body at Otterbein University. While researching,
we found out that it takes multiple clicks of the mouse to find the counseling resources Otterbein provides. This process gives enough time for the student to rethink his or her decision,
which can be the matter of life or death. Since this is the case, we needed a way to reach out to
the students easier.
We targeted student social media users to help promote the campaign because of our interactive hashtag with prize incentives.
The student to student approach led us to targeting many student groups at Otterbein. We
reached out to Greek chapters because they consist of a large group of people who would be
easy to communicate with.
We targeted the overall student body by involving the academic support by having our event
be INST/FYE approved to encourage students to go for class credit.
Our key audiences (in order from most to least important include): Otterbein students at risk,
Otterbein students close to people who are at risk, Otterbein staff, and Otterbein faculty.

#Liveforblank

Initial planning
Objective 1: Increase student awareness by 25 percent of all Otterbein students by promoting suicide prevention and the counseling services at Otterbein University through the use of
social media and student interaction by April 2016.
Objective 2: Increase social media attention by gaining 50 followers on our twitter, @liveforblank, by the end of spring semester.
Objective 3: Increase number of appointments made online on new website from 0-5 by the
end of Summer semester
Strategy 1:

Use social media to gain attention for the #LiveForBlank campaign


Tactics:

Created a Twitter (@liveforblank)

Developed a hashtag #LiveForBlank

Followed different organizations on campus

Followed Otterbein students

Tweeted statistics about suicide among young adults

Posted pictures of students showing what they live for

Promoted our event via Twitter


Strategy 2:

Use paper materials to bring awareness and interaction among students throughout
the campaign
Tactics:

Created posters and flyers that promoted the event and campaign

Included a different suicide statistic on each poster

Placed a detachable heart along bottom of posters with counseling service numbers
for students easy access

Created small emergency hotline information cards for students

Had students fill out slips that say what they lived for

Decorated the bulletin board in the CC with students slips

Reserved a table outside of the Library on the day of our event to draw students
walking to class

Reserved a table in the Campus Center the day before our event to hand out stickers,
candy, and promote our event

#Liveforblank

Initial

planning

Strategy 3:

Promote the campaign through giveaways to students


Tactics:

Designed stickers for students personal use (#LiveFor____)

Created t-shirts with our campaign hashtag

Used the event attendance as entries to a raffle

Raffled Chipotle gift cards and campaign t-shirts

Brought candy to hand out at the event


Strategy 4:

Host a campus wide event to bring suicide prevention awareness among students
Tactics:

Rented out rooms in the CC

Promoted event around campus and through social media

Approved the event for INST/FYE

Added the event to the Student Affairs calendar

Asked Dr. Kathy Ryan and Julie Saker to attend the event

Planned/performed activities to help students relate and open up to each other

Had an open mic for students to share testimonials

Sent out an event evaluation survey to the attendees

#Liveforblank

swot anaylisis
Strengths:

Counseling services on campus are excellent-- any student who has been there
knows this

Services are in the process of being revitalized and expanded

Just added a new male counselor, Caleb Tipple

Student Affairs is passionate about this issue

Various portions and population of the student body are very passionate about this
issue

Students and faculty wish to work this campaign into next year

A website is developing to make access for students easier


Weaknesses:

Low awareness about the counseling center because it is fairly new

Counseling services are difficult to locate on the Otterbein website

Difficult to get attendance at event because it is a touchy subject

Some what uplifting campaign for a serious topic

Nature of mental illness is that students dont want to seek help, or sometimes are
scared to talk on the phone or in person
Opportunities:

Growing this campaign and holding an event each semester

Maintaining the Twitter so students become more educated on the topic

Developing a new webpage that is easier to navigate

Allowing students who want to speak to be heard

Creating a positive vibe to talk about this serious topic

Creating a safe space for students to feel comfortable

Developing a peer counseling group

Starting a student ambassador program with involved students

Expanding the services that student affairs provides over the summer
Threats:

Short deadline

Needed rebranding of campaign

Limited funds

#Liveforblank

evaluation

Distribute a survey to get feedback from students who attended the event. This

will be distributed immediately after the event occurs.

Maintain the social media to monitor the number of followers we gain from start

up throughout the end of the campaign

The campaign has brought a new voice to the students at Otterbein who are struggling
or know of someone who is struggling with suicide. A safe and open environment has
been created for students to come together to open up about their experiences and to
change the stigma of suicide. Many students are more aware of the counseling center
tools to help themselves. The campaign has brought several opportunities to the counseling center such as a set up for a peer group among students, keeping the path of
conversation open up to keep an uplifting point of view of hope in the subject. The
services are being expanded and have expanded even more so with this campaign. In
the future, the counseling center will be able to use the materials and adapt them to any
target they wish to without much to no complications.

#Liveforblank

strategic challenges
decisions &

Due to the merge of two pitches into one, our campaign needed to be rebranded. We
morphed together our ideas for implementation, but our graphics and designs did not
fit properly. Once we were able to work with our art students, we created a warm,
comforting brand with a pop of color to ensure that it would stand out and be memorable throughout campus.
We also had to make some strategic decisions because we needed to know how to
reach the most people as fast as we could in order to have a student base to be our
start-up. We decided to communicate with Greek life because a lot of our group is
associated with a Greek chapter here on campus. Once our chapters decided to help
us, we had a student base to spread the word about #LiveForBlank.
Overall, we struggled trying to decided where to draw the line with this campaign. It
was difficult because this campaign was a very serious topic, but we wanted to make
the process a little more uplifting. We decided that we could put a twist on life instead
of death, so it would make people focus on why there are here.
We did not want to be insensitive to this topic, but we also didnt want to come off too
strong or literal. Our event was a challenge to plan because we didnt want people to
feel uncomfortable. Once we decided on activities to act as icebreakers, we had an
agenda, but didnt stick to it. We decided it would be best to let this event go at its
own pace, so people could talk when they felt comfortable instead of them feeling
forced.

#Liveforblank

implementation

#Liveforblank

implementation
On Monday, April 11th, we reserved and were present at a table in the Campus Center. At this
table, we gave out stickers and candy, had people fill out Live For ____ sheets, recorded them
hanging them up, and told them about our event.
On Tuesday, April 12th, we reserved and were present at a table outside of the library. At this
table, we gave out stickers and candy, had people fill out Live For ____ sheets, collected them,
and told them about our event that night.
On Tuesday, April 12th, we held our event in Campus Center Rooms 1 and 2 from 7-9 pm. We had
students sign in and enter a raffle for the chance to win a $10 Chipotle gift card or a free #LiveForBlank t-shirt. During the event, Dr. Kathy Ryan and Julie Saker opened up and talked about
Otterbeins counseling resources. We then had the audience take part in the Cross the Line
activity, asking them to cross the line for certain statements such as if you believe in a higher
power, if you or someone you know has suffered from an eating disorder, finally culminating in
if you have ever been affected by suicide or suicidal thoughts.
After that, student Carlie Watson read an essay she had written about suicide and mental illness
to begin the open mic part of our event. We had a number of students come up and share their
personal stories dealing with mental illness and suicide.
On Thursday, April 14th, we had a booth at the Otterbein Health Fair in the CC from 11am-2pm.
During Fair had more LiveFor___ sheets filled out and collected. Spoke with 44 Individuals
about the campaign and its overall mission.

#Liveforblank

results social media


Twitter was our prime social media channel throughout this campaign. Throughout this campaign, 25
tweets were tweeted from our account, @liveforblank. These tweets consisted of suicide statistics, event
and campaign promotions, and also student involvement. We gained 60 followers over the course of the
campaign, and plan to keep the Twitter active for the counseling center. We wanted to focus on a sole
social media channel rather than trying to balance more than one, which allowed us to make sure our
tweets consisted of good content.

tweets
from

otterbein

university

#Liveforblank

Social media

facebook event

We also made a Facebook event to publicize our event, share it more easily with faculty and staff, and
invite our friends specifically. On our event page, we had a total of 293 invites, with 33 saying they were
interested, and 30 saying they were attending

Website
We are working with Dr. Kathy Ryan to design and launch a new website that is easier to navigate. After
conducting our research we found that it was extremely challenging to locate the counseling services on
the website. They also recently added a new feature that allows you to schedule appointments online,
which will be much more popular once the webpage is more user friendly.
Events
Monday, April 11th/Tuesday, April 12th tabling outside of Library and CC: 109 participants
Tuesday, April 12th Suicide Awareness Open Mic Night: # attendees, # people spoke
Thursday, April 14th Otterbein Health Fair Booth in CC: spoke to 44 people.

#Liveforblank

results

survey

A survey was constructed to obtain feedback from our #LiveForBlank event. This survey asks for feedback, contact information, and overall opinions of the counseling services at Otterbein. Volunteers are
also going to be located from this survey to act as student ambassadors in the future for the campaign
and possible peer groups. This was sent to the participants of the event.

Our results showed that our campaign and event were mostly learned of by word of mouth
(42.9%) and through social media (23.8%). This supports our objectives by effectively using social
media to promote suicide awareness among the Otterbein student body.
We also learned that 70% of the students who attended the open mic event went because of
feeling personally impacted by suicide, or to support a friend. If there is an event like this in the
future, 71.4% of our attendants would return.
One of our many purposes of this event was to help create a safe space on campus, and to make
sure students felt that they could seek help. 100% of our responses said that they felt the event
was a safe space for them to be open. Our end goal was to hopefully gain interest in students to
develop an ambassador program for the counseling center, and 47.4% of students showed interest.

#Liveforblank

results

These students interest and responses gave us feedback that can be implemented into future
work with the counseling services. We gained interest in volunteers, and learned that students
want to open up and feel comfortable, but now they have a place to do so. Overall, our survey
results reflected a positive image of the open mic event.

#Liveforblank

evaluation recommendations
We feel generally pleased with our campaign. We reached many more people than we thought
possible, and seemed to pull out a few very dedicated and passionate students who would be
willing to contribute and help in the future with the proliferation of our campaign in years to
come.
One thing that we wished we had planned for in advance was for having a bigger response to the
campaign. We set small expectations which made it difficult when more people wanted stickers
and showed up to the event. However, these are good problems to have, and it will help out with
recreations of this campaign by the Office of Wellness in the future.
Recommendations
We feel that it might be more beneficial to implement this campaign during the fall semester
because everybody has so much going on during the last few weeks of class. We feel that we
would have gotten a larger turnout at the event, especially with the enthused freshman class.
Also, in the future we hope to see more time to put together the campaign implementation
because we felt very rushed.
We hope to see this campaign carry through the summer and years to follow since there will be a
new counseling center on campus. We recommend that the Health and Wellness center take on
an intern or use a practicum student to maintain the campaign. They could also merge with an
INST or FYS class to plan another event like the open mic event.
In the future, we see this campaign as something that can be implemented at least once a semester because it is something that will remind students what they live for.

#Liveforblank

#Liveforblank

research
Twitter

Top Twitter hashtags that correlate with suicide: #SuicidePrevention correlating with #mentalhealth and #endthestigma, #youmatter, #hopestartswithyou

Facebook

Facebook: type in suicide, go to Facebook Help: Suicide, gives directions for how to contact for
help (what resources are available for different situations)

Instagram

#suicideprevention is big, but so is #suicide which leads to many graphic images of people doing
self-harm

According to the Suicide Prevention Campaign

National Suicide Prevention hotline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

According to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

1,000,000 die from suicide every year


6% of undergraduates and 4% of graduates in 4 year colleges have seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year (nearly half of each group did not tell anyone)
For every suicide, 25 attempt
Suicide rate among young adults (ages 15-24) has tripled since the 1950s

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Suicide is the 4th leading cause of death for adults ages 18-65

According to World Health Organization

Over 800,000 people die by suicide every year


There is one death by suicide in the world every 40 seconds

According to Otterbein University

The Counseling center consists of 3 staff members


Students receive free counseling sessions
Online appointment scheduling is available
A half hour triage is open to students throughout the week

Interview with Dr. Kathy Ryan and Julie Saker, Otterbein Health and Wellness

This counseling center program just started last January, so it is still developing and it would be
ideal to get some student input on how do we get the word out to students
Wanted to focus on promoting a counseling center peer group
Wanted to increase overall awareness of the center and services throughout campus

#Liveforblank

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