Proactive Media Campaigns
The following are proposed operational principles and processes for major proactive media campaigns conducted by the Academy.
Strategies
- The goals of a proactive campaign should always include:
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- promoting the profession and actuarial science;
- serving the public interest.
- All statements will be attributed as the official position of the Academy/Practice Council.
- Releases should be timed to maximize media coverage. However, great care should be taken to ensure that the Academy’s campaign is not perceived as a partisan or industry effort.
Process
- A full discussion of the cost/benefit of a media relations campaign must be completed in writing (project prospectus) for approval by the president and appropriate vice president(s) before operations commence. The project prospectus will identify all critical clearance points early in the process for major media events and/or statements, and will be developed with appropriate Academy staff input.
- Substantive statements of policy not derived from Academy work products must be approved by the appropriate vice president(s). “FYI” copies of the statements will be sent to the president immediately upon clearance by the vice president.
- All documents to be cleared by the vice president are to be the final versions.
- All quotes must be cleared by the person being quoted.
Operations
- Major media campaign plans should be developed in conjunction with appropriate vice president(s) and public policy staff, with sufficient lead times to ensure that a quality product can be produced and a campaign conducted.
- Media-specific materials (print, television, radio, editorial, trade) should be developed for timed targeted releases.
- A regular program of monitoring stories on high-priority issues (such as cash balance, Social Security, Medicare, prescription drug benefits, etc.) needs to be developed to allow the Academy to respond to stories in a timely manner.
Tactics
- Always use final, approved materials when teasing a story/event.
- Inform all impacted parties (such as associations, government agencies, etc.) in a timely manner, by communications or policy/other staff. Impacted parties should be listed in the project prospectus.
- Respond rapidly, respond often, and respond loudly to misrepresentations of the Academy’s work. This will require a quick pre-clearance system to be outlined in the project prospectus.