Charting a course to success: map in hand, a Calgary nonprofit followed its own path when it needed to convey project details and highlight its role in the community.

The Calgary Exhibition and Stampede (CE&S) is a volunteer-supported nonprofit organization that preserves and promotes Western heritage and values. Now a CDN$100 million organization, it began as an agricultural fair in 1886, and continues to grow and evolve in step with the city of Calgary, Alberta. Although CE&S's biggest connection to the community remains the Calgary Stampede festival each July, it is working hard to connect with Calgarians and visitors every day of the year.

To that end, the CE&S began moving ahead in 2004, after 20 years of planning, with the development of Stampede Park into a multiuse community park. The 193-acre park welcomes more than 4 million visitors each year and hosts more than 1,300 events, ranging from commerce, trade, sports and entertainment to celebration and learning. Yet reputation management studies performed in 2002-2003 indicated that the public did not understand the need to develop the park or CE&S's year-round contribution to the community. CE&S's communication team needed to share the complete picture of the future Stampede Park, explain the concept behind the changes and gain public support for the development.

The answer was "Mapping Our Future"--literally a map that visually depicted the park development plan and CE&S's impact on the economic strength, culture and character of Calgary.

Objectives

CE&S's vision for Stampede Park is for it to be "a world-class, year-round gathering place for Calgarians and visitors." "Mapping Our Future" was designed to communicate the existence and progress of CE&S's development plan and to foster community understanding and support for the CE&S vision. The team used findings from the reputation management research performed in 2002-2003 as baseline data to set several goals:

* Increase awareness of CE&S's nonprofit status from 51 percent to 60 percent.

* Increase support for park development from 81 percent to 85 percent.

* Increase familiarity of the park's year-round activities from 64 percent to 70 percent.

Solution and Implementation

The team knew it had to create something simple, easy to read, concise, attractive--and within the CDN$75,000 budget--in order to reach its busy, overloaded audiences.

The CE&S decided to go with the concept of a map because it was a succinct and creative way to explain the organization's role in and contribution to the city. The team wanted to communicate with less text and more visuals, giving the audience a true vision of the plan. However, the map was meant to be an illustration of goals rather than a factually accurate rendering of a future site plan, so its design needed to reflect that.

The team developed a double-sided folding pamphlet. One side showed an artist's rendering of Stampede Park at project completion, and the flip side outlined general details about the CE&S and some current community initiatives. The key messages presented were "Who we are," "What we do" and "where we are going."

Ipsos Reid conducted a demographic analysis of the city population for the project, providing a complete view of Calgary's rapidly growing population and citizens' views and understanding of the CE&S. Audiences were segmented between Stampede "boosters"--people with a positive perspective on the Stampede who would be interested in learning more about the organization--and non-boosters. The communication team chose the Stampede boosters to receive the map.

NRG Research Group was hired to test public reaction and establish whether the map was successful in delivering the key messages. A focus group was held with seven people on 20 September 2006, with positive findings. The participants supported the piece and strongly believed it improved their understanding of the CE&S.

To reach as much of the target audience as possible, the CE&S decided to do a mail drop. The piece was mailed in early October 2006.

Measurement and evaluation

Between 24 and 30 November 2006, NRG Research Group completed a tracking recall and impact study of the "Mapping Our Future" piece. Researchers interviewed 1,000 adult Calgarians, and the feedback from these interviews combined with the phone calls and e-mails received indicated that the piece was successful. The team had surpassed its communication objectives.

Results from the research showed:

* Unaided awareness for "Mapping Our Future" was at 22 percent.

* Aided awareness for the piece was 14 percent.

* 43 percent of respondents had an excellent or very good impression of the piece.

* 75 percent stated that the piece aided their understanding of the Stampede Park development plan.

* 78 percent strongly or somewhat support the expansion of Stampede Park; 13 percent oppose it.

* 90 percent rated their overall impression of the CE&S organization as either very or somewhat favorable.

* 94 percent somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement, "The CE&S provides economic value to the community through tourism dollars."

* 91 percent somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement, "The CE&S provides cultural value to the community by preserving and promoting Western heritage and values."

Among the positive comments recorded were "The new 'Mapping Our Future' plans look and sound great!"; "I think it's a great plan!"; and "It was very informative. Thank you for mailing it out."

Hilary McMeekin is corporate communications manager for the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede in Calgary, Alberta.