Free media: USO uses PSA to top the free media list.

What do Smokey the Bear, UNCF (the United Negro College Fund) and a weeping Indian all have in common? None of them paid to get on television because they are among the most memorable public service announcements (PSA) of all time.

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The New York City-based Ad Council, founded during World War II, gets pro bono help from some of the top advertising agencies around and produced all three of those historic PSAs.

Ad Council President and CEO Peggy Conlon estimates the 50 campaigns they run generate about $2 billion annually in donated media. About five campaigns sunset in an average year with new ones initiated but most organizations stay on after the initial three-year commitment. "It takes longer to change attitudes and behaviors than to sell commercial products," she said. "Consistent messaging over a longer period of time is the goal."

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Even though nonprofits must cover the hard costs of a campaign, such as distribution and packaging, which can run an average of $800,000, Conlon said the return on investment is "incredible," with as much as $30 million or $40 million in donated media.

Because it's difficult to tie fundraising directly to a PSA, the amount of donated media is one way nonprofits measure the success of a campaign. If the most air time were the measure, than United Service Organizations (USO) was the clear winner in 2008. The Arlington, Va.-based USO had the most aired PSA last year, as ranked by Nielsen Research, along with others that ranked No. 16 and No. 58. Nielsen tracks PSAs by the number of half-hour periods in which they air.

USO embarked on its PSA campaign several years ago after realizing it had a brand deficiency of sorts. "We realized people either loved us or didn't know about us," said John Hanson, senior vice president for marketing and communications.

Another reason USO started its campaign was because the organization couldn't afford to buy an interesting amount of advertising. "The goal is to remind people about our brand and start delivering the message out there," he said. "We took advantage of people thinking about the military" Hanson said.

"A lot of people don't realize the untapped potential of PSAs," said Martha Wilcox, executive vice president at Alexandria, Va.-based Williams Whittle Associates, which works with USO. The world is moving quickly to digital and new media opportunities, and while that has exciting potential, she said it's hard to duplicate the reach and power of television and radio. "Those are still alive and vibrant today," she said.

With Williams Whittle, USO creates a new campaign at the beginning of each year and another midway through the year. The PSAs had so many airings that some of the bigger television networks asked USO to refresh them at least every six months. "That really encouraged us to do a mid-year campaign as well," Wilcox said.

"You don't measure effectiveness the way you'd get ROI in commercial because there's no call to action," Hanson said, because if there was, it would be a commercial.

USO doesn't spend money buying air time, but then it's at the whim of television and radio stations, which run the spots when time and space are available. "The fear is having the No. 1 PSA in the country and it only runs after midnight. There are some that run overnight, but most run during great periods of the day," Hanson said. Another drawback is that the campaign takes a lot of work with follow-up to find out if and when a PSA was broadcast.

There's some initial hesitance at times, Hanson said, because stations say they only run PSAs for local charities but USO makes its case that everyone knows someone in their communities who's serving in the military. "It's not a remote reach. If you've got some other nonprofit cause, it might not be quite that compelling to radio and TV around the country, but certainly worth a shot, and definitely a heck of a lot cheaper than buying ads," he said.

USO prides itself on consistently giving stations a good product, in high definition, both English and Spanish, as well as radio. A few billboards have been donated, Hanson said, and it will start producing outdoor ads for airports and transit shelters. Print material also is available in every conceivable format to fit in any space a newspaper or magazine might have. "It's the most cost-effective way to get our message out," he said. Based on their own tracking, counting only what appearances they're aware of, the USO's campaign has generated $220 million worth of ad time.

He estimated the organization spends $600,000 to $800,000 a year on the PSAs, from production and distribution to follow up and tracking.

The cost to produce the creative can vary drastically depending on the goal, Wilcox said. "We care about media value and the number of markets we're in, how we're doing with the time of day it airs," she said.

A small nonprofit can launch a program for a relatively modest sum and grow it over time, Wilcox said. The USO started with a television campaign focused on the top 10 markets and the networks, she said, and over the past six years, the program has grown to reach into just about every market and medium. A high-quality campaign can be created, produced, distributed, tracked and then sold in using Williams Whittle's proprietary outreach program for as little as $100,000, according to Wilcox.

PSA directors can receive as many as a dozen PSAs a day. Regular, one-on-one contact, with mailings and visits--"CRM (constituent relationship management) at its most granular," Whittle said, helps keep USO in the minds of PSA directors.

With more than 2,000 PSA campaigns last year, Wilcox said the vast majority can end up in the trash after limited airplay unless there's a strong strategy and outreach program. "Somebody has to choose which is going to go on the air," she said. That's likely to be the most emotionally compelling PSA, so nonprofits must learn to tell a story in a way that can be effective in 15 or 20 seconds.

The Ad Council does plenty of research before and after a PSA airs, to craft the right message and then to determine its effect.

"We're very heavily based in research," Conlon said. The Ad Council does research on the nonprofit's behalf, which can give an indication of how well a campaign is resonating within the media marketplace or what effect it's had. For instance, it could research and document how many lives have been saved since a particular drunk driving campaign started, or report on changes in behaviors and attitudes.

"When we do a campaign, we start with, what's the issue you want to address," said Conlon. An examination of research also leads to determining a target audience while the pro bono ad agency will do quantitative and qualitative consumer research to craft a message.

RELATED ARTICLE: PSAs can fuel organizational credibility.

Several years ago, Project Fit America (PFA) found itself on the pages of national magazines, prompting calls to the small nonprofit in Boyes Hot Springs, Calif., about 50 miles north of San Francisco. The Public Service Announcement (PSA) ads certainly raised the nonprofit's profile, but they didn't raise much money.

"Being in National Geographic, 0 magazine, it's a credibility statement for a charity," said Stacey Cook, PFA's executive director. The PSA was a boost to its other awareness campaigns, Cook said, describing it as "a spoke in a bigger wheel," even though the dollars didn't follow.

All the attention turned out to be a mixed blessing. A huge number of calls came from parents and schools inquiring about the program, but the campaign didn't incite as much response in terms of direct funding. "It was not the best use of our time and resources. Actually, it was pretty heartbreaking. It's tough to take 180 phone calls a day and not be able to match them with dollars," Cook said.

Luckily for PFA, it didn't have to invest much in the effort. With huge amounts of unsold ad space after the dot.com bust, there was a search for nonprofits invited to place PSAs in magazines, Cook said. The San Francisco Art Institute chose PFA as a class assignment, developing a PSA from start to finish and sending them to publishing houses.

Operating in 300 cities and 40 states, PFA donates physical education programs to schools around the country, including equipment and lesson plans, to foster a love of activity and movement. PFA runs on a budget of less than $250,000 a year, paying for equipment, teacher training and substitute teacher fees, with a majority of the work on site at schools. The average school sponsorship is approximately $17,000.

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Estimating the average cost of a full-page magazine ad to be about $65,000, PFA tracked more than $250,000 in free advertising. "If you can get someone to do it pro bono, it's a great way to test if something works without having to go hard core with your dollars," Cook said. "We were just lucky, we were in the right place at the right time," she said, adding that she expects to try it again in the future, but a little differently.

Cook believes PSAs need a strong call to action requesting the viewer or reader to do something. "You have to be asked to do something in order to be something you can measure," she said.

"We never quite found the magic formula to take a print ad and turn it into an item that impacts someone to become a donor" or to adopt a school, Cook said. Cliff Bar was the only funding sponsor found as a result of the ad campaign, after its brand manager spotted the PSA in 0 magazine.

"A nonprofit needs to be crystal clear who their audience is trying to target and exactly what they want them to do," Cook said.

--Mark Hrywna