{
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    "title" : "Advice from USAID on Prize Competition Communication Strategies |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Advice from USAID on Prize Competition Communication Strategies",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/09/29/advice-from-usaid-on-prize-competition-communication-strategies/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Advice from USAID on Prize Competition Communication Strategies","summary" : "A well-developed communications plan is critical to the success of a challenge competition, but too often it is one item managers leave to consider at the end of prize design. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Jarah Meador shared the Desal Prize plan and results in the September 16 webinar, “Why Your Gov","date" : "2014-09-29T01:57:25-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"ktrebon" : "Karen Trebon"},"topics" : {
        
            "challenges-and-prize-competitions" : "Challenges and prize competitions"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2014-09-29-advice-from-usaid-on-prize-competition-communication-strategies.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2014/09/2014-09-29-advice-from-usaid-on-prize-competition-communication-strategies.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/09/2014-09-29-advice-from-usaid-on-prize-competition-communication-strategies.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2014/09/2014-09-29-advice-from-usaid-on-prize-competition-communication-strategies.md","slug" : "advice-from-usaid-on-prize-competition-communication-strategies","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/09/29/advice-from-usaid-on-prize-competition-communication-strategies/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/09/600-x-200-social-media-Business-connection-TCmake_photo-iStock-Thinkstock-184725179.jpg\"\n    alt=\"social media and business connection icons\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eA well-developed communications plan is critical to the success of a challenge competition, but too often it is one item managers leave to consider at the end of prize design. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.usaid.gov/\"\u003eUnited States Agency for International Development\u003c/a\u003e (USAID)’s Jarah Meador shared the \u003ca href=\"http://www.securingwaterforfood.org/the-desal-prize/\"\u003eDesal Prize\u003c/a\u003e plan and results in the September 16 webinar, “Why Your Gov Prize Competition Needs a Communications Strategy.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConsider the following advice and insight for help with planning your own challenge.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"before-your-challenge-launches-hahahugoshortcode2193s1hbhb\"\u003eBefore Your Challenge Launches \u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/09/250-x-156-3D-dart-target-People-ahmetemre-iStock-Thinkstock-504029517.jpg\"\n    alt=\"A concept graphic for targeting people: the word people is in 3-D red lettering, with the o is a dart board with 3 green darts\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUSAID estimated that 25% of the communications work on their challenge occurred pre-launch. For example, they spent a lot of time writing copy that others could easily use to help promote the challenge. Here are a few more of USAID’s tips:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFigure out who your target audience is and the most effective ways to reach them is the first step in communications planning. One idea is to find a newsletter with a lot of subscribers. Provide pre-written content the newsletter staff can use to promote your challenge. You can research this on your own, or hire a \u003ca href=\"http://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/sinDetails.do?scheduleNumber=541\u0026amp;specialItemNumber=541+4G\u0026amp;executeQuery=YES\" title=\"Link to GSA Schedule 541 4G for Challenge and Competition Services \"\u003ecommunications firm\u003c/a\u003e to help.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThink about who the influencers are in the field related to your challenge. Influencers are famous people who care about the issue. Reach out to them and provide pre-written content.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDevelop a content calendar to help you remember to keep promoting your challenge. Remember to have different content each time in your emails, tweets and blog posts.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThink about features that will be impactful on your challenge website, like adding LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter buttons. USAID found that a lot of people engaged in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.securingwaterforfood.org/the-desal-prize/\" title=\"Link to Desalinization (Desal) Prize website\"\u003eDesal Prize\u003c/a\u003e were active on Twitter, so they installed a live feed.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eConsider attending conferences in the related industry. Distribute handouts, or ask that a one pager be included in the conference materials.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTime your challenge to launch around another heavily publicized event. USAID’s Desal Prize launched on \u003ca href=\"http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday\"\u003eWorld Water Day\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"during-your-challenge\"\u003eDuring Your Challenge\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/09/250-x-167-weekly-goals-and-objectives-daily-calendar-Aleksandar-Stojanov-iStock-Thinkstock-119164825.jpg\"\n    alt=\"A photo of a Weekly Goals and Objectives daily calendar\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\nKeep referring back to your content calendar, so you remember to keep promoting your challenge.\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHelp promote other competing challenges. People who are not eligible for one challenge may be eligible to enter yours, and vice versa.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDraft a press release highlighting the winners of the challenge. Mention where they are from so local news outlets will run a story. Be sure to emphasize how the winning ideas are transformational.\u003c/ul\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"ways-to-measure-the-overall-success-of-your-challenge-and-prize-competition\"\u003eWays to Measure the Overall Success of Your Challenge and Prize Competition\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere did the ideas come from?\u003c/strong\u003e Same people or new people? USAID found that 50% of the ideas in their challenge came from the developing world. These are the people they are trying to help, so the ideas may be easier to implement. \u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2014/09/250-x-150-Social-Wave-Background-TCmake_photo-iStock-Thinkstock-186056119.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Social Wave Background showing various social media and computer or business icons\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of people engaged.\u003c/strong\u003e 6,000 participants were engaged during USAID’s challenge. 1,942 of those were email subscribers. You might want to compare this with the number of people engaged in your issue before your challenge, and see if the engagement continues to climb after the challenge. Check your Web analytics and see how many times key documents were viewed or downloaded. Email delivery tools can help you determine how many people opened the emails and clicked on the links in them.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow many submitted ideas were submitted?\u003c/strong\u003e Make an estimate of how many ideas you are likely to get, and see if you exceed it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow many ideas are implemented, or being implemented?\u003c/strong\u003e USAID knows that 200 new solutions are in testing, field trials or being scaled. And 65%of those involved in implementing the solutions are people who’ve never worked with USAID before. This is one of the key \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/memoranda/2010/m10-11.pdf\"\u003ebenefits of challenge and prize competitions\u003c/a\u003e: Increasing the number and diversity of the individuals, organizations, and teams that are addressing a particular problem or challenge of national or international significance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWant to stay in the loop about future articles and no cost training? Sign up for \u003ca href=\"https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USHOWTO/subscriber/new?preferences=true#tab1\" title=\"Sign up for DigitalGov.gov email updates\"\u003eemail updates\u003c/a\u003e, or follow our \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/events/\" title=\"DigitalGov.gov training calendar\"\u003etraining calendar\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n"}
  ]
}