Canadian Cancer Society BC and Yukon

National Society Takes Leap Forward in Managing their Media Efforts

Situation:

The Canadian Cancer Society is a national, community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is to eradicate cancer and enhance the quality of life for people living with cancer. They invest in outstanding cancer research, provide reliable information on all cancers, deliver community-based support programs and lead cancer prevention initiatives. The Society relies on the generosity of donors, corporate supporters and volunteers to achieve its Mission.

The BC and Yukon Division is one of ten divisions across Canada. There are six regions within the BC and Yukon Division: Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, Northern, Southern Interior and the Yukon. More than 20,000 volunteers and another 22,000 event participants support the Society in BC and the Yukon.

The media profile of the Society is high and proactive media projects account for the leading share of the Society’s media profile. The Society continues to be most commonly portrayed in media as a trusted and reliable source of cancer information.

Challenges:

• Lack of visibility into current media monitoring, evaluation and distribution vendor agreements, account set up methodology, and general understanding of the internal media department landscape
• Pressure from internal stakeholders to provide relevant, timely, and practical earned media report coverage and analysis
• Department inundated with hundreds of emails from a dozen different media monitoring sources, majority of which provide irrelevant or unusable data
• Inefficient use of time and money spent sifting through email coverage and manually collating and analyzing data for reporting and distribution to stakeholders
• Outdated print and broadcast media monitoring tools that are not user friendly, do not provide automated evaluation and analysis tools and don’t allow for comprehensive reporting capabilities
• Zero visibility, evaluation and reporting of the social media landscape

Solutions:

• Gain an understanding of vendor agreements, account set up methodology, and data received from existing media monitoring, evaluation and distribution tools
• Create efficiencies in the quality and quantity of data received from existing vendors in order to reduce unnecessary budgetary spend for vendor costs and human capital. Automate processes where possible
• Assess effectiveness of current tools against the needs of the stakeholders
• Review potential tools and services available in the marketplace for analysis, management and distribution of media reports
• Determine appropriate internal distribution channels for media information and the ways to make it relevant, practical and timely for all stakeholders
• Re-enforce the department’s dedication to supporting the BCY regional offices and instill confidence in ability to listen and deliver on the needs of stakeholders fostering a more cooperative working environment
• Determine how best to integrate SEO tactics into media relations plan

Results:

The recommended solutions resulted in a massive step forward for the Society, providing them with a workable media monitoring system, satisfying the needs of their stakeholders, while saving them time and money by creating more efficiencies within the department. The Society now has the tools and processes in place to leverage their media opportunities for future success and the media intelligence necessary to leverage sponsorship dollars.

“You are owed a big pat on the back for the Society’s move forward, they now have workable system and something to be proud of – you were a pleasure to work with.” – Bill Steele, Cision Canada

Read more testimonials.