How can you help?
February 14, 2007
I recently recieved an email from a kind person asking how they could help out. After getting back to them it occurred to me that others may want to know what they can do.
Right now I am looking for low cost ways to reach a good percentage of people in the Pasadena area. There are about 150k people in Pasadena, maybe as many as 500k in the area that we would like to cover. If we had to narrow the focus, we believe that Willie is still with his abductor in a lower socio-economic neighborhood of the Pasadena area.
I would like to get down to about $.01 per person reached. I have a number of ideas in mind.
1. Direct email campaign – I need to source local email addresses.
2. TV advertising – Using Spotrunner I believe that I can run about 100, 30-second cable spots over the greater Pasadena area for about $1500. I need to understand the effective reach per spot. If this turns out to be an inexpensive option I would also need to produce a TV quality advertisement similar to the one that onawhimproductions put together for us.
3. Fax campaign – We faxed all the vets in the area about a two months ago, but I would like to try to fax as many local numbers as possible. Once again starting with the vets, businesses, pet clubs. This may also overlap with a PR effort (below).
4. PR – We were able to get one article in to a local paper early on. Maybe we could try again. I would like to consider radio and TV too. Public stations might be an option.
5. Direct phone campaign – I would need to source local phone numbers from the voter registry. I would have to set up a system to call every phone number in/around Pasadena with an automated message from my wife saying something like this: “Hi my name is ******. I live in Pasadena. My Yorkie was stolen two months ago. If you have seen anyone in the neighborhood who recently adopted an older male Yorkshire terrier please call me back at 310-490-3901 or leave a message on our website www.williewatch.com.”
If you think you can help out with any of these or if you have any other way to contribute we would be very grateful.
February 15, 2007 at 6:39 am
We’ll get you some broader coverage on the blogosphere.
Lindi DeLorio at TechWeb used some interesting Call Back technology to remind those of us registered for her online events… to remember to attend. You might ring her up and ask about their automated dialing vendor. Might be suitable for a Pasadena-wide calling tree.
March 5, 2007 at 7:45 pm
I don’t know how many people you have offering to volunteer, but if there are enough, perhaps they could canvas the neighborhoods, knocking on doors, and looking people in the eye to let them know your pain. I want you to know that yorkie rescue was notified of the theft immediately, and we have had our eyes and ears open in hopes of helping you recover your baby. Have any of the news channels contacted you? Perhaps they need to do a story about stolen dogs. Willie could be their lead in, and perhaps it would be the kick in the pants that this woman (I hate to call her that) criminal needs to return your sweetheart. E-mail me directly if I can be of any further help, and I, of course, will let you know if anyone contacts our rescue group with a found senior yorkie.
Susan Sullivan