Communications Plan Assignment Addressing Issues Encounter by Blue Room Theatre

Question

Task: Communications Plan AssignmentTask: You will be producing an abridged (shortened) Communications Plan for the Blue Room Theatre. In response to recent events, such as Covid-19 and reduced funding for the Arts, as well as the organisation’s failure to secure Australia Council Funding in 2020, you will need to formulate a plan based on the acquisition of funds, as well as maintaining the Blue Room Theatre’s presence in the community. You will be required to research the situation thoroughly and incorporate theory into your decision-making. Your Plan will have the following sections:

Background & Problem Definition (750-1000 words)
Define the parameters of your scenario and an overview of your client and current situation. Include a discussion of the current environment – artistic, business and media – that will give you an idea of how to position your client in the marketplace. Remember that you are working with an artist/client/creative that has no money to spend on advertising, promotion and marketing (at the moment) – this will be one of your key problems to solve.

Stakeholder analysis (750-1000 words)
This is critical to success. Stakeholders need to be identified in terms of potential partnerships, sponsorships and grants. Audience identification is also critical here and needs to be done in as much detail as possible. We expect a lot of research in this section.

Research for strategy formulation (500-750 words)
Identify one PR theory/principle as directed in weeks 3-5. Discuss how this will be used in your strategy formulation. Your strategy should detail how you will solve your problem – (your problem is funds acquisition and public awareness/perception)

Messages & medium (300-500 words)
Identify your key stakeholder ‘groups’ – similar demographics, psychographics and/or other classification. Formulate a key message for each of these groups, as well as any potential media that can be used to reach them. Discuss how and why this will work using the research and theory from your other sections.

Answer

Background and problem definition of Blue Room Theatre undertaken in the Communications plan assignment
Background
It is a creative hub for the arts talents to recreate their thought and apply in the drama schedule. It is presently situated in Western Australia, Perth. It belongs to the cultural base of Australia and it improves the quality of entertainment to gather people to sustain in the market. It is continuing for 30 years with resources, talent, advocacy, and quality of drama and entertainment. It is the heart of Western Australia and it runs very dominantly. A lot of people come here and enjoy the favour of good graces which is very effective for the health and very innovative for the talent. Performers act their performance based on the story and sometimes they get prizes for the best acting. It is a performance venue and it operates from two theatre rooms having two rehearsal rooms downstairs. They operate since 1990 and they have a membership forum to sustain the requirements of that theatre. It is also known as the heart of Western Australia and giving natural performance by talented actors and actresses. Various persons and people belong to immigrants come here to enjoy the evening and get some entertainment with quality acting. Actors are benefitted from their council and get the remuneration for their fulfilment of basic needs.

Problem Definition
Various problems have been seen by them in 2020 because since the outbreak of Covid-19 their theatre was shut down. Western Australia completely shut down for 120 days and a lot of people suffered infection through Covid-19. Not only were the health issues raised but also created financial difficulty in the whole world as well as Australia. The Blue Room Theatre was one of them and presently in 2021; they decided to stop the summer party as again raising COVID strain.

Parameters
A huge amount of people protected their health from nature and the government decided to shut down all the activities in Australia and the Global sectors (van Barneveld et al., 2020). This theatre room also shut down and faced a lot of financial problems and reduces their remuneration due to loos of performance and theatre operation. Not only the theatre but also the artists’ forum faced financial difficulty and they decided to shift to another part-time job to sustain their life with the help of technology. Due to the outbreak of Covid-19, they faced a shutdown of human interaction and went to depression. The Australian council also faced problems and mitigates their expenses and plummeted the figure of income (Abidinet al., 2021). The theatre cum bar went to a haunted house and stop all the necessary activities for an uncertain period. Actors and participants show their moves digitally but not created the atmosphere of the theatre. Due to a lack of financial problems, they decided to shut down the creative hub for an uncertain period and if the situation would not change it will be closed for lifelong.

Current environment situation of Blue Room Theatre and execution plan
The artists’ forum is having fewer funds to mitigate their operation and influence the activities of the digital performance through technical implementation. But from home, it will not possible, because theatre room tradition will not feel by the artists and audience. As a plan maker, it is important to highlight the crisis of funds to the audiences and the Government of Australia to sustain the culture of the Theatre (Lewis & Liu, 2020). Not only the funds raising but also should evaluate the potentiality of theatre opening as previously. The artists, forum and creative have no fund to raise the culture of this sector. It is important to demonstrate the basic ideas like people gathering in a small amount keeping distance, collect fund from the public authorities, humans and other NGO can help to raise the funds and improve the current situation of the Blue Room Theatre. It is also important to perform their artistic activities in open spaces to collect money from the viewers and with the help of social media, they can raise their demand in the society and also the youth, schoolchildren all hampered their life by pandemic (Foster, 2020). Social media always create mass awareness to protect the artistic forum and artists working in the theatre. Theatre is the main backbone of acting and in Australia acting is also a crucial part of the tradition and making enormous views and ideas. In order to sustain the nature of the Blue Room Theatre, it’s important to gather the finance from crowd funding and initiate the activities very proudly and bravely (Kim & Hall, 2019). Particularly, the forum also organizes some crowd funding events to mobilize their necessity and fulfil their requirements.

In the digital world, it is not impossible to create mass awareness to sustain the existence of anything. Combating health issues is very crucial to understand the diversity in nature with man-made events to get some entertainment. The present situation also says that in 2021 the blue room theatre stops their summer night party and allows fifteen people in the theatre room in four phases to entertain the theatre. Outstanding theatre presentation would possible if planning would appropriate. The various factors include crowd funding, NGO help, and other private support can initiate the backbone of the artists’ forum. The focus should be crowd funding through social media sending account number, bank name, and IFSC code. It would be very favourable to collect the money to sustain the operation of the theatre. The Blue Room Theatre is the heart of Western Australia and for this reason; many people can provide their funds to raise the funds of this Theatre. It should be also feasible that approach the Government and request them to provide some funds to sustain the culture of theatre in Australia. The organizational and cultural societies are also very helpful to retain the culture in the Blue Room Theatre very enormously. The abound of culture in the various countries always motivate the traditional activities and improve the quality of tradition with high resistance. Crowdfunding is very crucial to the acquisition of funds in the Blue Room Theatre and provides various supported facts to combat the pandemic situation (Aladejebi, 2020). So, it can be said that this plan would be better to improve the present situation of the Blue Room Theatre and sustain the goals of the artistic forum with the creation of existence in nature.

Stakeholder Analysis
In acquiring funding, the sources available and the amount of time during which they are needed are considered. One first step is to determine the kinds of funds to be used and the combination ideally matched to the situation. Blue Room Theatre has recently faced funding scarcity due to the recent incident of COVID-19 for which it is important for the Blue Room Theatre to analyse the stakeholders from which the needed fundraising can be done (Eskerod&Larsen, 2018). In stakeholder analysis both internal people and teams involved or affected by the project are named stakeholders when it comes to any corporate project. Stakeholder analysis involves the recognition of those individuals prior to the launch of the project and their presence, their involvement, and their impact are organized accordingly and how well these various stakeholder groups can be active and communicated throughout. So, Blue Room Theatre is needed to use the expertise and skills of these important actors to help lead the project to a satisfactory outcome by engaging influencers of companies, managers, or influential partners in earnest in the project (Raum, 2018). Australia Council Funding is the primary stakeholder of the Blue Room Theatre but due to the impact of COVID-19, the primary stakeholder is unable to provide funds. There are different types of stakeholder groups associated with the Blue Room Theatre which includes.

Primary Stakeholders:Investors, staff, clients, viewers, and vendors are the principal stakeholders in a traditional company. However, stakeholders can be expanded to governments and trade associations with a growing emphasis on corporate social responsibility (Bendtsenet al., 2021). The primary stakeholder for Blue Room Theatre is Australia Council Funding and the viewers who pay for tickets for visiting the theatre for watching movies and shows.

Beneficiaries:The primary beneficiaries that will benefit from the fundraising are the Blue Room Theatre itself, employees, and the vendors. The fundraising will help the theatre to generate the needed funding to operate and the employees will remain motivated to work since the theatre will keep its operations active.

Target Groups:The target groups are the audiences who buy tickets are the primary source of fundraising for the theatre. Similarly, Donors are the major target groups that can help the theatre to gather funds. The first impulse that strikes are to avoid the donors is when the tragedy hits. However, it's time for the Blue room theatre to get in touch with the donors and ask for help. Blue Room Theatre needs to create a spreadsheet and schedule meetings as soon as possible with the top donors. Share how the non-profits organization represents the customers and how they are affected by unpredictable times. Requests for funding are a sensitive discussion, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic. In moments of confusion and assurance, collaboration is the secret to fundraising. Effective communication may allow the organization, when applying for the first donation, to form a strong partnership with donor prospects (White et al., 2017). They should note that donors would like to learn about the positive work the group does and engage in a non-profit mission. Financial contributions will best be made by establishing clear emotional links, showing their scope and communication of potential.

Sponsors: Sponsors have a personal relationship with the organization's mission to which they donate their time. It is possible they see the interesting factors in the organization. Sponsors are excellent targets for fund-raising, as the results demonstrate that all are ready to lend the same cause their time and financial support. Sponsors in the group are more likely to be mindful that the present pandemic restricts their capacity to contribute through volunteer service and may choose to contribute financially in their place. The company should never disclose until they inquire whether sponsors are prepared to give financially. The sponsors of Blue Room Theatre include Lottery West and Local Wheat belt businesses from which the theatre can expect fundraising when the Australia Council Funds failed to provide the funds (Noto&Noto, 2019). One of the many problems during the COVID-19 pandemic is organizing physical shows. Since due to COVID-19 social distancing is the biggest issue that is being faced for organizing onstage shows but for that technology can be used for arranging virtual shows if the company is to postpone any personal fund-raising activities. Technology can assist non-profit activities without meeting in-person to begin hosting fundraiser events. If the company has not hosted any virtual fundraising event, it could be a perfect time to include them in the response and fundraising plan of COVID-19. The group will hold simulated fundraisers in order to minimize health risks for fans and gain more opportunities as well as future "no-shows" for non-profit organizations.

Final Beneficiaries: The society will be the final beneficiaries as the theatre will benefit them with cultural arts and other performances with proper fundraising.

Public Relation
Public relations are a method in which information is intentionally revealed and circulated between a single entity or entity, such as a corporation, a government department, a non-profit organization, and the media to manipulate views of the public. PR professionals develop and establish partnerships with the client demographic of a company, the government, the relevant industry media, and other representatives of the opinion (Skinner, 2019). Joint tasks include organizing communication campaigns, publishing press releases and other news content, working with the press, interviewing company speakers, writing corporate leadership speeches, serving as a spokesperson for the organization, preparing customers for press conferences and speeches, media interviews and speeches, writing a site web and social media content. A good understanding of the needs and concerns of each one of the various stakeholders is required in the field of public relations. PR experts must know how to handle these issues successfully with the most important weapon in the public relations industry, ads. Public relations professionals must consider the views and concerns of the communities with whom they work to sustain collaboration. They produce media communications and notify the media that can publish or broadcast their content. Furthermore, public relations professionals sponsor corporate activities to promote and boost the reputation and identity of their company or customer (Bhati& McDonnell, 2020). They also contribute by public reports and interviews to explain the opinions of their organization against their target audience. They follow social and political patterns and suggest ways to build on these trends in order to improve the reputation of the company.

Implementing Public Information Model for Fundraising
The Model of Public Information is essential to educate the public without stressing promotion and advertising. This model is not aimed at persuading the public or changing their mind-set but at providing them with relevant facts (Ellis et al., 2017). Non-profit groups such as Blue Room Theatre struggle to continue their activities during this period of dislocation, anxiety, and trauma. An environmental danger is a pandemic and global crisis. There is no assurance, now or in the future, that our service will be given to public opinion or that the effect of COVID-19 enables employees to keep their employment.

Finding new prospect
In the face of pollution, non-profit organizations hope secretly to save their sponsors. Blue Room Theatre needs to get positive publicity such that viewers can understand more about the situation that the company is facing and choose to participate (Ehrmannet al., 2019). When the company has particularly decent publicity, then they tend to get calls from prospects willing to learn more, volunteer, and donate. Good news publicity is a perfect way to discover potential opportunities.

General awareness
Maintaining a healthy relationship with the public can increase awareness about the non-profit organizations' work in the community. The pandemic situation is difficult and it is hard to get to new perspectives, whether they run a small non-profit organization. Without awareness public certainly doesn't know the name of the business or what sort of job the company is doing. After a lot of positive news reports about the non-profit organization people will start to know their name and will even remember their job and based on that only donors will come forward to donate.

Mission Focussed
It is important for Blue Room Theatre to keep focussed on what they are looking for and in order to get news attention it is important for the company to try to keep stories based on their project and do their utmost to keep their word. It's cool to be able to get the media attention of all kinds, but better to create great stories about their work, and their project for fundraising purposes (Manettiet al., 2017). Press publicity offers good social evidence that what the company does and the company should remain focused on its mission. Taking a new prospect with clips of journal articles about their non-profit activities or a brief video of the local news with an interview with the CEO will make a great deal of difference and lead to a favourable gain of funds.

Non-profit groups may use public marketing to get the media and the public to pay attention to their work in order to meet their fundraising targets. A tailored public relations strategy will boost non-profit fundraising activities and allow them greater financial independence. The fundraiser team and the PR team can communicate with one another continuously. They should all be on the same page with regards to the main messaging to followers and the general public. The PR and fund-raising departments will pull the crowd in the same direction with an organized engagement plan. Media sources may be a fantastic resource, but the right reporters and journalists to approach are important to find. Research on journalism and media sources is important. PR teams typically have media connections and strong journalist ties. PR and fund-raising teams will collaborate on the agency with stories that will favour the organization to generate funds.

Messages and Mediums
Demographics
The demographic research consists of the compilation and the study of data concerning individual population general characteristics. It is widely used to assess the right way to reach consumers and measure their actions as a company promotion tool. So, the demographics of Blue Room Theatre are as follows.

• Small to medium Government organizations.
• Small family-run businesses.
• Children Aged 4-18.
• Reside in the Wheatbelt area.
• Male and Female, singles and couples.
• Parents and teachers who have earnings approx. $50000 per year.
• A mix of high school and tertiary education students.

Psychographics
The qualitative approach used to classify characteristics of individuals on psychological qualities is psychographics. The study of identities, beliefs, perceptions, behaviours, desires, and lifestyles is subject to psychographic research. So, based on this Blue Room Theatre can focus on audience groups that can help them to raise funds.

• People who want to demonstrate community development through grants.
• People who enjoy reading.
• People who are tech-savvy.
• Want to deliver a good education to children.
• People who take care of children’s needs and welfares.

References
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