The ACEs Messaging Group met on Tuesday, July 12th at Friends Center in Philadelphia. The team reviewed the work from their previous meetings, discussing the target audiences and major themes that will be used to tailor the messages they plan to create. One group member presented an activity for the group called a Messaging Box, which was developed by a communications firm, Spitfire Strategies. The Message Box includes four quadrants:
- The Value Message: The message must tap into the target audience’s existing values.
- The Barrier Breaker: The audience will have some barrier to hearing or receiving your message. To create the ‘Barrier Breaker’, find a fact or story that will break down that misconception.
- The Ask: Your message should require the audience to do something.
- The Vision Statement: This represents the larger vision that the messaging group has.
The group broke into three small groups according to the target audience they wanted to focus on. Each group had a discussion about the values and barriers of their target audience and reported back to the larger group. The group focused on youth (aged 14-18) identified values around emerging individuality in conjunction with a strong regard for their peers and friends and wanting to fit in. For the target audience of parents of young children, the group concluded that all parents want their kids to be safe, but there may be some issues around differing ideas of what safety means. Finally, the group focused on older adults identified their need to leave something positive behind. By identifying these values, the groups will better be able to develop messages that will resonate with the target audiences. The small groups will meet sometime between now and the next meeting to discuss this process further.
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