Bods Care Program Campaign Plan

Executive Summary:

The Bods Care program has a lot of potential to be a long-lasting tradition for Washburn
University’s Athletics department. Not only does it give student-athletes the opportunity to give
back to the Topeka community, but it also reminds the community as to why they should
support Washburn Athletics.

Washburn needs to capitalize on the Bods Care program and the potential it has to create
meaningful impact and increase Washburn’s positive image within the community. We propose
the following strategic plan with the overarching goal of informing the Washburn and Topeka
communities of the program and its purpose. Without visibility, the Bods Care program is
ineffective as a

The overarching goal for the Bods Care program is to increase visibility internally and to the
community, starting with our athletes. There are many athletes who have no idea what Bods
Care is or have no desire to partake in the volunteer opportunities, which is the biggest issue of
all.

Athletes first need to be better educated about what Bods Care is so that they may seek out
volunteer opportunities and it should be a requirement for those who are a part of the athletic
program. Mandating that all athletes participate in the Bods Care program and allowing them
to choose the type of volunteer experience they identify with the most will encourage more
passionate volunteers, especially considering the only demographic the athletes have reached
so far are elementary and middle school students.

Athletes should also have opportunities to stay connected with the students they have met,
perhaps by revisiting the same schools but doing a different activity or creating mentor groups.
The NCAA encourages volunteer work to create well-rounded athletes. By mandating 15
volunteer hours a year per athlete, Washburn will be able to reach the Topeka community
consistently and impactfully.

Target Audience: This campaign plan will target the Washburn University and greater Topeka
communities, as well as Washburn University alumni.

Goal 1: To inform the Washburn University and greater Topeka communities about the Bods
Care program and to sustain it effectively.

Objective 1: Establish Bods Care as a sub-program to Washburn Athletics to promote the

program (see Appendix A)
Strategy 1: Articulate the framework for Bods Care to help promote it

Tactic 1: Write a mission statement for the Bods Care program

Washburn University Athletics has always been committed to the positive relationship between
the greater Topeka community and the university. With that in mind, Athletics has created the
Bods Care program with the goal of having every Washburn athlete give back through volunteer
efforts. Founded in August 2018, Bods Care student-athletes and coaches have visited more
than 6,000 youth in the greater Topeka area. We are dedicated to helping the local community
expand and grow, and positively impacting children through athletics and athletic events.

Tactic 2: Articulate the three main goals for the Bods Care program (see Appendix B)

Pillar 1: Children 
Pillar 2: Education
Pillar 3: Community

Tactic 3: Create a major Call to Action for each goal for the target audience

Children: Bods Care strives to bring positive experiences to the elementary schoolchildren in
our partner schools. We understand that the children we interact with are the future of our
community and our world, and we want to help them learn and grow for a better tomorrow.

Education: Bods Care uses athletics to teach children lifelong lessons and skills to help them in
school and prepare them for the future.

Community: Bods Care pushes to bring the university and the community together to help build
stronger relations within the Greater Topeka community. We want to help better the
community however we can.

Strategy 2: Upgrade and update the web presence for Bods Care with new framework

Tactic 1: Create a new website map and rework the content (see Appendix C for updated
website map; see example site linked here: http://bit.ly/2E1Vlbr with login information: ???)

Strategy 2 Rationale:
To better illustrate Strategy 1, we have created a mock-up website with ideas and
suggestions as to how we think the web presence for Bods Care should look. We believe the
website should focus on five main ideas for which we have made tabs on the website: The
Home Page, About Page, Events Page, Impact Page, and Contact Page. 
Home Page: To start, the Home Page of any website is the most important page. It’s the
first spot that visitors see. For that reason, we believe that this page should be a mix of
everything. We have placed a small little teaser about what the program is with a link to the
About Page so that people get a short explanation as to what the program is and where they
can go to get more information.
We also included the awards that the program has won, and we suggest a link to the
next upcoming event should also be placed here, even though there is a dedicated events page.
This would also be a good place to feature a highlight of the last event that Bods Care put on or
the last school visited by people in the program. 
About Page: The next page, the About Page, should be the page where the Bods Care
program is really explained and laid out. We have written a mission statement for the program
and included what we think the three main pillars of the program would be plus a “call to
action” for each. This would be the time to really put out what the program does and get
people interested in it.
Events Page: Next, the Events Page is a place for Bods Care to showcase everything
that’s coming up. We made a mock-up with the events that are currently listed on the Athletics
website. What should be included on this page is the event, the date, a small teaser sentence
about the event, and then a button to another page that fully explains the upcoming event. An
alternative to this would be to lay out all the information with each event on the page.
However, we advise against putting too much text on the page because that will lose the
interest of visitors. It would also be beneficial to include a contact/sign up form right there with
the event.
Impact Page: Next, the Impact Page should include everything the program had done
recently, whether it’s an event or a school visit. We’ve made a mock-up with a photo gallery
that includes an informative paragraph about how the event went. This would also be the
perfect space to include student athlete and school testimonials that promote Bods Care and all
it does for the community. Links to articles written about Bods Care would also go here to show
what the community has to say about it.
Contact Page: The last page is the Contact Page where we included some information
about the director of the program and a contact form for people to fill out if they are interested
in learning more. We made sure to include sponsors in the footer as well as links to social
media as well as the contact information for Matt Hutchinson.

Strategy 3: Incentivize athletes’ participation in Bods Care

Tactic 1: Require either a standard number of hours or a number of activities for every athlete
to be involved in each academic year. Ideally, this should come from the top down so all sports
and all athletes will be participants

Each team should set a goal of volunteer hours for the team as a whole to achieve, which the
coaches would break down for their team members individually.

Tactic 2: Recognize one outstanding athlete for volunteer efforts from each sport each
academic year and honor those athletes in a final promo video on Senior Night and award them
with some swag, a dinner, or a gift card
The athletic teams that achieved their goals by the end of the year would be given an incentive,
to be determined by the administration.

For the individual recognition, coaches would submit the name of one athlete from their own
teams that has been outstanding in regard to service for the year. One athlete from each sport
would then be honored and given an incentive at the Golden Bod Awards.

Rationale for Strategy 3: We believe the most effective strategy to engaging both our public
and our athletes is communication from both sides. Bods Care has focused solely on
elementary-aged kids. Letting the public inform us on what they feel would be beneficial to the
community could help Bods Care expand the range of support from community members and
not be perceived as an early-aged recruitment plan.

As for the athletes, feedback is crucial to find out what each team is passionate about. Some
athletes work very well with older generations, while others feel more comfortable working
with younger generations. Mixing athletes from multiple teams for volunteer opportunities
would allow for more exposure for all types of athletes in the community as well as helping
athletes feel more engaged with their goals of service.

There can still be volunteer opportunities presented to one team, but by allowing more
flexibility for these athletes from different teams, it is a statement that speaks to Bods Care,
and not just Washburn football/basketball cares.

Creating opportunities for athletes to join mentor groups assigned to each of our partner
schools will also be very impactful. Athletes will be able to create relationships with the
children, which will also encourage attendance at games, matches, and meets, because the
children will want to come support their mentor.

Strategy 4: Quantify the Bods Care Program impact on the community

Tactic 1: At the end of each summer, prepare a digital, visually pleasing report you can send to
Washburn administration, alumni, Board of Regents, and Topeka community leaders that
details hours served, initiatives undertaken, and outstanding athlete volunteers for the year.
Include a lot of pictures of the events participated in.

Tactic 2: Post the completed report to the website and publicize it through social media and
email blasts

Objective 2: Raise community awareness about Bods Care.

Strategy 1: Employ social media platforms to tell stories about Bods Care

Tactic 1: Create a detailed social media strategy for Bods Care that can be implemented on a
monthly basis
Tactic 2: Create a monthly content calendar specifically for Bods Care that includes promotion
and follow-up for every event

Bods Care should utilize Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to inform the greater Topeka
community, Washburn University and Washburn University Alumni of the community service it
is providing. In order to create a successful social media presence, it is crucial that Bods Care
posts daily.

The day before a home game, post the Bods Care promo video that will play at the game and
invite kids out to support the team. These videos can be posted on Facebook, Instagram, and
Twitter.

On Mondays, there should be behind-the-scenes videos of the school visits. This can either be a
compilation of snippets of videos, or a featured athlete showing his or her visit to a grade
school. These should be posted to Facebook and Instagram stories.

On Fridays, you can post a “Future Bod Friday.” This feature pairs a player and student with the
same professional goal. A mock template would be “This is Emma and Jane. When they grow
up, they want to be teachers. #WashburnClassof2021 #WashburnClassof2030” These can be
posted on Facebook and Instagram.

Leading up to the event, you should post behind-the-scenes photos or videos of setting up,
poster-making stations, stickers and anything else that could be used to create excitement
leading up to the event.

You should also post fliers (as jpegs) that have been used to advertise the event on Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter. During the event, there should be live coverage through Instagram and
Facebook stories, that shows an interaction between the kids and the athletes. Following the
event, there should be image galleries posted on Facebook and Instagram with a link to see the
rest on the Bods Care website. This link can also be posted on Twitter, too.

It is crucial to post daily to create a following, so on days without a post, be sure to upload an
image from the hero image gallery.

See separate PDF for monthly social media calendar.

Tactic 3: Create short stories weekly that feature individual athletes performing community
outreach and post to social media

For the short stories, you can take an athlete and show him or her doing community service for
the program. You can add a short biography on the student and then get a couple of reactions
from community members about the student and what he or she did. This can be posted on
Snapchat as well as the other traditional social media platforms, as it is happening or after the
event. Another format to use would be to do a short interview with the athlete explaining what
he or she did as a volunteer and how it impacts him or her personally, giving back to the
community.

Strategy 2: Use media to tell the Bods Care story

Tactic 1: Create a gallery of graphics specifically for Bods Care that can be used for all digital
media platforms

Tactic 2: Create 3 short promotional videos about Bods Care as a whole to show at games, post
on social media and email, and include on the home page of the website

Rationale: The purpose of creating 3 short promotional videos is to promote the Bods Care
Program on the jumbo screen during breaks at any sporting event. These videos can also be
used for social media, email and website purposes. The three videos should:
1. Introduce the Bods Care Program
2. Show the initiatives taken and performed in the current academic year
3. Honor exceptional athletes for their volunteer efforts

Tactic 3: Create a series for the year of short video stories (15 seconds) that each feature a
major athlete (at least one for every sport) giving back to the community and play at least one
of these at every game

Rationale: The purpose of these videos would be to increase awareness of the program and
community service with the game attendees. The videos should coordinate with the sporting
event (i.e show a volleyball player at the volleyball game) and can be footage from school visits,
conversations between kids and the athletes, activities they do together, essentially anything
that demonstrates the bond formed between the athletes and the kids. The videos can be
shown periodically throughout the event and featured on social media, the website, and in
email blasts.

Tactic 4: Create a hero image gallery showcasing community outreach and a link to the Bods
Care home page to go in the gallery on the Athletics home page and change it monthly

Tactic 5: Create posters and flyers to promote Bods Care and the main events during the
semester (do one version for fall and one for spring). Include a QR code that will take people to
the Bods Care home page. Place these in the community:
1. Topeka and Shawnee County Library
2. Children’s Discovery Center
3. Kansas Museum of History
4. Topeka Zoo
5. Elementary Schools
6. Topeka Civic Theatre
7. Washburn campus
8. Jayhawk Theatre
9. Community Centers
10. Dance studios

Rationale: The photo used should be a student-athlete with a Bods Care child. You can rotate
out photos for each flyer, but the photo should be of a student-athlete and a child involved in
the program.
1. The event name will be at the top to catch attention.
2. Then you will include the specific date and time and then a little something about the
event. Keep this short and concise so it is quick and easy to read
3. At the bottom include the Bods Care program logo and contact information

Tactic 6: Create buttons and stickers to give out to elementary school classes

The buttons would have to be created yearly and when the athletes go out to various events,
they can take the buttons and posters with them to hand out to the kids or people that want
them. As they are doing that, they can also sign them.

Tactic 7: Send out a press release to the local media outlets

The Bods Care Campaign should consider pitching stories to the Topeka Capital Journal, WIBW,
the 785 Magazine and Topeka Magazine, as well as the Alumni Newsletter and WIBW Red
Couch and other local media organizations. The importance of the pitches is to raise awareness
of the community outreach that you are offering through Bods Care. If the community is not
aware of the services you are completing, they will assume that nothing is happening. The
Topeka Capital Journal pitch should include both details of the program and the fall event and
should be written to raise awareness.

You should reach out to Brianna Childers at the Topeka Capital Journal at
bchilders@cjonline.com early in the fall each year to offer her an exclusive story about the
community outreach that Washburn Athletics is sponsoring. Include information about the
school visits and relationships built between the athletes and elementary students. Also,
include details about the event and the grade school’s participation during games.

Below is a mock pitch for Brianna:

Dear Brianna,

I am writing to you today to ask if you would consider covering a story for the Topeka Capitol
Journal over the Washburn University Athletics Bods Care event on Oct. 23. Over 600
elementary school students will meet at Lee Arena to play games with the athletes, learn about
the university and help make posters for upcoming games.
This story is being offered exclusively to the Topeka Capital Journal and due to the exclusive
access, we would like a response by Oct. 15 at the latest.

Since I am the Marketing Director for Washburn Athletics, I would be happy to help you with
details concerning the event. I can be contacted at ***-***-****, or at
Matt.Hutchinson@washburn.edu. I am also happy to arrange for interviews for you with the
best student-athletes who are participating in the event ahead of time.

I look forward to hearing from you and am happy to answer any further questions you may
have and assist you in any way you need with the story.

Thank you for your time,

Xxxxxxxxxx

Contact Information for other pitches

WIBW Radio: keith@94country.com
The 785 Magazine: seveneightfive@gmail.com
Topeka Magazine: 785-832-7264
WIBW Red Couch: closedcaptioning@wibw.com

Strategy 3: Use email to tell the Bods Care story

Tactic 1: Create an email newsletter to promote Bods Care events and to feature athletes who
participate

Rationale: An email newsletter is a great way to reach the Topeka community, especially a
generation who may not have social media. This newsletter can feature an athlete each month,
as well as monthly updates on the Bods Care visits to schools.

The newsletter could stand out with a blue color scheme and a fun or playful theme to
symbolize the elementary school visits that will be featured. This newsletter will also act as a
way to advertise sporting events to the Topeka community.

Tactic 2: Collect email addresses on a regular basis to build your newsletter database through
text-to-join numbers

Tactic 3: Create small square cards with newsletter signup info to hand out

Rationale: MailChimp is an excellent email newsletter service that you can use to send out Bods
Care emails. MailChimp is a paid email marketing service that starts at $20 per month for
unlimited emails up to 1001-1500 subscribers. However, for the start of the Bods Care
newsletters, MailChimp does offer a free plan that is great for small businesses and
organizations. You can add up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails per month.
Once you have access to MailChimp, Bods Care will be able to send out monthly newsletters to
email addresses that you have built through text-to-join numbers, sign-ups at games and sign-
ups on the website.

Objective 3: Create meaningful partnerships through Bods Care

Strategy 1: Partner with Hummer Sports Park

Tactic 1: Place posters at the park

A park coordinator is Annette Wiles and her number is 785-295-3753. We would need to call
her to ask about placing posters within the park. We would also need to place them in
designated areas or if it is our choice, then to place them in high foot traffic areas.

Tactic 2: Use social media outlets to congratulate winning teams who play there after games

Using athletics’ official social media platforms to congratulate the winning high school teams
will increase local visibility that we notice what’s going on at our partner organizations and we
are invested.

Tactic 3: Ask them to run promo materials for you during game breaks

We would need to create promo material and run it by Annette Wiles to make sure it fits the
park’s standards. We would then need to discuss times to show these promos such as in-game
advertisements or between games.

Strategy 2: Partner with Greater Topeka Partnership

Tactic 1: Ask them to promote your events on their digital billboards

Rationale: The greater Topeka Partnership doesn't have any specific initiatives for children. But
they do have events geared more towards children such as the science and tech fair and Touch-
A-Truck. Bods Care could have a booth at one of their events and also promote events that they
are sponsoring to Washburn athletes. Arranging for a team’s presence at one of their major
events would also be a great way to show how invested Bods Care is in the community.

Strategy 3: Partner with the Kansas Discovery Center and the Topeka Zoo

Tactic 1: Place posters at their locations

Tactic 2: For academic year 2020 – 2021, have athletes do an educational talk at one of their
exhibits
For the Children’s Discovery Center, we could call their Director of Operations, Catie Rutkowski,
at 785-783-8300. The Children’s Discovery Center has numerous events we could sponsor. They
also have volunteer opportunities that the athletes from the Bods Care Program could get
involved with.

Appendix A

Based on the web pages about the Chiefs in the Community and Royals in the Community, it is
clear that the organizations promote news about what the professional athletes are doing,
provide galleries of pictures that could be used by news outlets or fans, and detail a report for
the year that tells what the outreach programs achieved
(https://www.mlb.com/royals/community; https://www.chiefs.com/community/;
https://issuu.com/kansascitychiefs/docs/2019_communityreport).

Appendix B

Professional sports organizations range all over the place for how they organize their websites
under their community outreach presence. Some important things to do based on research is:
1. Make it visual
2. Create a call to action for the target audience
3. Provide clear contact information to the person in charge
4. Have subpages for the different initiatives they take on
5. Provide a yearly report on what happened in community outreach

Some of the bad things that sports organizations do that we won’t repeat:
1. Many provide no context, such as a mission statement, to what the community
outreach is supposed to achieve
2. Many of the web pages are far too long because they keep old content on too long
3. Many don’t have clear goals articulated

Examples used for research in this portion of the plan:

1. Chicago Bulls (https://www.nba.com/bulls/community/community_index.html)
2. New York Knicks (https://www.nba.com/knicks/nyk-community)
3. New York Rangers (https://www.nhl.com/rangers/community)
4. Kansas City Chiefs (https://www.chiefs.com/community/)
5. Kansas City Royals (https://www.mlb.com/royals/community)
6. Blue Cross Blue Shield (https://www.bcbs.com/corporate-social-responsibility)

While professional sports outreach programs provide some guidance, better examples can be
found in the corporate world of how to communicate outreach. One such example is the
community page for Target (https://corporate.target.com/corporate-responsibility/community
), which is very clear about the four areas the company engages with.
Appendix C: Website Map

Washburn Athletics (Home Page)

Bods Care (Main Menu Page)
- Mission Statement
- Short version of the Bods Care Story with link to About page
- Each goal with link to goal sub-pages
- Short version of Contact info with link to Contact page
- Links to social media sites
About (Sub Menu Page 1)
- The Bods Care Story
- Mission Statement
- Promo Video
Goal 1 (Sub Menu Page 2)
- Gallery
- Call to Action
- Events
Goal 2 (Sub Menu Page 3)
- Gallery
- Call to Action
- Events
Goal 3 (Sub Menu Page 4)
- Gallery
- Call to Action
- Events
Contact (Sub Menu Page 5)
- Include specific info for Matt Hutchinson
- Link to main Press Page for Athletics
- Link to social media sites