HELP!! BSA Advertising

[ghermanno]

I need help finding BSA advertising for Military (AFRTN) radio and television. I have seen some great advertisements in the past but do not know where to get them. AFRTN does NOT run commercial advertisements (except Military exchange and club types) and I would like to get more boys involved here in Korea.

 

I have already tried District/Council. I think the Cubs and Boy Scouts would definately benefit.

 

(Moderator: feel free to move to other section if I have placed in wrong one. This is the best I could find).

 

Thank you for your time.

[John-in-KC]

 

First of all, who is talking to the AFN-Korea commander? He or she is going to have to work the AFRTS/AFIS/OSD-PA bureaucracy. I can see this easily becoming a matter between 5 sided daycare center and Irving.

 

AFRTS homepage is:

http://afrts.dodmedia.osd.mil/

 

AFRTS advertising inquiry info is:

Radio/TV Spot Inquiries 703-428-0256 rtpo@hq.afis.osd.mil

 

On the BSA side, this is a matter for your Council Scout Executive or Council Commissioner to ask back through Region to Irving. You're wanting content to fill PSA space. There may already be an agreement between BSA and AFRTS. Haven't needed to watch AFN in years, so that's yours to work.

 

What is your position in the BSA food chain? The closer to being a member of Council Key 3, the better the probability of a response.

 

Good hunting.

(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

Edit was done by request of poster!!

Eamonn. (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

[Secret DE]

I have a line to the national council marketing office. I am going to try to help him next week when I return from vacation.

 

SDE

[ScoutNut]

Contact info for BSA's Marketing and Communications Division -

 

http://marketing.scouting.org/misc/contact.html

 

 

[Crew21_Adv]

ghermanno and Fellow Scouters,

 

Greetings!

 

 

There are a few excellent PSA on the Scouting.org website. Most of these can also be viewed by their same titles on youtube.com as well.

http://www.scouting.org/Media/Multimedia/PSA.aspx

 

Within the continental US, cable providers must allow local shows on affordable channels. Sometimes, BSA, GSUSA, and other youth and non-profit organization PSA's show up on local cable access channels as a gap-filler.

 

AFRTS/AFN has to abide by many federal laws. They have even removed certain locally created safety videos, don't drink and drive videos, and etc due to copyright liability playing popular music without purchasing royalties. I expect it would take time and many repeated request for AFN headquarters to place it on their feed.

 

Rarely, Some other non-profit organizations have been able to display their advertisements on AFN, such as a recent Veterans of Foreign War membership commercial, which rarely appears on AFN. So that proves it is possible. Just how long it takes, and getting thru the approval phase would be the big question. (I'm still waiting on the American Legion ad to show up, now that the VFW is rarely on AFN..lol)

 

Now.. Much easier than getting these National BSA Public Service Announcements to run on AFN Satellite, is to submit your local Press Releases to the AFN Seoul stating when, date, time, etc of the next camporee, School Night for Scouting, Pinewood Derby, Christmas Tree Sales, Popcorn Drive, etc. AFN news certainly enjoys seeing Scouts in action in their local community. Also, AFN radio will usually run these Scouting event press releases "advertisements" during the morning and afternoon commutes to the nearby bases. AFN radio will give you lots of advertisement; as for the AFN TV, their is the "AFN Reports" news. First, they want the military community to know what is happening to OEF/OIF deployments, as well as military events in the local community. Unfortunately, if nothing else as exciting in the community, then they will send a news crew and camera to the Scouting events.

 

Probably the two even better locations to advertise PSA than AFN. If you local DODDS/DODEA school has CCTV morning news, they may run the PSA during the rolling credits at the end of the morning school news. Also at many of the military bases would be the Officers and Enlisted Spouses clubs (believe it or not, they even have yahoo groups, my spaces, face book, etc. In addition to answering many community based questions, do's and don't's in the overseas community, where the shopping is at, best Far East vacations, these ladies (and sometimes men) advertise home based business and non-profit organization events. They will easily get the word out, and sometimes yield a larger attendance at School Night for Scouting or Scout Round-ups.

 

Good Luck!

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv

[John-in-KC]

Since Mr Crew21_Adv's profile lists him as OCONUS, I suspect he has accurate working knowledge. Certainly his ideas sound like stuff I saw on AFN-Europe and listened to on AFN-Frankfurt all those years ago.

 

They also sound like things I've seen when TDY to USFK for various and sundry reasons....

 

Worth printing his post off and following up upon...

[Scoutingmama]

You can also submit a slide to the Commander's Acess Channel ( Channel 2 at Yongsan). When I submitted a slide, I just sent it to the email posted on Commander's Access listing me as a contact, the length of time I wanted it displayed and why we desired to advertise. It was a very simple process.

 

There are links to all the AFN Korea local stations (Yongsan, Osan etc.) from here: http://afnkorea.net/. Look in the left hand column about half way down. The Yognsan site has a "Contact Me" hot link.

 

Good luck. All of the people I worked with when I was advetising my event - including the "Stars and Stripes" and the Yongsan paper, were quite willing to help me get my information out.

[ghermanno]

Thank you.

 

What I am looking for is "approved" BSA advertising. What I am hearing for most part is "make your own" and worry about military polotics. AFN does not have problems with non-profit. BSA has problems with people using BSA insignia/slogans/trademarks without permission.

 

I am at USAG Humphreys but my Pack is on Osan (so Yongsan is no help). I do NOT want to violate BSA regs with any advertisements. I am finding that a lot of the boys here do not know that Cub/Boy Scouts are available on base.

 

My positions: Pack CC, Roundtable staff, Cub Res. Camp Program Director, jack of all positions,... I am a civillian contractor. If my contract is renewed, I will also be on District council (not sure what position they want me for but have been asked) as well.

[Crew21_Adv]

ghermanno and Fellow Scouts,

 

 

Overseas military bases and military brats are a small slice of America. The bases have youth sports, youth programs, before and after school programs, Boys and Girls Club. Events that can keep them so busy, they wouldn't even have time for school work or home work.

 

 

Similar to some remote military bases overseas, the majority of young boys in the United States probably do not know of Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts. For the majority of those that do learn about Scouting from TV advertisements or even from a friend. Their parents have to be willing to drive and take them to meetings.

 

The professional BSA and even local Council/District advertisements are usually aimed at two audiences. An image of fun things for the youth, and details about learning, education, self-image, and independence to the parents.

 

The Scout age parents are probably the biggest target of advertising.

You can imagine how busy the average american family is now days, the same goes for senior enlisted and senior officers in overseas communities. Early arrival to work, late business phone calls (from Korea to Washington DC), and a blackberry on your hip at all times. Cub Scout Packs and Boy Scout Troops (as well as GSUSA) need to appeal to the busy parents, informing them that its worth taking time out to bring their son to Scouting.

 

That is where the real amount of adverstising should be targeted towards.

 

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv

[John-in-KC]

ghermanno,

 

You're on Osan AB (lovely memories of certain buildings during certain exercises there). I'd talk to the Wing PAO first and foremost about slides for the TV, and radio spots for AFN-K. I'd also be talking about stuff for the Base Newspaper. If you want to market to Camp Humphreys as well, ditto to their PAO or S-1.

 

Get the Cubs who are there to the BX and PX in Class A uniform as often as possible. Get them in front of other folk. Oh, by the way, have someone check with some of the ROKAF folk who share the base. Check about Korean Scouting units in Osan City and Songnam. See if the units can do things together

 

OH!! See if the Base Services Squadron folk will let you link a Cub Pack website into their pages. Look at National Council (and whatever the Far East Council has for its current name) website for guidelines!

 

I think you can get a fair way without the formal production stuff.

 

Does this help?

 

J(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[GKlose]

Not to sidetrack the discussion all that much, but when you're a kid growing up on an overseas base, what kinds of things do you do?

 

I spent some time on Griffis AFB in Rome, NY many years ago, and there was a school, a library, a gym and a theater, so I'd assume those kinds of services still exist...but what does a present day kid do? Does the military provide anything like youth centers on base?

 

(where this is leading, of course, is what kinds of extra-curriculars are there to keep kids busy?)

 

Thanks,

Guy

[Scoutingmama]

GKlose,

Having just returned from Korea, I can tell you my kids were just as busy there as in the States. The only difference is I didn't have to transport them any where. They could walk!

 

On our base/post we had access to ( through the Youth Center) baseketball ( two seasons) volleyball, soccer, baseball, softball, swimming, flag football, dance classes, gymnastics, Taekwondo, Hapkito, Kumdo, piano and other instrument lessons, art lessons. All that and we haven't even touched what was going on at school!

 

Granted we were on a rather large post- so I think smaller posts would have less available, but all in all a "normal" American life while stationed over seas.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

I was stationed in Babenhausen (41st FA Brigade) and Frankfurt Abrams Complex (V Corps HQ).

 

We had full array of things for kids, readily at hand. Playgrounds, schools, activities... all readily available.

 

There was a fair bit of interaction with the local communities as well. Babenhausen in particular... we shared the 4th of July with them each year, big big fest on some open land behind the main Kaserne. In turn, our local neighbors shared their fests.

 

Kids who go overseas with their parents have a great perspective on how interdependent the world really is!