By Sarah SumadiThe Daily Northwestern
Dance Marathon is getting help from a private public relations firm to get more press coverage and corporate sponsorship for this year’s event.
Jasculca/Terman and Associates, a Chicago-based firm, is working with the organization pro bono to improve DM’s publicity strategy and help the group increase contact with corporations.
To keep DM’s overhead costs low, almost all of the food, merchandise and prizes are donated or subsidized. Jasculca/Terman’s biggest contribution is its contact list, which includes corporate connections for both the firm and DM’s primary beneficiary this year, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy, said Krysta Kauble, DM public relations co-chair and a Communication junior.
The firm handles public relations operations for CURE, which will receive 90 percent of the money DM raises this year. Rick Jasculca, chairman and CEO of Jasculca/Terman, also sits on CURE’s Honorary Board of Advisors.
“Since we can use all of CURE’s contacts, getting JT’s help is in the best interest of our beneficiary as well,” Kauble said.
Jasculca/Terman also advised DM to send press releases during Winter Quarter instead of Fall Quarter because they said events more than six weeks away generally don’t get an enthusiastic media response, Kauble said.
“So far, that’s been the only real change to our PR strategy,” she said.
DM sends out press releases to media outlets nationwide to publicize the 30-hour philanthropic event in March. Publicity efforts range from on-air advertising and interviews on radio or TV shows to coverage in newspapers and magazines. Last year, TIME magazine donated a full-page color advertisement for regional distribution.
Because Jasculca/Terman handles public relations for the epilepsy foundation, it was in a unique position to assist DM, Kauble said.
“(Jasculca/Terman) had seen a lot of DM coverage in the past, and they know what a great organization CURE is,” she said. “They wanted to help and were willing to work with us for free.”
DM wouldn’t have been able to hire the firm privately, Kauble said, because paying would have cut into donations to CURE.
“We are working with JT because of their relationship with CURE, but their efforts are entirely volunteered,” said DM Executive Co-chair Nadia Rawls, a Weinberg senior. “We would not hire an external group to assist us and have not done so in the past.”
She said the biggest challenge for DM’s public relations department is to connect the campus with the beneficiary.
“We think JT will offer a fresh perspective that will help us to improve on our previous PR successes,” Rawls said.
Although the firm’s Web site advertises other event management options such as renting audio-visual equipment and coordinating decorations, Kauble said DM won’t use those services.
“Louis Room Production Committee does a great job, and I doubt they will need outside assistance,” Kauble said.
Despite the partnership, many of DM’s individual fundraising activities remain the same. Each dancing couple must raise $750 through letter-writing campaigns and soliciting donations in front of local businesses to participate in DM.
“I participated in my dorm’s date auction and received a lot of donations from parents, relatives and professors,” said Weinberg sophomore Erin Kelly, who danced in DM last year.
Reach Sarah Sumadi at [email protected].
