Life Sciences Communication – �鶹��Ƶ

Communication Campaigns for the Monroe Farmers Market

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:38:41 +0000

Main Street Monroe is a non-stock corporation whose mission is to improve the lives of residents in Monroe, Wisconsin through interactive activities, historic events, restaurants, shopping and most importantly, farmer’s markets. The Monroe Farmers’ Market has its own blog within the Main Street Monroe website, detailing its times, vendors, events, updates, and connected social media accounts. The Farmers’ Market is all year long, moving to an indoor location in the winter. On the blog, special activities and prizes are listed, including kids’ scavenger hunts, vendor product samples, Instagram photo contests, story time with Monroe Public Library and trivia questions for prizes. Here, Monroe Farmers’ Market appeals to a wide range of audiences, from those on social media to parents, to children, to those looking for activities on a weekend.

Delving into one main issue, Monroe’s size and demographics makes it vulnerable to poor communication via social media, local newspapers and other communication sources. Monroe, Wisconsin is a community of 10,827 people with most people being middle-aged, between ages 35-59 years-old. This may be an explanation for why some of those interviewed felt that Monroe

Farmers Market lacked consistent and effective communication. Many interviewees were unsure how they knew about the Monroe Farmers market, thinking they heard about it via word-of-mouth mostly. One interviewee was not from the area and had trouble finding information about the market, even though he knew a Facebook group was available. Focusing on communication methods will be one of the various problems we plan to tackle with this marketing campaign.

The objective of the campaign is to increase regular attendance at the Monroe Farmers’ market, to increase awareness and knowledge of the market, and to improve attitudes towards the market. Additionally, the campaign aims to increase self-efficacy among community members by providing and distributing up-to-date information regarding the market and communicating this information to the community in an effective manner. Lastly, the campaign aims to to increase customer satisfaction with the products, vendors, and market as a whole. The methods of the campaign will include geo-framing to measure attendance by offering incentives to visitors who check in online within the geofence.

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

UniverCity Year Contact Info:

UniverCity@wisc.edu

Public Information Campaigns and Programs

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:37:11 +0000

The “Keep Your Farmers Close” campaign aims to help CSA FairShare Coalition achieve the mission of connecting and supporting farmers and eaters by increasing the number of new shareholder sign ups and improving existing shareholder retention. Our research shows that the majority of Dane County community members are passionate about supporting Wisconsingrown food and local businesses, but may not be well-informed of how their current food shopping habits largely impact their local community. Our narrative attempts to evoke a sense of responsibility and empathy from our audience, by focusing on the ways in which choosing not to join CSA may actually take away from the relative success, health, and happiness of the community. The campaign directly speaks to why CSA is the better alternative to buying produce in larger or midsize food markets. Additionally, it encourages a stronger relationship between farmers and shareholders, by using social media in innovative ways in order to connect consumers to the people behind the produce. Our slogan, “Keep your friends close, your farmers closer,” seamlessly ties together all aspects of our campaign to communicate our foundational aspect of our campaign: things are just better when they are close to home.

UniverCity Year Contact Info
Gavin Luter
Managing Director
gavin@cows.org
608-261-1141

University Faculty Contact
Neil Stenhouse
Life Sciences Communication

stenhouse@wisc.edu

Local Government / Community Contact
Erika Jones

Executive Director, FairShare CSA Coalition
Erika@csacoalition.org

Communication Campaigns for the Monroe Farmers Market

Ada Inman — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 18:05:44 +0000

We encourage the trend of simple, easy and local food purchasing. Recognizing how the Monroe Farmers’ Market maintains the trend of local and simple, Main Street Monroe embodies
a “back-to-basics” feeling. Moving away from the previously used, family-oriented audience, we
are proposing a new focus on Gen X Green County residents who are excited and energized to
support their local farmers. Through survey research, we understand that our new audience also
craves the simplicity of what food used to be; they appreciate fresh produce, the ability to give
back to local farmers and the community aspect of food. We will utilize comical videos to appeal
to our new audience, flyers that are posted in areas our target audience are sure to visit and
utilize our social media accounts to the fullest. Introducing a partnership with the Green County
Cheese Days, Main Street Monroe will host Swiss heritage weekends during the off-year of the
festival. With specific time lines, a targeted video campaign, social media activation and a new
partnership we are sure to increase Monroe Farmers’ Market’s revenue.

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

UniverCity Year Contact Info
Gavin Luter
Managing Director
gavin@cows.org
608-261-1141

University Faculty Contact
Neil Stenhouse
Life Sciences Communication

stenhouse@wisc.edu

Local Government / Community Contact
Jordan Nordby
Monroe Farmers Market
Main Steet Monroe Director

Public Information Campaigns and Programs

Ada Inman — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 18:03:00 +0000

UniverCity Year Contact Info
Gavin Luter
Managing Director
gavin@cows.org
608-261-1141

University Faculty Contact
Neil Stenhouse
Life Sciences Communication

stenhouse@wisc.edu

Local Government / Community Contact
Erika Jones

Executive Director, FairShare CSA Coalition
Erika@csacoalition.org

The City of Monona receives on-the-ground support to work toward a more sustainable, livable future

Ada Inman — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 11:42:40 +0000

The UniverCity Year program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an �鶹��Ƶ member, was created to help local government and community partners with identified sustainability and livability projects. Participating University faculty would incorporate community-identified projects into classes, providing students with on-the-ground experience in working towards a more sustainable and livable future for the partnered community.

During the 2016 to 2017 academic year, the City of Monona was chosen to partner with the UniverCity Year program due to its proximity to the university and for strong support from Mayor Bob Miller ().

The City of Monona, Wisconsin, is a small community within Dane County with almost 8,000 residents. The city has many amenities to offer its population, from being located seven miles from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to offering access to “over 330 acres of green space, including parks, woodlands, and wetlands.” () However, after more properties were annexed into the region during the mid-20th century, Monona could no longer expand.

Now the oldest community in Dane County, the City of Monona is “seeking solutions to its aging housing stock, how to grow without the ability to expand, and how to preserve its small-town community feel and natural resources during redevelopment” ().

UW-Madison faculty adapted thirty courses—from disciplines including public affairs, population health, life science communication, civil engineering, geography, and urban & regional planning—for the UniverCity Year partnership with Monona, which integrated various sustainability and livability projects, including efforts to:

Increase the usability of public parks
Ensure biking and walking routes are safe and accessible to all
Improve the city’s digital resources for residents
Inform redevelopment goals which address resident health and housing opportunities

Thanks to this extensive collaboration, the UniverCity Year program—administrative staff, professors, and undergraduate and graduate students—provided innumerable support to the City of Monona, resulting in considerable “on-the-ground impact and momentum for a community working toward a more sustainable and livable future” ().