ELISAD European Internet Gateway on Alcohol and other Drugs / Interim Research Report Oct. 2002 / back to table of contents
Annex 8 - Promotion report
Anne Singer
contents:
2. Introduction and methodology
- Gateway Consultation survey
- Announcements
- Publications
- Conferences
- Flyers
4. Promotion related work: layouts
1. Summary
Following the methodology proposed in the DESIRE Handbook, the promotion of a Gateway project should start at its very beginning. That is what I proposed to do in our Gateway meeting in Lisbon (February 2002). To limit the promotion costs, it was necessary to define and target our specific audience: the future Gateway users. Any means to make them aware of the existence of the project was used:
- announcements in journals, newsletters, mailing-lists, websites
- articles on the project were published
- four conferences on the project were done
- flyers were distributed
But, one of the best promotion ways was to organise a "Future Gateway Users Consultation": this action allowed them to know about the project and, at the same time, to be implied in it. A mailing-list of those who replied to this survey - together with those who asked for information in result of an announcement or a publication - was done. They already have been informed - and will continue to be regularly informed - on the result of the survey and on the current state of the project. A training in the frame of the EMCDDA/CEECs project achieved the promotional steps of this first part of the project.
2. Introduction and methodology
«Publicity and promotion are rarely at the forefront of people's minds when planning a
gateway project, yet they are often essential ingredients for a gateway's success. Good
publicity can help enormously to bring an information gateway to the attention of the people that really matter, i.e. the gateway's target users. An effective publicity and promotional campaign takes time and effort to plan and deliver; it can also cost much money. This chapter attempts to highlight some of the issues that should be considered when planning promotion activities.»
This is the introduction of the Promotion chapter in the DESIRE Handbook. The DESIRE project was financed by the European Union within the frame of its fourth programme «Telematics for research», and its handbook is designed to support libraries and other organisations wanting to set up large-scale information gateways on the Internet.
Being in charge of the Gateway promotion, there are a few promotion concepts in this handbook, which I proposed to the Gateway partners during our Lisbon Meeting (at the EMCDDA, Lisbon, 6-8 February 2002. They agreed to apply them:
promotion starts at the beginning of a project,
effective promotion needs a good definition of its target group: future Gateway users
all promotion means that can reach the target group should be used: announcements on any kinds of media (electronic or paper), articles in journals the target group reads, conferences, flyers, training...
use of the network of partners to promote the project,
among the promotion means there is one which consists to imply the future Gateway users into the project through a consultation,
regular contacts should be maintained with the target group.
All these promotion concepts were used in this first phase of the Gateway project.
2.1. Definition of the promotion target group
The Gateway target group has been defined with the partners during our Lisbon meeting. Our target audience should be, in first line, information specialists, librarians, researchers, policy-makers in the ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs) field, then other ATOD professionals, health professionals, practitioners, trainers, prevention workers, students, and finally the general public.
2.2. Technical support: a Gateway Users database
A database was set up (FileMakePro software), with data fields designed to describe the characteristics of each future Gateway user (and following the items given in the DESIRE Handbook): name, function, organisation, country, type of activities, level of interest for our Gateway project, Internet search level, type of Internet search, follow up of our communication, etc.
The Gateway Users (GUs) database was, before any promotion action, filled in with 393 names of professionals in the ATOD field, selected from a database of 5000 persons existing from a previous European project I have been co-ordinating. The selection was done following the target group defined in the Lisbon meeting, added to the fact that they knew me personally (to follow the NetEtiquette and to avoid to send mails to unknown persons).
3.1. The Gateway Users Consultation
This was the leading promotion action done in this first part of the project. Its consisted in sending by email a questionnaire (in 3 languages: English, French, German) to future users of the Gateway. See, in Appendix 7, the results of this survey.
This survey gave us the opportunity at the same time to announce the existence of the project and to get the users input in it. A flyer presenting the project was accompanying the questionnaire.
The dissemination of the questionnaire was done by two means:
- to the 393 addresses already present in the GUs database,
- by snowball.
The snowball system used the following mailing-lists and networks:
The Elisad mailing-list (European level)
By the EMCDDA, to all the Reitox Focal points (European level)
The Pompidou Group network (European level)
The SALIS (equivalent of Elisad in the States) mailing-list (international level)
The IHRA (International Harm Reduction Association) network (international level)
The DrugScope mailing-list (UK)
The Archido mailing-list (Germany)
The MILDT (French interministerial mission on drugs and addiction) mailing-list (France)
The ANIT (Association of French AOD professionals) mailing-list (France)
The Toxibase network (France)
Elisad members were invited to get into action in this dissemination. It is difficult to evaluate exactly what was done on this point in Italy, Spain and Portugal. Some Eastern Europe countries members did disseminate it to some personal addresses of colleagues.
In conclusion, we can say that 400 professionals were informed about the project for sure, by email, and we can estimate that the snow-ball system (regarding the number of answers received) did approximately doubled this number, making a total of about 800 persons.
3.2. Announcements of the project
Again, it is difficult to know exactly where announcements were done due to the snow-ball system, especially by Elisad members in their diverse facilities (websites, newsletters, etc.). The following list is only mentioning the announcements that were made for sure.
Announcements through mailing-lists: see the list in the previous paragraph.
Announcements on websites:
EC (Europe): www.europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph/programmes/drugs/fp01.htm
Elisad (Europe): elisad.org
Archido (Germany): www.archido.de
DrugScope (UK): www.drugscope.org.uk/
Prevnet (Finland): www.prevnet.net/events/athens/abstracts/gateway.html
BISDRO (Germany): www.bisdro.uni-bremen.de/research.htm
Although an Internet search with Google on «Elisad Gateway» gives 194 answers, most of them are linking to the previous websites pages. Can be added to these, links to the Elisad Gateway pages from a dozen of organisations websites, e.g. Trimbos (NL), Andromeda (NL), SAMHSA (US), Salis (US), DrugText (NL), ISPA (Ch), CEIS (Italy), Alcohol Concern (UK), etc.
Announcements in journals and newsletters:
Elisad Journal (Europe) issue 5, June 2001 (on the birth of the project)
Revue Toxibase (France), issue 5, March 2002
Drugnet Europe (EMCDDA), issue 34, March-April 2002
DrugScope MembersBriefing (UK), issue May 2002-09-22
Éducation Santé (Belgium), issue 170, June 2002
DrugLink (UK), vol.; 17, issue 4, July-August 2002-09-22
SALIS Newsletter (USA) vol. 21, issue 4, January 2002
SALIS Newsletter (USA), vol. 22, n°2, summer 2002
Addiction Today (Europe), issue July 2002
3.3. Articles on the project
Elisad Journal, issue 9, 3 articles (Report on the Lisbon meeting, Gateway consultation main results, Report on the Bremen technical meeting), 6 pages, written by myself and Susanna Prepeliczay for the technical Bremen meeting.
Revue Toxibase (France), issue 7, September 2002 (6 pages), written by myself, in French.
3.4. Conferences on the project
The first conference where the Gateway project was mentioned, was a conference of Spanish drug specialised librarians, held the 16th December 2001, in Valencia, Spain. Thomas Rouault, Toxibase, French Gateway Partner, spoke about French resources and about Elisad activities, mentioning its Gateway project.
In a second step, a ready-made conference - on PowerPoint slides - was written and designed in February-March. An email told all Gateway partners that it was available for all of them in case of need. See a print of this conference in Appendix 9.
This conference (with some personal adaptation or translation) was used in four occasions:
Prevnet Conference, Athens, 13-16 March 2002, in front of a public of about (mainly European) 75 ATOD prevention professionals. It was presented by Marianne van der Heijden, our Gateway webmaster and myself.
To a national meeting of the French drug resources centres (CIRRDDs), at Dijon, 28 March 2002. It was presented by Marie-Lise Priouret, Toxibase, French Gateway partner.
SALIS conference, 16-20 April 2002, Washington DC. It was presented by Susanna Prepeliczay, co-ordinator of this project.
To the whole DrugScope staff (about 50 persons) in July 2002. It was presented by Stephan Schulte-Nähring, DrugScope, UK Gateway partner.
I would like to emphasise here that it was particularly important to present the project within the SALIS (US Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists) conference. For the moment, the subject gateways on drugs present on the Internet are mainly American ones. Promoting this European gateway will also promote - in the USA - European websites, and thus European information, documents and researches.
This conference is now also available on our website: elisad.org.
3.3. Dissemination of flyers on the project
A one page flyer was disseminated in all occasions:
accompanying the sending of the all «consultation questionnaires»
accompanying all the mails to mailing lists
within the conferences (especially in Athens)
to all Elisad members for its best use.
For example, this flyer has been adapted by DrugScope, and was made available to the clients visiting their library. This is a particularly good idea, and in a promotion next step, I will ask all Elisad members to do so.
4. Promotion related work: layouts
Also responsible for the layout of the Gateway interfaces and all documents related to the project, especially promotional papers, a quite large layouting work was done.
I designed:
the Elisad Gateway logo
the consultation questionnaire
the flyer
the PowerPoint conference
The Gateway Users consultation reached about 800 professionals working in the addiction or public health fields, which is quite not bad for a quite limited possible panel.
Announcements and articles generated many mail exchanges with interested professionals who asked to get the consultation questionnaire or to test our prototype and participate into the Gateway evaluation.
Both actions allowed us to get into contact and to better know our future Gateway users and also their expectations and needs regarding our gateway.
I would shortly also mention that the training organised at the Bremen University for European Eastern countries (appendix 13) did also promote the project within these countries.
The Gateway Users database allows us to maintain this contact. For example, all the GUs who asked for (about a hundred) already received the Elisad Journal (July, issue 9) describing the results of the survey they participated in. This contact will be maintained for the next steps: e.g. the next evaluation of the prototype.
Promotion actions will continue all along the project until June 2003, taking all possible opportunities. At the end of the project, a printed brochure will announce when the gateway will be available on the Internet.
Appendixes to the Elisad Gateway Promotion Report
Many elements of promotion actions are present within the general report appendixes:
Appendix 7 - user consultation report, including the survey questionnaires
Appendix 9 - print-out of the conference ppt.presentation
This appendix aims to give an overview of layout work and some press cuttings that aren't presented in the general appendixes.
Elisad Gateway logo
Some press cuttings: DrugLink, UK, Vol. 17, issue 4, July-August 2002
SALIS News, USA, Vol 21, n°4 - January 2002
Éducation Santé, Belgium, n°170 - June 2002
DrugScope MembersBriefing, issue 05-2002
Beginning of the article in the Revue Toxibase, n° 7, September, currently being printed
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L'aventure de l'Elisad Gateway
Un portail Internet vers des ressources documentaires sur l'alcool, les drogues et autres addictions Par Anne Singer, consultante, Elisad Gateway
En cette époque de croissance exponentielle, sur l'Internet, de toutes sortes d'informations sur les drogues et les addictions, informations souvent partielles, parfois de parti pris, pas toujours validées, il devient difficile de s'y reconnaître et totalement impossible de faire le tour de l'information existante sur un thème donné, bref de faire son choix parmi des millions de documents. Le travail des documentalistes spécialisés dans le domaine des addictions a, ces dernières années, beaucoup évolué : à la collection, l'indexation et la conservation des ouvrages imprimés, il leur a fallu ajouter la veille des documents présents sur la toile. Si les documentalistes ont besoin des scientifiques pour valider leur choix, ces derniers ainsi que beaucoup d'autres professionnels, politiciens, chercheurs, cliniciens, acteurs de prévention et le grand public, ont de plus en plus recours aux documentalistes pour trouver rapidement des informations validées, des rapports ou même des outils de travail. Elisad, association européenne des centres de documentation et d'information sur l'alcool et les autres drogues, a eu l'idée, fin 1999, d'un projet qui faciliterait la tâche de tous : la création d'un portail Internet sur les drogues et autres addictions, guidant le surfeur vers une sélection de sites intéressants, évalués et classés par thème. Cet article décrit les premières étapes de ce projet de «Gateway». |
Articles in the Elisad journal, issue 9, July 2002
Flyer available to clients at the DrugScope library
The ELISAD Internet Gateway
on alcohol, tobacco and other drugs
At a time when information on the use and misuse of drugs on the Internet is constantly growing, it is increasingly difficult to find relevant and reliable information quickly.
The ELISAD Gateway project aims to provide professionals with a tool that will help them to quickly find quality information on the use and misuse of drugs on the World Wide Web. It started in 2002 and is funded by the European Commission.
ELISAD is the European Association of Libraries and Information Services on Alcohol and other Drugs. It is a non-profit making association and was founded in 1988.
DrugScope is the UKs leading centre of expertise on drugs. The DrugScope library is a member of ELISAD and participates in the gateway project.
The gateway will give access to information resources on alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD). ATOD gateways already exist but only cover resources in the USA and Australia... There is a need for a European tool which will offer descriptions of and links to evaluated European websites (including those of Central and Eastern European countries).
In order to create an Internet tool that will respond to the needs of ATOD professionals, we are organising a Future Gateway User Consultation.
That's why we would like YOUR input. You should to be either working in the drugs field (policy-makers, practitioners, therapists, prevention workers, researchers&) or a student.
The consultation will&
" a questionnaire will explore the functionality of the ELISAD Gateway prototype in 2002
" a final questionnaire will evaluate the quality of the finished gateway in 2003
Please contact Anne Singer at: if youre interested in this project and you would like to help us build this gateway.
Your benefits:
You will receive project development updates and four issues of our ELISAD e-journal.
Anne Singer
ELISAD Gateway Users' Consultation Coordinator
Stephan Schulte-Nähring
DrugScope Information Officer & ELISAD Project Worker
Flyer used in French speaking countries
Projet ELISAD d'un portail Internet
sur l'alcool, le tabac et autres drogues
ELISAD - Association européenne de centres de documentation et d'information sur l'alcool et autres drogues - est une association sans but lucratif existant depuis 1988.
ELISAD a initié, en 2002, un projet - co-financé par la Commission Européenne - qui consiste en la création d'un portail Internet sur l'alcool, le tabac et autres drogues.
À une époque où l'information disponible sur Internet se développe de façon exponentielle, et où des millions de sites offrent toutes sortes d'informations sur les drogues, informations pas toujours de qualité, rarement complètes ou validées, le but du projet est de fournir aux professionnels dans ce domaine un outil leur permettant de trouver plus rapi-dement les sites offrant une information et des documents validés de qualité.
Ce type de portails thématiques existe déjà aux États-Unis, en Australie, comportant très peu d'information d'origine européenne... d'où la nécessité de concevoir un outil couvrant plus spécifiquement l'Europe (incluant l'Europe Centrale et de l'Est).
Plus d'information sur ce projet (historique, premières étapes, cadre et limites, critères de sélection des sites...) se trouvent sur le site : https://elisad.org
Afin de créer un outil Internet réellement utile aux professionnels dans le champ des addictions, nous organisons une Consultation des futurs usagers du portail. Nous cherchons en conséquence à entrer en contact avec le plus grand nombre de futurs usagers du portail, et qui seraient motivés pour participer au projet.
Cette consultation comprendra trois étapes :
" la première, dès maintenant, est destinée à cerner les pratiques et les besoins des professionnels quant à la recherche d'informations et de documents sur Internet,
" la seconde, dans quelques mois, consistera, grâce à un accès privilégié, à tester notre portail prototype,
" la troisième étape, en fin de projet, consistera à évaluer la fonctionnalité et le contenu de la version finale du portail.
Tous les professionnels (politiciens-stratégistes, praticiens, thérapeutes, acteurs de prévention, chercheurs, étudiants, etc., dans le domaine des addictions) peuvent répondre au questionnaire joint et l'adresser à Anne Singer :
Ces personnes, si elles en expriment le désir, pourront recevoir un e-mail trimestriel les informant du développement du projet, comportant par ex. les résultats de chaque enquête, et recevoir gratuitement quatre numéros du journal électronique d'ELISAD.
Nous vous remercions de bien vouloir disséminer cette information accompagnée de son questionnaire à tous les professionnels intéressés.
Anne Singer
En charge des consultations des futurs usagers du portail Internet ELISAD
ELISAD European Internet Gateway on Alcohol and other Drugs / Interim Research Report Oct. 2002 / back to table of contents
