Every time the Texas A&M Agriculture Program administration met with the Texas state legislature during the past six years or so, one question was asked more than any other, "What are you doing about those #@#! fire ants?"

In 1995, something was finally done. Based on input from the organizations involved in fire ant research and education, the legislature created the Fire Ant Research and Management Advisory Account Committee (FARMAAC), comprised of people representing industries affected by the fire ant problem, such as agriculture, cities, utility companies, etc. This committee was charged to oversee the state's fire ant research and management efforts.

In 1996, the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, working with representatives from the Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Tech University, University of Texas, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department developed a statewide research, education and regulatory plan to more efficiently control fire ant populations. The group determined it would need $16 million from the state and from private sources to implement the six year plan.

This group approached Texas A&M Agricultural Communications for help in devising a communications strategy to educate legislators and the general public about the plan so they would support funding, specifically $2.7 million a year from the state legislature.

This paper will discuss the communication opportunities and challenges we faced, the strategies we used, and an evaluation of our efforts.

COMMUNICATION OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

In the past, Agricultural Communications has assisted the legislative communications effort by creating fact sheets about the Agriculture Program's proposed research and education efforts. Our administrators then distributed these to legislators and to agricultural industry leaders.

We could have just suggested we do these fact sheets again, but we knew that we had to better integrate our media efforts with our marketing efforts to educate legislators and the general public about the fire ant plan for several reasons:

1. Of all the issues that agricultural research and extension addresses, controlling fire ants is of interest to both agricultural and urban audiences. This would be a great opportunity to show people not familiar with who we are that agricultural research and extension benefits everyone, not just agricultural producers.
2. We had to be in charge of the message that was being sent out. For example, if the media found out a fire ant plan was proposed to be funded, they could send out conflicting messages, such as the plan would eradicate fire ants or would pay for statewide pesticide applications.

We also planned our communications strategy to overcome these challenges:

• Dispel the perception that the plan would eradicate fire ants, when in fact it would only strive to control them to unnoticeable levels.
• Inform people that unlike a state government attempt 10 years ago, this plan would not fund statewide pesticide applications and would not entail government enforcement. Instead, the plan would get communities involved in implementing the best fire ant management methods that would best fit the needs of their citizens.
• Show a unified front on behalf of all the organizations involved by sending out the same message -- that we can work together to find short-term and long-term solutions to controlling fire ants.

COMMUNICATION PLAN AND STRATEGIES

Since we would have to present the communication plan to FARMAAC and the organizations involved, we kept the format of the communications plan simple.

We included the communication plan's purpose (to inform Texans that the fire ant research and management plan exists so they can contribute resources, support legislative funding, or implement pilot community-wide management programs); identified audiences we needed to reach and what we wanted the outcomes to be; stated communications strategies and products for both mass audiences and specific audiences; and identified which organization would be responsible for each strategy. FARMAAC decided to concentrate on the mass media and legislative components in 1997 and address the other audiences after the plan was funded.

The major communication strategies included:

• Forming a communications task force, with representatives from each organization.
• Appointing the legislator who introduced the measure as the spokesperson for the plan and to keep his staff apprised of all communications.
• Integrating marketing and media efforts, with dissemination around key legislative events.

Communications Task Force
This task force was created to ensure communication coordination, especially for mass media distribution. We knew that we at Texas A&M would do the majority of the work since we had more resources to work with. So we led the task force. We held one meeting in December 1996 with the task force to give an overview of the fire ant plan, get input on the communications plan, ensure that everyone knew the message to convey, and built a timeline for completing our communications tasks, with a news conference at the state capitol culminating our efforts. Representatives were asked that their major responsibility be to write articles for their newsletters, magazines, and other communication vehicles as well as write stories for the media about their organization's past successes in dealing with fire ants.

Through e-mail and phone, all task force representatives kept each other informed of what they were doing. Two fire ant technical experts/administrators were assigned to the task force to ensure that all communication products created and disseminated were correct.

Legislator as Spokesperson

We knew we needed a single spokesperson for the plan to further ensure that the right message was consistently sent to legislators and the general public. It would be best that the person not be associated with any of the organizations involved. So we asked Rep. Tom Ramsay, a Northeast Texas rancher who introduced the 1995 legislation for creating the fire ant advisory group, to be the spokesperson. This was a great choice for us because he came across as very sincere about addressing the fire ant problem. He knew it could be a political risk if it failed but he believed in the plan enough to take that risk. Ramsay was only in his second term so didn't serve on major committees that could take up his time nor have other big issues on his agenda.

Marketing Efforts

Logo and slogan. Because we could not (and would not) use all the logos of the six organizations involved on our communication products, we produced a logo for all communications on behalf of the fire ant plan. We created the slogan, "Together we can lessen the sting of the fire ant problem." This means that not only will the six state organizations work together but that all citizens must become involved to control fire ants. We used "lessen" to stress that the plan would not eradicate fire ants, only control them.

Message. We made the message as simple as possible: "This fire ant management plan is different from past efforts because it is a coordinated effort among state institutions/agencies; management is the goal, not eradication; and it addresses short-term as well as long-term solutions." This message was conveyed in some form on all communication items released to the public.

Marketing items. We helped edit and format the fire ant research and management plan so it would be easier for a lay audience to read and understand; created fact sheets about the economic, health, and environmental impacts of fire ants, the major areas of the plan, and the strides research and education have made in controlling fire ants; created an exhibit that was displayed at various fairs and a state municipal convention; produced an overhead/slide set that agency administrators and FARMAAC committee members could use during talks; and established a Web site (fireant.tamu.edu) that contained all printed communication items produced and linked to other fire ant information.

Media Efforts

Background Information.The communications group devised a timeline to ensure that all background information was developed for release to media 2-3 weeks before the news conference. This same information was distributed to the fire ant advisory group; administrators, researchers, and extension specialists from all organizations involved; and to each extension county office. The packet included the fact sheets, a list of all the experts who could assist media, and five newspaper graphics, which showed the impact of fire ants in urban areas (the millions of dollars people spent in Texas' five major metro areas on fire ant treatment, medical costs and repairs), the losses Texas cattle producers suffer annually, the spread and history of fire ants, quarantined areas, and the difference between native and imported fire ants. To ensure everyone was telling the same story, we gave all non-media a list of talking points as well as a list of answers to questions that the media might ask.

Editorial board visits. Ramsay, technical specialists, and/or other organization representatives visited the editorial boards of Texas major dailies, as well as newspapers in key legislative districts, about the fire ant plan before the news conference. Even though not all of the papers ran editorials, two of the state's most influential papers--Dallas Morning News and Ft. Worth Star Telegram--did and the papers who did not were at least more informed about the plan and could ensure that their paper ran a correct story about the fire ant plan.

News Conference. We held a news conference at the state capitol on Feb. 12 in Austin. This was a good time because the legislative session had just convened in January, so legislators weren't bogged down in committee meetings and the appropriations committee was about ready to start addressing higher education. Plus, February is sweeps month for broadcast media.We gave the background material to media 2-3 weeks in advance of conference--giving media more time to conduct further research for in-depth articles and TV special reports. A communicator moderated the event, with Ramsay, a researcher, an extension specialist, and a physician specializing in fire ant bites citing the impacts of fire ants in Texas. The conference concluded with a live demonstration of the fire ants' aggressiveness towards a food source, which offered visual opportunities for television media. Media were also provided with a copy of the plan, the background information, a news release, video b-roll, and photos. All of the capitol press corps attended, including all of the metro media, the Texas State Network (radio), the Associated Press, and the Wall Street Journal. Video, radio, and print news releases on the history of fire ants and on funding the plan were distributed to Agricultural Communications' subscriber stations to coincide with the news conference. Many legislators attended the event to show their support, and after the conference, members of the fire ant advisory committee made personal visits to legislators' offices.

Print, video, and radio releases. Overall, four news releases (distributed to all Texas dailies and weeklies and the ag press), six video releases (distributed to 48 outlets reaching 200+ stations in the U.S., Canada, and Asia), and eight radio releases (distributed to 146 outlets reaching 200 English-speaking stations and to 180 Spanish-speaking stations). Topics included the history of fire ants in Texas, an overview of the proposed plan, and the legislature funding the plan.

Phil Gramm's federal fire ant funding campaign. Fire ant specialists and/or Rep. Ramsay spoke at Sen. Gramm's news conferences across the state March through May to explain the impact of fire ants on Texas, promote the state plan, and distinguish it from Gramm's national funding proposal. The effort brought added attention to fire ants in general and to the state plan in particular.

Ongoing requests for information. Agricultural Communications continues to receive requests for fire ant information from media not only from Texas, but from the nation and beyond. For example, Brazilian television traveled to Texas A&M to produce a story on how that country's native fire ant is such a menace here and what's being done about it. Science and Technology Satellite News, which serves Asia and the Pacific Rim, produced a story as well.

RESULTS

Overall, the whole effort was deemed a communications success because:

• The plan was funded at $2.5 million/year for the biennium ($5 million total).
• Most of the media emphasized that the plan would control fire ants, not eradicate them and that money would be used for research, education and regulatory efforts only.
• Texas A&M Agriculture Program administrators want to use this integrated communications model for other prioritylegislative initiatives. This effort showed administrators not to be afraid of the media and strengthened their confidence about how communications can help the organization meet its goals.
• he coordinator of the fire ant plan has requested that a communications representative attend all fire ant administrative and technical meetings.
• More people have called their Extension office about controlling fire ants than ever before.
• The fire ant advisory committee asked to ensure that future communication efforts are funded from the appropriation. Agricultural Communications was funded $25,000/year for staff members' time; communication production funds were placed in other parts of the budget. We will continually use marketing and the media to inform legislators and the general public about the progress and impacts of research and community-wide management programs; develop an educational campaign about getting involved in community-wide management programs; and contribute to southern and national fire ant communication efforts.

The one drawback to such a public campaign was that a number of individuals who have developed control products, which were proven not to be effective, came forward, claiming they should get some of the money appropriated. We addressed this by releasing a news story emphasizing that the plan did not fund these type of products. The Extension Service also received more requests than ever before to test methods to control fire ants.

We also have raised the general public's expectations that they should see fewer fire ants. The problem is that one person may perceive "fewer" as none and another as one or two mounds. Because the fire ant is such an emotional topic with people, many will want to see immediate results. This means we must continually inform the public and legislators through the media of the research progress that is being made and the outcomes of the pilot community-wide control programs.

WHAT MADE THE CAMPAIGN WORK?

In summary, this communications effort worked for several reasons:

• The six state agencies involved did a wonderful job of writing the research and management plan, setting realistic goals, and creating an organizational structure (advisory committee, technical committee, legislative committee, etc.) that would ensure success and is being used as a model by other states and regions as well as nationally.

• There was great coordinated, internal communications among organizations' administration and scientists, the legislator who introduced measure, advisory committee members, communications task force members, and Extension entomology specialists and agents. On the communications side, having one point person has helped ensure coordination of marketing and media efforts.
• We did nothing fancy for communications. We just used all of the vehicles available to us, disseminating them in a coordinated and timely manner.