How To Scale Your National Public Service Announcement Campaign

Forbes

04-08-2025

Rita L. Soronen, President & CEO, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
This article is part two of how to continue building an integrated strategy for impact. Part one, "The ABCs of PSAs," helps national nonprofits get started in creating and using PSAs to amplify their cause and strengthen their brand while leveraging donated media value.
Once you've successfully launched your initial public service announcement (PSA) using existing assets, the next step is planning to scale your campaign. With an increased budget and refined strategies, you can broaden your reach and amplify the impact of your PSA strategy significantly. The key to growth lies in continuously finding new, compelling messaging, exploring new media opportunities and tracking performance metrics to ensure effectiveness.
Our PSA Journey
My company's PSA journey is an example of how starting small can lead to big outcomes. In 2016, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption began expanding its brand journalism library of stories shared through videos and blogs. The videos were initially used with donors and in presentations. With some minor adaptations, they were repurposed into TV PSAs. Next, voice-over talent helped turn those same stories into radio spots.
This approach delivered PSAs with low production costs that stayed on message, told genuine stories—and worked. The PSAs were picked up in droves by outlets nationwide.
For several years, we distributed TV PSAs biannually and then annually. Phase two involved layering in radio PSAs. Phase three added print, billboard and digital PSAs into the mix. Because we followed the ABCs of PSAs—audit, build and collaborate—we were able to continually scale our campaign and impact.
Print, Billboard And Digital PSAs
Here is a closer look at print, billboard and digital PSAs, which are not as well known:
Our marketing, communications and design team created print ads from its existing photo library and engaged a distribution partner to secure placements in People magazine, Sports Illustrated Kids, Cooking Magazine and others.
Print PSAs were resized for out-of-home PSAs. We partnered with another distribution organization that places PSAs on remnant billboard space across the country. The only cost associated with this tactic is printing the billboard content.
And finally, those same print PSAs were resized and distributed with a media company offering to place the foundation's PSAs in a library for lifestyle bloggers to use. This free partnership brings millions of impressions with no out-of-pocket expense.
It took years to build the layered strategy. But it started the same way PSA campaigns often start—by following the PSA ABCs. We conducted an audit of content assets, built a strong library of content and collaborated with the right partners. Each year, PSA spots were refined and tracked, trying different themes, and repeated until the campaign strategy became what it is today.
Since 2016, the reach of our PSAs has grown from millions to billions of impressions, with donated media values over the last fiscal year totaling nearly $30 million as of March 2025. The strategy underscores the importance of building and maintaining a robust content library, continuously identifying new opportunities, tracking effectiveness and collaborating with the right partners.
3 Steps To Scale Your Campaign
Once you've followed the ABCs in phase one of developing and distributing your PSA, there are three key steps for nonprofits to begin scaling future campaigns:
• Television And Radio: Invest in higher-quality production and pursue PSA placement in national networks.
• Print: Pitch your PSAs to a variety of print publications that align with your target audience.
• Billboards: Work with companies like Clear Channel and Lamar to place billboard PSAs in high-traffic areas. Airport placements are another area to explore.
• Digital/Blogs: Engage online platforms that offer free or low-cost PSA placements, such as media libraries for bloggers and content aggregators.
• Repurpose video content into different formats for TV, radio and digital use.
• Resize print ads for billboards and web-based distribution.
• Adapt messaging to social media to enhance engagement and virality.
• Distribution Partners: Agencies that specialize in PSA placement can significantly increase the reach of your content.
• Ad Agencies: There are ad agencies that specialize in creating integrated PSA campaigns. They can collaborate with you to develop a strategy and high-quality creative to use across broadcast, print, digital and out-of-home media channels. They can also place paid media ads to complement your PSA campaign, as appropriate and if budget allows.
3 Key Measures Of Success
Each nonprofit must determine the most valuable metrics for its PSA campaign. Unlike targeted advertising, many PSAs are distributed without control over where placements run or their timing, so measuring success requires a broad approach.
1. Impressions: This metric quantifies how many people have seen or heard your PSA. High impressions indicate widespread distribution, though they don't guarantee engagement.
2. Donated Media Value: Understanding the value of the media placements helps gauge the financial impact of your campaign. If your impressions are lower, but your donated media value is high, those impressions are worth more.
3. Engagement Metrics (For Digital PSAs): If your PSAs run online, tracking clicks, shares and conversions can help measure effectiveness. Be sure you use a vanity URL on those PSAs or track with pixels.
Final Thoughts
Scaling a PSA campaign requires a strategic, multilayered approach. By creating compelling messaging and content, leaning into partners' expertise, leveraging new distribution channels and tracking key performance metrics, nonprofits can significantly elevate public awareness of their mission and impact—ultimately to the benefit of the mission and the populations served.
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