For more than five years, the Lindberg Group has worked on the communications campaign for the Biosecurity for Birds program at USDA APHIS. The goal of the program is to educate backyard poultry owners how to protect their birds from avian influenza (AI) and exotic Newcastle disease (END), as well as how to spot these diseases and report them should their birds become infected.

The outreach campaign developed by the Lindberg Group has been comprehensive and covers traditional advertising and earned media avenues, as well as unique partnership elements designed to maximize outreach. On the advertising and earned media fronts, the Lindberg Group conducted a comprehensive survey of backyard poultry owners and bird fanciers. We discovered, for instance, that backyard poultry owners were more inclined to read co-op publications (which are cost-effective to advertise in) than they were to read national agriculture magazines (which are more expensive to advertise in). As a result, the Lindberg Group was able to develop a highly effective advertising campaign that utilized a cost-effective mix of national publications, local co-op publications, Ag radio and Internet advertising. The Lindberg Group was also able to leverage growing concern about bird flu to generate significant earned media placements for the program.