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Public opinion research is commonly

used during the lawmaking and policy advocacy process to determine the best approach forward.

WPA Research provides the most

accurate information available and utilizes

advanced communication

techniques to ensure your position can put

its best case together.

WPA ‘s Advocacy Work

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WPA’s Superior Results

•Advanced methodologies. In every research project, WPA first works to fully understand the goals of our clients. From those goals, WPA determines a unique and appropriate mix of methodologies and analytical tools to ensure that WPA provides our clients with meaningful, actionable results in our final reports. All WPA research is custom research. While some tools are standard to particular problems, we customize the way we deploy them to meet your particular problem.

•Strategic advice. Starting on day one, we help build the insights of research into the strategic plan of an organization. Our team consists of experienced communications and organizational professionals as well as researchers, making us uniquely suited to translate research into actionable plans.

•Ongoing consultation. Research can inform every aspect of your efforts and we are constantly available to our clients to help them use data to understand the changing environment in which they are operating and use our research to inform strategic and communications decisions on an ongoing basis.

WPA is a strategic partner with your effort. We are active members of your team on an ongoing basis as we interpret data collected by us for you, public data on your

issues, and national data trends.

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Advocacy Case Study

WPA’s research and presentation of the data

helped to convince key City leaders to publicly oppose the initiative to ban the cameras

and has been critical in rallying early opposition to

the initiative.

ATS was facing an initiative to ban the use of red light cameras in the City of Houston. In order to effectively fight this measure, they needed

the public support of the Mayor and Council. Both were reluctant to publicly support the red light camera system without reassurance of the

views of Houston voters.

WPA conducted a poll of Houston voters that demonstrated approval of the red light camera program and support for their elected officials who

had implemented it.

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Key Tool: Message Maps

Effectiveness

• Using a scientific “treatment effects” design we can determine exactly how effective each message is at changing peoples’ minds.

• This effectiveness measurement is shown on the “x” or horizontal axis.

• The more effective a message, the further to the right it appears.

Stickiness

• Our message “stickiness” analysis tells us which messages will be the most memorable to people.

• The “stickier” a message is the more likely it is to break through the clutter and reach people.

• The “stickiness“ measure is shown on the “y” or vertical axis. The “stickier” a message is the higher it appears on the graph.

Believability

• The final measurement on our message maps is how believable a message is to an audience.

• Messages that fail the belief test won’t work regardless of how well they score on other measures and they could even backfire on a Organization.

• Believability is shown by bubble size. The more believable a message, the larger its bubble.

Message Mapping™ is the optimal tool to determine exactly what to say in communications.

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Message Maps Broken Down

Impact is illustrated using a mapping chart that illustrates each message based on increasing Effectiveness, “Stickiness” and Believability. Bubbles located farthest from the point of origin (the area shaded green) are the best messages in terms of effectiveness and stickiness.

On this Map, Messages 2, 4 and 5

are the best messages, balancing

effectiveness and stickiness. Message 1 is very memorable, but not particularly

effective. Message 3 is neither memorable

nor effective.

Your Organization is given easy to use “map” for further action.