Samenvatting

"Wandelen voor Water" is an activity for good causes that has been carried out by Simavi since 2004. The main purpose of the activity is to finance the building of water systems in The South (= developing countries) and to educate its citizens as to the importance of
hygiene. Dutch students are obtaining financial support for the project by walking a walka-
thon. Although Aqua for All is the initiator of the event, they appointed Simavi to organize the activity in North-Holland. However, two years ago Simavi expanded their activities to South-Holland. As Simavi desires to bring about a healthy world for all citizens
of the world, the activity fully agrees with their vision and mission statement.
In order to reach the main goal of "Wandelen voor Water", Simavi needs the help of several parties. In the first place, Aqua for All provides promotional material that could be sent to primary schools in order to inform them about the activity in general. In the second
place, there are some organisations that give the possibility to Simavi to combine the walk-a-thon with a visit to their organisation. Examples of these organisations are PWN ("Puur water en natuur"), Museon, "Zuiderzeemuseum", etc. Thirdly, visiting lecturers of
Simavi educate the Dutch students about the lack of clean water in The South, so that the students will understand why it is so important to build water systems in these countries.
In 2010, "Wandelen voor Water" had 94 participants. However, as there are also many competitors, it is difficult for Simavi to generate sufficient numbers of participating schools.
Therefore, it is crucial for Simavi to distinguish their event from their competitors' activities for good causes. The main competitor of Simavi's "Wandelen voor Water" is "Unicef Loop", a walk-a-thon initiated by UNICEF. Contrary to "Unicef Loop", "Wandelen voor
Water" has a clear relation with children in developing countries; the students have to walk a track of 6 kilometres with 6 litres of water empathising with children from The South who, daily, have to walk 6 kilometres with 6 litres of water every day. At this moment the target group of Simavi's "Wandelen voor Water" are teachers of
primary schools. From analysis among teachers, it became clear that teachers prefer activities in which their students experience everyday problems of the students' contemporaries. As "Wandelen voor Water" is such an activity it really suits the school's
wishes.
"Wandelen voor Water" is mentioned by several Simavi communication instruments but there is no instrument that communicates the message of the event. Moreover, whereas Simavi's communication plan for "Wandelen voor Water" there are many modern communication instruments that could be implemented, these instruments have not been used until now. In order to make "Wandelen voor Water" a
well-known activity among primary schools, Simavi have to change the manner of communicating with the target population.
According to the SWOT-analysis the main problem is related to the communication field.
Simavi should define clear communication objectives so that they know what they would like to realise. Additionally, they should adjust their timing of informing the target population.
In order to reach the target population (primary schools), advisors will visit the primary schools' teachers. It is the advisor's task to inform the teachers about "Wandelen voor Water". After the visit teachers will be reached through a brochure in which they can reread
the information about the event. The main aspect of Simavi's communication is the uniqueness of "Wandelen voor Water".