Abstract
Every day, over 280 million people in the United States access the internet (Gordon, Kyle). Companies throughout the US and the world are often dependent on web users for income in today’s digital age. The American government and economy prides itself on the idea of a free enterprise market. While some argue that in a free market, ISPs have the authority to control consumer usage, it is simply not true. The dissolution of net neutrality would create an oligopoly of a small handful of ISPs selectively choosing which businesses they would like to succeed, shutting out the rest, ruining the online free market.
The purpose of Save our Sites is to inform people that ISPs are trying to charge more for public services on the internet, and that congresspeople are supporting them because of large financial lobbying efforts. We will be creating a multi-million dollar ad campaign to inform the public of this issue using factual evidence. The American government is in the hands of the people, which is why it is important for us to help those people understand the issues that will affect them in their day to day lives.
Save our Sites will help everyone around the US that uses internet. By keeping Net Neutrality, we are going to let the people be capable of keeping their freedom through internet use. With Net Neutrality, the internet can lead to many innovations and creations throughout the nation. To keep the internet free and safe, the people we reach out to have to text RESIST to 50409 to send a letter to their representatives to resist the ISPs charging more for internet access. The people we reach out to also have the choice to go to callyourrep.co to call your representative and talk to him personally about keeping Net Neutrality.
In order to guarantee that a good portion of the nation is aware of this issue, we will need (an estimated) $4,000,000 which includes everything in the budget. This money will be provided from the companies that agree with us in preserving Net Neutrality. With this money, we will be able to nationally broadcast our ads on television and publish our ads online for people to see them and make a difference.
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Needs Explanation:
Net neutrality is the idea that all internet traffic is treated equally by ISPs. Currently protected by FCC regulation, the enforcement net neutrality prohibits ISPs from charging more for certain websites, services, or access to any other public place on the internet. This prevents companies associated with ISPs to have an unfair advantage because their competitors are being either charged to have their website available, or charging consumers to access their service. Recently, ISPs have begun to fight net neutrality legislation in order to capitalize on charging more for certain websites. Large companies opposed to net neutrality, such as Comcast and Verizon, have put millions of dollars into lobbying in congress to convince representatives to support the repeal of FCC regulations regarding net neutrality (Sottek, The Verge).
On the consumer level, individuals will end up paying more for access to websites they frequently visit. For example, Xfinity, owned by Comcast, provides a TV service. In order for them to eliminate competitors and charge more for their service, Comcast would be able to increase the price to access other streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. Not only would video streaming be effected, but Comcast could also push consumers to use their email service as well as other web services.
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Description of Innovation:
To raise awareness against the revocation of net neutrality, Americans must first be educated about net neutrality and its importance. According to a study conducted by The Internet & Television Association (NCTA) in 2017, 58% of surveyed American voters had little to no opinion on net neutrality, with 21% admitting they were unaware or uninterested. (Brodkin, Ars Technica). ISPs have invested over $3.5m in contributions to the Senate alone, with the average senator receiving over $68,000 in their career. (Sottek, The Verge) Lobbying in congress has created a conflict of interest, as ISPs are making substantial donations in order to change laws in favor of their income. With just a signature from President Trump, ISPs would be able to increase the price on their services to take advantage of their consumers.
Our plan is to combat congress from supporting the revocation of net neutrality with an ad campaign. The objective is to persuade voters to take a stand and stay involved in this issue. To convince the voters that Net Neutrality is critical, there would have to be a strong, supporting campaign stating the issues a condensed Internet could bring. The most vital role of congress is to fairly and equally represent its constituents, which is why a public uproar would put pressure on them to rethink their stance on net neutrality.
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Implementation:
The ad campaign will be funded by donations from companies that support net neutrality, most likely those who thrive on internet traffic from major search engines. Some of these companies include Netflix, Imgur, Tumblr, Yelp, Vimeo, Spotify, Soundcloud, Kickstarter, Etsy, Twitter, Reddit, Airbnb, Change.org, Pinterest, Google, Facebook, OkCupid, Amazon, and many more. These companies combined have trillions of dollars in assets and would be asked to assist in funding our campaign and even feature our advertisements on their platforms to inform consumers about the importance of net neutrality. Television advertisements would be the most challenging to ignite. They are the most expensive, but most effective, as prime time ads reach millions of Americans at once. The commercials will have a serious tone, to convey the severity and urgency of the issue. Ideally, celebrities and/or endorsements from large companies will be featured, which provides credibility to our claims. We believe it would be most effective to show what the internet would look like if there was no net neutrality. We will present a depiction of an ISP charging people more for services that they use every day, such as video streaming services. Actual companies will be used, which will help gain funding because this will act as advertising for the companies that support our cause. ISPs will be portrayed as “evil corporations”, to persuade viewers to have a negative opinion of them. Finally, the commercials will conclude with instructions on how to contact your representatives in congress to make a change, using CallYourRep.co.
Our second method of advertising comes in the form of online websites, posts, pages, and banners. One of the most effective ways to spread awareness on net neutrality is social media. The ads, in the manner of the commercials, would feature imagery that would show what the internet would be like lacking net neutrality. Conveying the importance of contacting your representative is a crucial part of the ad campaign. Because it is the only real action an individual can take, we need to get all people to take that action and hold them accountable and responsible for their government. In a democracy, the public opinion is the most powerful weapon to change, or in our instance, keep, legislation.
On the social media platform Instagram, the average cost per click is around $0.70. Twitter, with over 330 million daily active users, has a variety of types of promoted posts. Promoted tweets will cost anywhere between $0.50-$2 per click, while a promoted trend could cost around $200k per day (Statista). Though that is a hefty price tag, a promoted trend could cost less than a promoted tweet on a large scale, since it could have hundreds of thousands of impressions within 24 hours. In addition, it gets other users tweeting about our campaign, which will reach even more users. Twitter and Instagram are just the start to the numerous social media platforms we will utilize to promote out campaign.
Our last method of publication is a website. This will act as a landing page from the ads that we present online and on TV. This will also be a place where people can find more information about the cause and how to contact representatives. Our website will have a clean, smooth look to be attractive to our internet-savvy demographic.
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Potential Obstacles
There are only a few obstacles that would have to be avoided when creating a commercial like this. An obstacle that may arise is the expenses, when trying to get it to a big television station. The average cost for a 30-second spot national Ad is around $342,000, which would is difficult to fundraise, but not impossible with enough support (Chron.com). Another complication is being able to persuade the people that are bias to their thinking. A very small population is in favor of net neutrality, including ISP employees, who may benefit from their company making more money. ISPs can counter our ad campaign by making a statement that their employees would be paid more, but it would be at the expense of thousands of more employees of the online businesses that would be harmed by no net neutrality. The last problem is that major TV providers (i.e. Comcast) are opposed to net neutrality, and would not want to feature a pro-net neutrality ad. The way to circumvent this is to go directly to networks that are not affiliated with the provider to air our ads. Though TV networks may not have the strongest feelings about net neutrality, we will have enough financial support and endorsements from large companies to air commercials.
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Budget:
For our innovation, we want to use all of social media to persuade people to vote for Net Neutrality. However, with the Internet expanding, the price of advertising increases greatly for bigger audiences. The biggest portion of the budget will go directly to TV advertising. For a local television spot, the cost is $200-$1500 depending on the time of day. Local ads are not as effective as national ads, which convey the importance and urgency of our message. We would like to have multiple advertisements during prime time on major networks. This will reach the most amount of people, making it the most effective. For an advertisement to be shown on an early afternoon game for the NFL, the expenses range from $350-500K. If we keep the advertisement under 30 seconds, it would not be more than $400,000. Also, for every click we get on our advertisements on social media, we are charged $0.50-$2. Overall, we should have a few million dollars in total budget from company donations, allowing us to have multiple TV ads as well as purchase numerous promoted posts on a variety of social media services.