Thesis (BA Communication Arts) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, May 2016

This study was conceived from the researcher's passion for environmental advocacies. With the growing environmental degradation issues in Davao City, the researcher thought for developing the content of the Eco-Camp organized by the Watershed Management Youth council (WMYC) ? Davao City Chapter. This was made possible through social marketing. This qualitative study primarily aimed to decrease apathy and increase commitment among the youth in Davao City, specifically the high school students, towards their participation in environment-related campaigns and activities. The researcher employed the Research, Objectives, Programming, and Evaluation (ROPE) Process as it is the most common method used in communication planning. The Eco-camp 2015 was the point of the study used to gather pertinent data for the creation of a new and developed Eco-Camp 2016. There were focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and document reviews conducted which served as the research part of the study or also called in this study as the formative evaluation. Salient information from these data were taken note of through finding recurring themes, words, and phrases. The results made from these data were used to craft and design a prototype for Eco-Camp 2016, take for example, one common hindrance for high school students not to participate in environment-related activities as their parents? disapproval to allow them in joining such. With this, other concerns were also considered and resolved in crafting Eco-Camp 2016. Also included in the research part was the market segmentation in which the public was categorized according to their knowledge and level of participation to environment-related activities. It helped in determining specific solutions to each type of public (Jeong-Nan Kim, 2011). To substantiate the data being gathered, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis was employed to summarize and further comprehend the formative evaluation part of the study. The researcher crafted Eco-Camp 2016 through setting the objectives first. The objectives were categorized into two-impact and output-from which the programming part is based on. The programming was further divided into two: the message integration to the event, which incorporated the advocacy in developing strategic plans for the event, and the media planning which focused on the promotion of the event. The researcher also provided evaluation for the event and the campaign to strengthen a two-way communication between the organization and its stakeholders. Based on the results of the formative evaluation, the WMYC needs to exert more effort in turning Eco-Camp participants to future members of the organization. Parents and school administrators must also be included in the promotion of the organization and the event to strengthen public relations. Specific activities were crafted as indicated in the campaign matrix and media planning part of the study. This thesis generally looked at the youth as a big investment in alleviating environmental degradation.