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Maybe you're an avid fan of Charlie Rose. Or perhaps Curious George holds more sway in your home.

Either way, Eight/KAET wants to connect with you. The Arizona PBS affiliate is using a combination of direct mail, online marketing and, of course, on-air promotions to entice viewers to support the station.

“PBS stations have a huge advantage over other nonprofits in that they have a TV station,” says Kelly McCullough, director of marketing and development.

KAET uses on-air spots to support a variety of fundraising activities. All spots drive viewers either to the station's home page (www.azpbs.org) or to a specific landing page.

“We very much believe in the multichannel world,” McCullough says. “We actively drive people to the Web in all our communications — either to make a contribution, find out more information, sign up for an e-newsletter or look for other ways to support us.”

Online, the station is starting content communities to develop relationships with different audience segments. Generation Eight, an interactive club for parents and children, is set to debut this month. At first the club will have a Web site, with an e-newsletter to follow later. It also will eventually produce community events for families.

“The site will be a localized portal for PBS Kids activities and an avenue to PBS Kids Play!, an online subscription service for families with children ages 3 to 6,” he notes.

The site's Eight Box Office section was launched about two years ago to highlight live events that tie in to PBS programming, like “Sesame Street Live,” “Celtic Woman” and a Rick Steves travel seminar. When users click on links to events, they have the opportunity to donate to the station and receive a special ticket package as a thank-you gift. (The “Elmo” package, for example, offers four main-floor tickets and four pre-show party meet-and-greet passes for a $500 contribution.)

Live events also are held exclusively for participants in KAET online communities. The BritCom Club recently held a Saturday morning tea tasting, where members viewed a rarely seen episode of “Keeping Up Appearances.”

McCullough says “the objective is to expand our relationship with donors. For the most part you don't have to be a donor to join our content communities, but donors get added benefits.”

Taking a cue from WGBH Boston, the station may create local clubs tied into the new digital channels PBS Create and PBS World, he added.

The e-newsletter Eight e-News is positioned as a relationship-building tool as well. More than 40,000 viewers have opted in so far, offering information about their programming interests, such as whether they like to watch British comedies, children's programming, music, news or travel shows. E-cards, which alert viewers about programs that may be of interest, are sent every few days (and a little more frequently during pledge periods). The e-newsletter goes out monthly; there are special editions based on activities, events or partner opportunities.

For about four years KAET has worked with Get Active on its e-mail and Web initiatives. The station is migrating to systems from Convio, which recently acquired Get Active. McCullough hopes this will help the station better segment its file for targeting, and create more microsites for special-interest groups.

In addition to nationally generated podcasts, KAET produces several that are locally created. Among the topics are books, Arizona news and Hispanic issues. RSS feeds of these programs are available too.

The ROI of these efforts hasn't been traced down to the level of each communication, McCullough says. “But I do know that these subscribers give a higher average gift and have a higher renewal rate and participation level.”

The station has 55,000 members, up from 48,000 two years ago. McCullough estimates that the station mails about 1 million pieces annually, including 400,000 acquisition messages, 150,000 renewal notices, 80,000 pieces targeting lapsed donors and 100,000 requesting additional gifts. Eight also makes some 50,000 telemarketing calls for renewals, extra gifts and lapsed reacquisition. Some 55,000 households receive the monthly program guide — the third-highest circulation publication in the market, according to McCullough.

KAET has trimmed its direct mail output slightly in acquisition. “Mail is getting tougher, principally because lists are getting harder to come by.”

Approximately half of the fundraising revenue comes from direct mail; 11% is from online donations, and the remainder is from online pledge drives. A small percentage is derived through telemarketing.

At this point search engine marketing isn't much of a factor in KAET's marketing. “We really haven't pursued it yet,” McCullough says. “We're conscious of the importance of meta tags and are aware of that when creating Web pages. But we're not working heavily with Google or the other engines.”

The station's biggest challenge is to get viewers involved in KAET's mission. Keeping communications relevant is particularly vital, as McCullough notes that there are 40,000 other nonprofits in Arizona alone. “And of course we're always competing in the media arena for people's attention, as well as their disposable income. We need to improve our communications and show the community how we deliver value.”

A secondary challenge is that the station is in what McCullough calls the “experience delivery” business.

“Especially as boomers head into their ‘donative’ years, we want them to really experience public television, whether that's coming to a concert, viewing a video on demand or getting an RSS feed. If those experiences are positive, it engages them in our mission.”

One avenue toward this goal is partnering with other nonprofits and association groups in the community. Lists aren't shared, but “chaperoned” e-mails are sent. For example, if a local nonprofit arranges an event that relates to a KAET program, the station will push out a notice to that charity's list.

“But we never exchange names or e-mail addresses,” McCullough says. “We guard those communications because we don't want to bombard our constituents. We always question whether we're sending too much, and whether what we do send provides value, is concise and of high quality.”

The big challenge this year will be to successfully communicate to viewers and donors how they may (or may not) be affected by the upcoming transition to digital television broadcasting.

“We want to be darn sure that the 20% of households who are watching TV solely via over-the-air antennas will still be able to do so after Feb. 17, 2009 by acquiring a digital converter box,” McCullough concludes.