True Priorities

True Priorities
By Annie Bowen

Throughout college I would occasionally stop and really force myself to consider my future career and the industry/type of job I want to pursue. During this, I would ask myself certain questions like: How much money do I want to make? What is the right balance between time with family and job responsibilities? What type of impact do I want my job to have on society?

Eventually I would get overwhelmed thinking about all of the possibilities. As I near graduation, however, my true priorities begin to emerge. Although I know careers paths are organic and always adapting, there are certain aspects of my dream career that remain constant.

For instance, it is vital that I work for an organization that provides some benefit to society. This could be the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure or another non-profit organization that supports an important cause (like a blood bank or children’s hospital). Second, I want a job that allows for a wide variety of responsibilities such as event planning, writing, design, presenting and developing strategies for both the long and short terms.

I do realize that pursuing a career in the non-profit sector generally means a smaller salary than in other public relations careers (such as financial/stockholder relations), but I genuinely believe that the benefits of contributing to a non-profit organization will outweigh the fiscal disparity.

I also realize that there are numerous obstacles to being hired for a non-profit job, especially since I want to stay close to the Oklahoma City area. My goal, since I will be graduating in December 2008, is to spend as much time as I can researching potential organizations as well as networking whenever possible.

Image available at http://www.wish.org/

Fading Traditions

Fading Tradition


How do you want to remember college or your classmates? Do you want be able to pick up your yearbook of the shelf at anytime? Or click online to communicate with old friends? Traditionally, one might have said through the yearbook. Today, you might find many students wanting instant gratification to connect with their classmates by using sites, such as Facebook and Myspace. These sites give students immediate interaction unlike a yearbook. A student has to wait a whole year to receive their yearbook. When they purchase the book they have no idea what is going to be the outcome of their purchase or if they are going to be featured in the book.

In my PR Campaigns group, Innovative PR, was assigned Sooner yearbook as our client. Lori Brook, Sooner yearbook advisor, and her staff are having trouble reaching out to students. Another problem they are dealing with is lack of sales, which is due to the first problem. Our group is in the process of promoting nostalgia and increasing awareness of the yearbook.

In an article from The New York Times, “A spokesman for Jostens Inc., the nation’s biggest yearbook publisher, said at some large campuses where students had less of a sense of belonging, yearbooks suffered declines but sales remained strong at many smaller ones.”

Through our research for the yearbook we discovered that many students are not aware that OU has a yearbook. The students that we have found that are aware simply do not care to purchase a yearbook. Their reasoning for not purchasing one is that they are afraid of not being in there and it is too expensive.

Innovative PR has designed a campaign from the outcome of both our primary and secondary research that we think will help increase awareness and promote nostalgia. We will be passing out stickers at Big Event this Saturday and we are screening a movie that is about remembering college life.

Increasing Awareness and Promoting Nostalgia

Our group, Innovative PR, was assigned Sooner yearbook as our capstone client. Sooner yearbook is a publication of Student Media, a department in the University of Oklahoma's division of Student Affairs and has been having a difficult time on the OU campus with sales.

Innovative PR began conducting research for the client with a focus on reaching their target audience of graduating seniors. We established specific colleges to target and distributed a survey to the colleges of education, atmospheric and geographic sciences, earth and energy and engineering.

Thus far, the survey results have revealed that many people are not aware of the Sooner yearbook and even more people are not likely to purchase a yearbook. We also discovered the Sooner yearbook suffers not only from lack of awareness, but that many college seniors do not view the yearbook as a necessity. In response to these results, Innovative PR decided to increase awareness and also promote nostalgia on the OU campus.

Promoting nostalgia and increasing awareness have proved to be difficult tasks with no budget and no superior support. However, we have decided to participate in an event that will accomplish both of our objectives. It is our belief that Sooner yearbook needs to become more involved with the rest of campus and to do so, we will be distributing stickers at the Big Event that say “Your smile is a Big Event in OU history.” We will also have a link to our MySpace page that we created specifically for the Sooner Yearbook. Our research suggests that MySpace is an excellent venue for the Sooner yearbook because it has a larger base population than Facebook and allows organizations to create a page instead of just individuals. The website contains information about the yearbook and, after the stickers are distributed, the page will feature Big Event participants wearing their stickers.

All in all, our client’s problem is simply that of belonging to a declining industry but we are confidant that our research and planning abilities will contribute to the success of the Sooner Yearbook.

Graphic from: http://www.library.appstate.edu/blog/news/categorylist_html?cat_id=2

Awareness is the Key: Opinion Leaders are the Answer

Awareness is the Key: Opinion Leaders are the Answer
Ashley Rahill

My client is OU Nightly, the live, student-run broadcast on the University of Oklahoma campus. Through an intensive six month campaign, we will utilize numerous public relations tactics to increase awareness about OU Nightly. Although our first priority is to increase awareness about the broadcast, at the same time, we hope to begin positioning OU Nightly as a credible news source in the minds of our publics.

During the last couple of months, we have conducted extensive background research, including an audit of our client’s reputation and of the news business in general. We have administered several surveys, and the results illustrate an overwhelming public interest in OU Nightly. The trick is to make people aware of the broadcast. Through our research, we discovered that by simply increasing awareness, people’s curiosity will prod them to watch the show for the first time. Due to the broadcast’s credibility and high level of professionalism, people are likely to remain interested.

So how do we achieve our goal? Easier than we might have imagined.

Our client recently showed an interest in reaching the Norman community through local opinion leaders in various service organizations: a public we had not previously considered. Getting opinion leaders on board launches the beginning of the trickle-down effect. Opinion leaders are informed of an issue, or in our case, a program. They, in turn, pass the information on to the remainder of the public. It seems rather careless that we neglected to realize this public sooner, as opinion leaders are the key to rallying another more reluctant public.

The course of action has been relatively simple. We compiled a contact list of service organizations such as Rotary, Lions Club and Kiwanis Club in Norman and the surrounding areas. We contacted the leaders of these organizations and are setting up a brief informational session at the clubs’ weekly meetings. Now all we have to do is convince these opinion leaders that their time won’t be wasted watching the show. The rest is up to them.

Picture link: http://www.rotarydistrict7430.org/IMupload/RotarySharesLarger%20copy.jpg