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

The Sooner yearbook campaign

The Sooner yearbook campaign
Carrie Musch

As part of the JMC 4403 (PR Campaigns) class, Innovative PR was assigned a client, Sooner yearbook, and charged with developing a public relations campaign that addressed Sooner’s lack of student awareness and poor sales.

Dr. Carstarphen suggested our campaign take an indirect approach – our efforts should focus on creating college nostalgia rather than directly promoting Sooner. We were also asked to develop a way for Sooner to participate in campus life so that it would be a more visible entity of OU.

Secondary research has shown that Sooner is not alone. College yearbook sales are dwindling across the United States. In fact, Lori Brooks, Sooner’s director, said only 83 college yearbooks are still in print. Yearbooks are also competing with newer mediums such as social networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Innovative PR distributed surveys to collect primary data. Our survey research reported that 60 percent of students said the yearbook was slightly or completely insignificant to their college memories. We will continue to collect data through updated surveys and a focus group.

Innovative PR has begun event planning. To evoke college nostalgia, we will host a free screening of Old School on Monday, April 14. We are currently seeking donations for this event in addition to executing our media strategy and finalizing our crisis plan. To keep Sooner in touch with campus life, we are implementing a sticker campaign during Big Event, a one-day student run community service effort. Our stickers will say, “Your smile is a Big Event in OU history.” The sticker will also direct students to a MySpace page that gives them more information on the yearbook and how to place an order.

We believe that both of these events will add value to Sooner.

AN UPHILL BATTLE

AN UPHILL BATTLE

Amanda Miller

Our client, the OU Yearbook located in the Norman, Oklahoma is having a frustrating time. It's sales are incredible low not to mention the fact that over half of the student body does not even realize that we have a yearbook. The current media relations staff of Sooner Yearbook has tried all types of research to dissect the problem. The staff has research results from surveys, focus groups and current sales all conveying the same results. Students simply do not know and do not care about a college yearbook. 

My campaigns group feels like we have been fighting an uphill battle. Our research tells us that students do not find the yearbook interesting or exciting. The thought of a yearbook being a priceless memento of our college years holds no apply to the student body. Through our research my group has found that the only new approach to test out is to change the content of the Sooner Yearbook. Unfortunately, whenever we even mention suggestion to our client they do become defensive and do not want to discuss the possibility of change. 

So here we are, mid semester, and we are nowhere closer to a helpful solution to our clients' problem. Through our event of distributing a promotional piece during the University of Oklahoma's BigEvent T-shirt pass out we hope to discover new research to help improve our client's current situation of minimal sales and lack of awareness. I am confident that my group will have a successful event and with any hope we will have exciting results to share. 

Graphic from www.nlc.state.ne.us/publications/images/bookawardgsx.gif