A different way to teach PR Campaigns

As an assistant professor, I begged not to teach PR Campaigns. But after several years of teaching the same few courses, I decided to give it a try. At first I was a chicken and used local or university clients but hypothetical campaigns. Then I got a little braver and started taking on bigger accounts. In either instance this involved a semester of work followed by a formal presentation at the end of the semester. And then I launched into the big time of actually implementing the campaigns during the semester. Yes, people, there's a learning curve for teaching, too.

Here's what I've been doing lately:

1. The students meet with the client during the first or second week of class. The client reps explain the basic issues and problems, areas where they'd like help.

2. The students go nuts on research. It varies by client needs, but I try to make sure they get some focus group, interview, and/or survey experience in addition to reviewing past press coverage, locating and analyzing competitors, etc.

3. The students write a situation analysis and prepare a PR plan with goals, objectives, and lists of tactics. The students pitch the client at a formal meeting, explaining their research and why they're recommending the strategies and tactics they selected.

4. The client tells us what they like and don't like, and what we can actually do -- including how much money we can spend (sometimes none).

5. The students go nuts on implementation, tracking all the results (or as much as can be done by the end of the semester).

6. The client comes back for a second presentation, in which the students report what they did and what that accomplished.

Benefits: Two presentations means twice as many speaking opportunities. Clients have input before the end of the semester. More realistic. Forces students to DO instead of think about evaluation. Measurable results = good portfolio/interview material.

Drawbacks: Depends heavily on client participation and willingness to respond in a timely manner. More work, or maybe just more challenging work, for the instructor and the students.

Comments

[Mihaela V]

Thank you for outlining the course, Karen. I used to teach it at U. of Dayton, followed the same outline as yours, with the exception of the pitching presentation - that was done at the client's site, not in class. But I like your idea better than mine.

I also found that clients and clients' lives refuse to run according to my syllabus, and that's most annoying! :)

So do you have groups of 4-5 students each working on a different client? Do you assign roles within the group, or do the roles emerge?

I know some people have the entire class working on a campaign, and each team has different responsibilities. I wonder how that works?

[kaye sweetser]

I think all of us at Grady do it this way ... or maybe I just think that because you were so helpful in my own planning of the class when I taught it!

The big thing I would add to this is that we really don't TEACH campaigns. The students should already know when to write a press release, when to do a brochure, when to pick up the phone. They should know how to do all the methods. They should be good at writing goals & objects; know the difference between strategy & tactics.

As I like to say, this class isn't teaching anything ... it's about stepping back & letting them shine. And if they don't we fail them because they aren't ready for the real world (I joke! I joke! sorta ...).

[kaye sweetser]

If I can make a comment about Mihaela's "client complications" comment ...

You might consider making the client sign a "contract" prior to the semester. I do that & set the expectations with the client that I indeed expect them to be at the presentations, to use the materials the students work on, etc. It also helps explain to the client (who may have never worked with a campaigns team in a class before) what the process is, what they get & what we in turn expect from them.

[Dawn Gilpin]

I'm impressed that you have them do both planning and implementation in a single semester!

Our goal, eventually, is to get to a position where the campaigns developed in one semester can be implemented in the following semester via our new PR lab. For the moment, however, I just have the students doing research, planning, and proposal development, concluding with a formal pitch. There are teams of 3-4 students working on each client, and since there are two sections, some clients have two teams.

Our final pitch session is going to be held jointly in the presence of clients, students from both classes, and (I hope) a smattering of people from the local PR community (including some who may be next semester's clients).

I like the idea of having them carry out the campaigns and, especially, have to actually perform measurement rather than simply explain how it will be done.

[Dawn Gilpin]

Oh, and I love the idea of a client contract--I think I will have to implement one next semester. One of the biggest problems students have is getting timely responses from clients, or being able to arrange meetings. A contract would make sure that clients understand up front what they're getting into.

[Natalie Tindall]

I love the idea of the formal pitch to the client. My students follow the same format that you presented--minus that first formal presentation to the client. But I am adding that component for the spring semester.

Currently, I conduct sit-down meetings with the team and the client to approve the plans; this has worked so-so. Only 2 clients showed up during the time period I set aside. For those teams and clients who were able to discuss, things are moving swimmingly.

Client relationships--managing, building, and understanding the team-client role--is difficult for my students to grasp. Does anyone cover this topic in their classes? Any advice?

[Karen Russell]

Mihaela, we have a lab set aside for PR Campaigns class so that's what we use for the presentations. I included some pix in this slide presentation if you want to see: http://www.slideshare.net/KarenRussell/pr-client-presentations

When I first started actual implementation, one of the teams was for Connect, so more or less I was the client (actually Grady College), and the other was a local nonprofit. The latter didn't work out well, which is when I started asking for more accountability from the client. Since then, I have been working with fewer, larger teams with the midterm client pitch. For OneAthens I had 20 students subdivided into smaller teams. For Countdown to Kickoff, Power Partners Solar and Grady alum teams (al written about previously) it coincidentally worked out to 9 per team. I do not assign roles, although I assign teams to students by looking at a "pretest" they take the first day (willing to share if anyone wants it).

Natalie, I think the client pitch is key to getting client buy-in. When they see how much work has gone into the planning, they are more confident about letting the students move forward.

Kaye, I think most of us are teaching it that way now, but that's relatively recent, and I'm not sure that we all have a formal client presentation twice. Overall I agree there shouldn't be much teaching, although they learn a lot from each other; I try to be more advisory. The one thing I'm still "teaching" is social media! Summer and fall I required them all to use Twitter and PROpenMic, so they leave Grady with at least that much experience.

Dawn, I used Kaye's client contract a couple of times, but I also think I'm getting better at picking clients who are more likely to see the value in student work. :-) Like I said, learning curve!!

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

[Feng Bingqi]

Most important, I've learnd so much though I've not taught this kind of course. If the plan could be carried out effectively, students would get a whole picture of complete public relations campaign. It's a practical way.

College of Advertising, Communication University of China, Beijing.

[Karen Russell]

Thanks for your comment -- I'm so excited to know I have a reader in Beijing! I'm glad this post was useful.

[Nate Fuller]

I am currently going through our version of a campaigns course here at USF which is called Advance PR. The class is divided ito teams of 5-6 students who have submitted resumes with cover letters tailored to the position they wish to hold on a team.

From there, we randomly select pre-screened clients and meet with them during an informational meeting. We develop our objectives and such and then we have about a month of research, then we will have a month for tactic development. We do not actually implement our tactics so we aren't able to evaluate its effectiveness.

Service-learning courses, to me, are an excellent way for students to develop their core PR skills, but only as long as the class is structured properly with the essential involvment of the client. I really like how you have designed your class and wish mine would have been structured the same way. It has not been as rewarding as I had hoped it would be.

[Michelle De]

Karen, I notice that your past clients have been non profits and charitable causes. If your are every willing to experiment with a for profit, I know of a real estate broker who would make a donation to your favorite cause :) I envy the students who get to learn from you on a daily basis.

[Karen Russell]

Nate, what you're doing is what I used to do. It has value, too, but I do think the measurement part is a big advantage to the way I'm doing it now.

Michelle, you're right, I don't usually do for-profit, but let's talk sometime in case you can talk me into it (but I don't have campaigns again for at least a couple semesters)!

[Christine Smith]

Brilliant, Karen! Our students participate in a Client Project course. For it, they have to find a client who needs a writing-based deliverable: a communication plan, a brochure, stories for a newsletter, etc. During the course, we evaluate students on both process (meeting deadlines, managing the project, communicating with their faculty advisor and the client and the finished product). The toughest part for some students? Just getting started. Many are afraid of "real" work for "real" clients. The more we can do to encourage this kind of learning, the better.