Example: In 2010, the U.S. government began nationwide educational initiatives to combat the rise in incidents related to bullying: National Bullying Prevention Campaign. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau targets tweens—those ages 9 to 13 years of age—and the adults who are responsible for these tweens. The multiyear PR campaign included bullying prevention resource kits, a national launch event, advice for young people, PSAs, a website filled with data and other materials and more. The campaign used animated characters to depict bullying scenarios in entertaining webisodes and PSAs. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) launched a parallel PR campaign driving home to parents that it only takes 15 minutes of time talking and listening a day to have a positive effect on behavior. The PR campaign raised awareness, recommended action and created talking points for parents to start conversation and red flags for them to watch for to prevent bullying behaviors or outcomes.
Political campaigns are something of a horse of a different color in that most of these are either focused on the candidate or the issues and then have an element of persuasion, education and/or information and salesmanship layered on top of the base. Political campaigns are best when handled by a team of people, which includes a PR expert, but where strategy and political connections and/or adeptness are equally important. The candidate’s ability to appear capable, relatable and genuine seems to be crucial to the voters with the integration of various mediums that are largely on 24-hour news cycles. People are able to obtain information from these sources with little-to-no understanding of validity of facts.
Reputation PR campaigns center on a brand and aim to change the reputation of that brand through a series of strategic messages, PR stunts, positive press, social media banter and more. Not all reputation PR campaigns are aimed to polish a tarnished reputation. Some are created to breathe life into a wilting brand, shift the demographics of a once-loved but forgotten brand, or realign the values of a brand. Reputation PR campaigns are often best used for well-established organizations and are also interested in long-term results. It is implausible to believe that reputation adjustments are made in short spans of time; rather, it is more likely that these campaigns have steps measures.
Example: In 2014, the relatively young brand of Air B&B launched a reputation PR campaign introducing The Bélo, which asked users to interpret the logo or symbol by adding colors, decorations, backgrounds and so on. The brand wanted users to interpret the symbol to something meaningful to them, which is a way to connect the brand to each user. This moved the user base from those who viewed Air B&B from the youth-based market to something for everyone, which was not part of the reputation the brand had previously.
Social change PR campaigns are movement-based and are aimed to target large segments of the public and push for something bigger. Social change PR campaigns often incorporate large percentages of education and information-based PR campaigns. Most of social change is compelling a person or groups of people to take action, it also requires that the person or group of people believe to some extent in the action they are taking. It is difficult to harness thousands of people to march against ___ for the right to ___ if that group of people doesn’t believe in what they are literally marching for. Social change PR campaigns are unique in that they can be quick and from inception to execution can happen in 60 days or they can be something that builds for years.
Example: In January 2017, the Women’s March was a worldwide protest in Washington, D.C., held the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. During the campaign, tensions rose following statements made by Trump and his camp that many considered to be anti-women and offensive. The Women’s March on Washington was streamed live on social media platforms and drew more than 200,000 people to the nation’s capital. Other marches were held worldwide and in cities throughout the United States with an approximate total of more than 4 million people participating in marches. It was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.
Teamwork
Working in Teams
Throughout college campuses and within the business world, the word teamwork usually evokes fear, panic and frustration. At minimum, it strikes a negative connotation. The reality, however, is that in the modern workforce, teamwork is collective thinking models and shared workloads is more common than ever before. Employers are moving further from the traditional or formal organizational structure of the pyramid hierarchy in lieu of a more horizontal structure. Changing the perception of the teamwork or group work begins with explaining the process and choosing a team or group configuration that maximizes the labor force and optimizes time and resources by playing to strengths.
The Real World
In PR, the ability to create, plan, implement and evaluate a campaign is the cornerstone of your skills. Regardless of the industry in which you work, it is unlikely you will ever develop a complete campaign alone. It is more common that you will be asked to work in a team or even lead the team.
The campaign process is such that it is divided and split any number of ways to share the work equally, capitalizing on talents and/or strengths and pooling resources. When working in a classroom environment, the instructor may choose a less conventional method of dividing labor or may opt to have the students select teams or groups themselves. The latter situation can lead teams that are not well balanced, but are comprised of teams of friends.
The Division of Labor
For the purposes of this worktext, I have opted to proceed as if students are working in two or more teams or groups to complete a full PR campaign within a semester or trimester. As such, I have provided a few steps and options to assist the course instructor or professor or team leader in dividing labor and responsibilities. This process lays the groundwork for teamwork in the course.
Step One
The first step is to identify the strengths of each class member. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, but if time is of the essence, an easy way is to bring in copies of past classwork and assignments to compare and contrast with a universal or classwide scale to quantify each student’s abilities. If the university or college offers an upper division writing or publications course, the materials created in this class are the suggested examples to use for this process. The simplest way for the professor to judge the work is to use a grading rubric looking for:
AP style
Clarity and/or brevity
Content and delivery
Paragraph structure and transitions
Proper use of formatting
Spelling, grammar and punctuation
Another option is to have the faculty member assign the teams within the first two meetings. This allows the instructor the chance to gauge strengths and weaknesses and team dynamics (personalities). A final option is to select team leaders and then allow the selected students to pick the rest of their teams. I do not recommend this option because it often results in teams based on friendships, popularity, or perceived smarts or good grades. It is also unrealistic because in the workforce, teams are rarely selected by the team leader.
Step Two
The second step is to determine how the class is to accomplish all the tasks needed to create a campaign efficiently. This translates into determining if teams are sufficient or whether groups should be added to further divide tasks and responsibilities.
For a large class (15 or more students), it is possible that creating three teams of five students each is enough to accomplish a full campaign within a semester—assuming each team has a different focus, such as a different target audience or objective. In this option, each team produces an entire campaign proposal or plan, instead of working with the