Jessica Birthisel | Feb. 1, 2010
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| Photo by Heather Brogden |
| PRSSA member Luke Zimmer kicked off a recent meeting of the Bateman Competition team, which is working to raise awareness of the 2010 Census. The team’s campaign starts the first week of February. |
In the coming month, however, he and his four IU teammates will make it their mission to inform university students and staff about the 2010 Census, the once-a-decade government survey of American that begins in April.
Zimmer, along with seniors Kalyn Hippleheuser and Angela Solomon, junior Kristina Hunter and sophomore Amy Bishop, comprise the Bateman team representing IU’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America. PRSSA sponsors this annual competition that gives college students experience with real-world public relations problem solving. The professional arm, Public Relations Society of America, judges the competition.
"The competition is an opportunity for students to have real-world experience pulling together a campaign at the national level,” said the group’s professional adviser, Barbara Coffmann, the executive director of strategic planning and communication at the Indiana University Foundation.
Since October, teams at approximately 80 universities have been creating public awareness campaigns for the 2010 Census. The competition challenges teams to research, plan, execute and evaluate a strategy to inform hard-to-reach populations about questionnaire that requires demographic information from everyone living in the United States.
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| Photo by Heather Brogden |
| From left, members Kalyn Hippleheuser and Amy Bishop compared notes. The team said the campaign is "risky" but humorous. |
He described the project as challenging and the competition as fierce.
“They’re competing against the best of the best across the nation,” said Bright, who admits that the task would be difficult even for five public relations professionals, let alone students with other obligations. But he’s quick to praise his student team, expressing his pride at their brightness, cleverness and especially their dedication to the project.
“These students are living, thinking, sleeping, dreaming Census 2010,” said Bright.
Zimmer, who serves as account executive for the student team, confirmed Bright’s summary. From a daily work aspect, Zimmer says that the demand is more than he’s accustomed to, requiring several hours every day for many months.
“It’s been a little bit stressful, but definitely a learning experience. It’s been a lot of fun,” said Zimmer.
Most of the work thus far for the team has been research, including surveys and focus groups with the target demographics, the development of goals and the creation of a publicity strategy and materials.
Zimmer said the team divided responsibilities between members with Hippleheuser in charge of writing and editing, Bishop in charge of communications, Solomon in charge of creative services, Hunter in charge of research initiatives, and Zimmer in charge of project details and follow-up.
Implementation of the publicity plan runs Feb. 1-28, and will include Facebook and Twitter presence, a Web site and give-aways at public events. Both Bright and Zimmer describe the humorous campaign tone as “risky,” but the team’s research suggests that it will be a successful way to grab the attention of that hard-to-reach student population. To avoid stealing their own thunder, the members declined to tell more about the campaign.
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| Photo by Heather Brogden |
| The team hopes to win $2,500 and recognition at the next PRSSA conference, but adviser Jim Bright said members will come away with an excellent piece in their portfolios, win or lose. |
National judging begins in April and by May, three finalist teams will present their campaigns to census representatives and Public Relations Society of America members. The winning team will receive $2,500 and recognition at the 2010 PRSSA conference.
Though this is IU’s third time entering the competition, organizers changed the selection process this year. Bright explained that in order to increase student commitment and the quality of the project, he and the late PRSSA faculty adviser Beth Wood, who died in November, decided students would apply for a position in exchange for two academic credits.
“Twenty students applied, all very eager, but we selected the five we felt were best,” said Bright, who said they tried to look for a blend of talent. He said students are "in it to win it” but even if they lose, students will have a project to show prospective employers what they can do.
Bright said the memory of Wood, who brought PRSSA to IU and helped it become the seventh-largest chapter in the country, is never far.
“We’re all involved this year because of the late Beth Wood,” said Bright. “It would be wonderful if the team could win it for themselves, and to honor Beth’s memory and contributions to the IU School of Journalism.”
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