Creating a Memory in PR

Last Tuesday my PR Admin. class created a beautiful and memorable night for the Relay For Life Kick-off.  The theme for the event was 'Celebrate A Memory' which was based off of the American Cancer Society's theme for the year, 'Celebrating another Birthday.'   The planning for the event was a long process that required attention to detail, meaning and creativity. 

We planned this event with no budget for a 100 plus people.  To create some money to work with each member of the class decided to donate 5 dollars.  We were also able to get a 100 grant from The GIVE Center.  Thanks to Brooke and her connections we were able to get 90% of the food donated to the event.  The only portion of the food that was not donated were the cupcakes.  We had planned on getting those donated by another class, but that fell through when the day of the event we only received 24 of the 100 needed cupcakes for the event.  We ended up having to purchase the cupcakes last minute which ended up working out just as well.  The 'cupcake crisis' was a learning experience on how communication between parties should be constant especially when donations and volunteer efforts are being made.  The best way to learn how to handle a crisis is by experience.  

Besides the food, the decorations were impeccable and brought the event to life.  A big thanks goes to the decoration committee for painting boxes and banners, and tying a million ribbons!  We decided to go with a purple, black, and white theme to honor the the colors of Relay For Life and to make a classy event.  The venue looked amazing fully decorated especially with the staff (our class) dressed in purple, black and white.  

The best part of the event (in my opinion) was the slide show.  A special thanks goes to Keri and Andrea for putting together a very moving and touching slide show!  To expand the slideshow concept to the decor we decided to put poster-sized pictures of the cancer survivors on the wall.  Thanks to a donation of time and resources from my dad we were able to give the survivors these pictures so they can remember and celebrate a memory.

Through all of these donations of time, resources and money we were able to pull together this wonderful evening for cancer survivors and those involved with Relay For Life.  This event was rewarding and I hope that I will get to work on another event that is just as rewarding in the future.  

A Fighter for Now a Survivor in the Future

In this world there are fighters and destroyers.  There are the people that lift you up and those that bring you down.  There are survivors and those who all too easily admit defeat.  From the first time I met April I knew that she was not later of those groups, she is the fighter, the lifter and most important of all the survivor. 

            “Right now I am a cancer fighter and in the future I will be a survivor,” said April McMillan.  Last January, April found what all women hope to never find, a lump on her breast.  When she first discovered it a million thoughts went through her mind of what it could be.  Of course cancer was on the list, but at the time she convinced herself that it was a cystic fibrosis that is caused from drinking too much caffeine.  “At that time in my life I was drinking three cups of coffee a day” said April “when you are a music major you tend to drink a lot of coffee.”

            Finally in July, two weeks after two of her grandparents passed away (only 38 days apart from each other) she broke down and went to the doctor.  “After my grandparents died I realized that I probably needed to get myself checked out to make sure everything was okay,” said April.  The lump had grown significantly since her discovery in January and the week before the doctor’s appointment it was causing her great pain.

            After the doctor took one look at the lump, she immediately referred her to a surgeon.  The surgeon did a series of tests, commentating that he did not like the look of it.  “I think he has seen this so many times that he knew what it was right there, but still he told me to wait for the results to be positive,” said April.  After waiting two long days April received her test results back from the doctor, only to find out that it was what she had been fearing all along.  “In the back of my mind I knew what is was, but being in that reality and hearing the doctor say it was shocking and scary,” said April.

            April was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.  Since her diagnosis April has undergone chemo treatment and radiation that so far has worked successful in shrinking the tumor.   “The cancer had spread to little parts all over body,” said April,“I only wish that I had gone to the doctor when I first felt the lump then this could have been caught earlier.”

            Since the discovery of her cancer, April has made it a point to do everything in her power to influence women, especially young women the importance of getting a monthly exam.  “I do not want anyone else to go through this,” said April, “I want people to learn from my mistakes.”

            April is not the only person who has fought cancer in her family.  Her grandmother, Jeneane Vinson also had breast cancer and has attended Relay For Life every year since.  April’s great-grandmother also had ovarian cancer.  Allow there is a history of cancer in her family, April’s cancer is not hereditary. 

            April is a senior Music Ed major at Georgia College, she plans to graduate in May and continue her education by going for her masters at GCSU in music education.  Her goal for the future is to teach music to middle school students. Having grown-up in Milledgeville she attend Georgia Military College in seventh grade where she first learned how to play the flute.  “I have always enjoyed music every since I was little,” said April.  Besides having played her flute for a decade, she also can play and variety of other instruments and sing.  She is currently blogging about her experiences on http://aprilee2010.blogspot.com.   

            “Cancer is one of those things that you never know what is going to happen or how you are going to come out of it,” said April, “Sometimes I think God puts you in certain situations in life so that you can have the chance to influence others.” 

In the Eye of the Reporter

Reporters hold the key to communicating to the masses.  PR professionals can only go so far before they have to give up the regions to the reporters and hope they decided to broadcast their event.  That is why it is so important as a PR rep to keep a good relation with your media outlets and know how to catch their eye and keep their interest. 

Being a PR a major at GCSU I have learned how pitch to newspapers and radios, but not so much television stations.  The reason for this being the remote location of Milledgeville being stuck somewhat in between Atlanta and Macon.  The closest news station that people are able to turn into is at least 30 minutes away.  In other words in order to get a 'published' on a station your pitch has to be top-of-the-charts newsworthy.  Because most of the events I have worked with so far have not called for news stations and reports to cover, I have had little to no experience when pitching and dealing with tv reports.  Considering this type of media is one that I hope to be working with in the future I am very much interested in learning more about the 'edicate' when communicating with them.

Last week I was looking over my 'tweets' when I noticed one of the PR professionals I follow posted this article about the do's and dont's when it comes to pitching to tv reporters.  The article is called How to pitch to a Busy TV reporter; she found it on Ragan's PR Daily on ragon.com.  In the article a TV reporter is interviewed and asked what she does and does not take when it comes to pitches from PR reps.  I thought it was interesting that the article was written from a reporters perspective.  

The most usefully tips I got from the article was to make a catchy and short subject line.  In life they tell you to prepare a 30-sec. elevator speech because that might be all the time you have when pitching yourself to a future employer.  This concept of short and sweet carries over into public relations.  Reports do not have the time to sit and read a long email or listen to a two-minute voicemail.  And if you are lucky enough get whatever you are pitching a slot on the air, they only have tw0-minutes to develop and explain the story to the viewers.  Keeping this in mind, it is important to remember to keep everything short, catchy and clean.  

Another important point from the article is to make sure the story you are pitching is newsworthy in the first place.  Somethings are just not meant to be on the news or are not that interesting to keep the attention of the viewers.  It is important to keep a good relation with reporters and one way to ruin that relationship is to send them a 'dud'  story.  

There are many more important points in this article.  I recommend reading it and taking in this valuable information.  It be the difference one day in being the saved email vs the deleted one in a reporters inbox.  

The Power of Relay For Life

Relay For Life has been around for 26 years.  It spreads across small towns and big city in this nation.  Although each event is united under the main theme for Relay each year, each individual event has made it their own and customized it to ‘tip’ in their area.  How did they do this?  And how can we as a class make our Relay For Life Kick-off ‘tip’ in a significant way?

 According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, in order to create an epidemic and make something push over the ‘tipping point’ it has to contain three main components.  These components are the law of the few, the stickiness factor and the power of the content.  Our challenge as a class is to take this information from Gladwell, apply to the Relay event, and create an epidemic out of it.  Not such a small task, but it can be done.

The law of few discusses how certain people need are gifted with the ability to make things work and get others interested.  Gladwell separates these privileged few into three categories Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. 

 Connectors are those who have the ability to link others together.  These people know everybody and everybody knows them; their contact and Facebook friend lists are endless and the great part is they remember everyone of their contacts and have good reputations with them.  In terms of Relay,  Kendall Stiles, the director of The GIVE Center, is definitely a connector.  Everyone knows her and if they don’t they have at one point heard about her.  On the reverse she knows everybody and has a contact list a mile long with very valuable names on it.  Considering that she made The GIVE Center tip to the point of epidemic portions in Milledgeville, I think she has what it takes along with all the other connects on the committee to help us connect to the right people and make our Relay event tip. 

 Gladwell defines the word Maven as a Yiddish term meaning ‘one that who accumulates knowledge.’  These people are not necessarily as sociable as Connectors, but they have the ability to retain valuable, useful and interesting knowledge.  They are a walking encyclopedia, almanac and guide.   If you want to know the best place in town to change your tires or what company to buy stocks from you would go to Maven. In terms of Relay these are the people who can help us with knowing where to get black and white blown-up pictures and how to strategically arrange the tables to get the best flow of traffic.  They will be great assets in helping us work out all the little nit-picky things that make up our event. 

 The final chapter in the law of the few is the Salesperson.  These people have the power of persuasion on their side.  We have all seen these people in action and walked out of a store wondering why we felt the sudden urge to purchase a new toaster when we already have a working one at home or sign a 2-year contact to a timeshare in Alaska when you hate snow.  A salesperson has the ability to sell the product to others.  We need sales people for Relay in order to convince people to come and donate money this great cause.  I would like to think that I fit into this category the best.  Between being a double concentration in advertising and pr, selling ads for the Colonnade and being the oldest sibling I have mastered the art of the sales pitch.  I am not afraid of talking and persuading people to do things as long as I have all the facts.  At the Relay event I can use my persuasiveness to convince people to make a card for cancer patients.  Looking at the bigger picture I look forward to helping out with getting people to donate money and raise awareness of different cancers. 

 The stickiness factor is what makes the message or content that you are trying to convey stick in people head.  If the message does not stick then what is the point of getting it out there?  In order to create this stickiness for Relay we have to look at who we are trying to get the message out to.  What makes a message stick depends on who is getting the message and if it applies to them or not.  Our objective for the Relay event is get team leaders and cancer survivors to attend the kick-off and get them excited about Relay For Life in the spring.  We have chosen to appeal the message to by incorporating it all through-out the event.  Every inch of the kick-off from the moment they receive invitations to the lighting of the birthday candles will be about Relay and will hopefully stick with them and get them excited about fundraising.  Also how we present the message to them through slideshows, symbolism, and even in the decorations we hope to touch them in such a way that the message sticks with them.  In return after the message sticks they can help us spread the epidemic by sticking the message to other through word of mouth.

 Cancer is a very powerful word.  In this century, it is very rare to find someone that does not know someone who has been affected by cancer.  The power of this particular content appeals to people because they can relate to it on some level.   The power behind Relay For Life is that people can relate to one another through the common factor of the same content.  By establishing a relationship through the same content we hope to unite our audience and get them to understand the importance of Relay, why we do it and why they should get involved.  Relay For Life is a powerful thing and when done right we can help make a big impact on the lives of cancer patients just by presenting the content to the right people and creating an epidemic. 

 Relay For Life has been successful in creating an epidemic in fundraising for cancer research because they have had the right people, strong content and a method that makes their message stick. I believe that my class has a good mixture of connectors, mavens and salespeople to make this event tip and spark the epidemic of Relay For Life in Baldwin Country.  I look forward to making this event happen and seeing the difference our ‘little things’ made.  

Climate Change from a PR perspective

From the moment the earth was formed it has been changing.  In terms of the age of the earth it is relatively young.  The world will one day end that much is inevitable, but we as the only species with the ability to think should help prolong this day.   As the world grows older the temperature of the Earth slowly increases.  Climate change is going to happen to the Earth naturally, however because of the way humans are choosing to live is greatly affecting and speeding up this process.  

The question that should be on everyone mind is how they can help and change a little bit of their lifestyle to increase the quality of the Earth.  What does this mean for a PR professional?

It means that that we should us our ability to communicate with the masses to get the word out on climate change and what people can do.  On almost every website of any organization that promote 'green' living there is a press or news room link.  Companies all around the world are trying to 'go green' and need pr pros to get the message out about their changes.  This summer I worked with Greenway Medical as pr writer.  They needed someone to write their press releases, PSAs and web material that covered their 'Going Green' campaign.  It was a great opportunity and one way that I was able to contribute to raising awareness about climate change.  

It is important to live eco-friendly and be environmentally conscience about how we our lifestyle affects others.  Not everyone has this attitude nor is educated in what is truly going on with the Earth.  It is our job as pr professionals to supply the outlets and information necessary for people to further understand about their environment and what they can do to help.  Climate change is going to continue to happen, but every little bit helps.  Just by participating in Blog Action Day I am already taking a step in the right direction in terms of raising awareness for climate change.  

Go Team Cupcake!

My PR class this semester is responsible for the planning, promoting and running the Relay For Life kick-off.  This kick-off happens in the fall and is the beginning of the fundraising for the big event in the spring.  I am a huge supporter of the American Cancer Society and was extremely excited when I found out that we would be putting together one of their main events!

Our class broke up into 5 groups of 3 (through the method of PR fantasy football) and came up with five different pitches to present to the RFL committee.  The ACS overall theme for this year was 'celebrate another birthday'.  Each group did a spin off of the theme and created a slogan, logo, invitation, menu, decorations, and budget that was presented to the committee in a packet.  

My group (aka team cupcake) came up with a creative idea to have a fun and simple birthday celebration.  Our slogan was 'Pin the Cure on Cancer' using the logo as a birthday button.  Everything that we came up with was personal, simple, and completely incorporated what Relay For Life is all about.  We designed a special lighting ceremony using cupcakes and birthday candles.  For decorations we used 26 3-foot birthday candle replicas to represent the 26 years RFL has been around.  We also came up with a 'hassle free' menu option and created a birthday card making station where guests could make bday cards for cancer patients.  I thought our group did a wonderful job thinking, organizing and presenting the pitch.  

In the end the committee ended up picking a little bit from every group because they liked all the ideas.  I felt honored that after combining all of the groups, the majority of our ideas will be used in the actually kick-off dinner.  

In terms of PR I thought this was a good learning experience of how to put together a pitch a present to a client.  In real life I do not think a client would pick 5 companies to merge together to do an event, but I do believe that it is also a good learning experience on how to fit together different puzzle pieces in order to get the puzzle that the client wants.  

I am very excited to see the end result and to frost over 100 cupcakes!!

Communication Breakdown

Why are some people afraid to communicate face to face?  Why are some people more comfortable texting or emailing someone?  Why are we more and more finding out what our friends are doing because of their statuses on Facebook and Twitter?

 Communication breakdown is not just about the lack of communication, but also about the lack in face to face or vocal communication between people.  No I am not trying just to get the Led Zeppelin song in your head, I also am trying to prove a point that the majority of society has a problem communicating in person, and it is only getting worse with the increase in technology.  As PR professionals it is our jobs to make sure the lines of communication are not cut and if they are then we must find out where it was cut and fix it.  

I came to this realization last weekend when my apartment turned from civil to complete shambles in a matter of minutes because of the lack of communication between my roommates.  Basically roommate 1 was mad at roommate 2 for 'excluding her' or not communicating how and when she was going to this party.  And roommate 2 was mad at roommate 1 because she said texted her.  This lack of communication has been going on for months now between these two and the tension has been building along with driving a wedge between their friendship.  I was stuck in the middle with roommate 3.  We heard both sides of their arguments for months now, but neither one wanted to confront and communicate to the other face to face.  Finally roommate 3 had had enough and bringing them in the same room sat them down and told them they could not leave until this was fixed.  

Now this sounds a bit elementary, but it had come down to just that because of the lack of face to face communication.  If roommate 1 and 2 had talked to each other from the beginning the problem would not have snow balled into something bigger.  Because both parties had only survived on texting each for so long, instead of talking face to face, they grew comfortable there and became almost afraid to talk to the other one in person.  Why have some people worked themselves to a 'comfort zone' of communication via texting or messaging?

Think about how many times you call and talk to someone vs. texting, messaging , or emailing them.  The majority of people I think would prefer to text someone all day long, rather then call them and talk to them for an hour or two.  I am just as guilty as the next person, but where exactly should we draw the line and break through the breakdown?  How many of my fellow classmates would rather email their assigned food vendors then go and talk to them in person?  This summer I shadowed a PR rep from a local hospital and she told me how she is an 'email kind of girl.'  Meaning that she would rather email someone then talk on the phone them and if she did have to talk on the phone she would dread it.  I was shocked to discover that communicates for a living hated talking to someone on the phone.  I think this problem of face to face or even vocal communication is becoming a problem with the younger generation.  

No it is not completely a bad thing to have new technology that keeps the lag time between communication almost non existence.  Next time you go to text or message some think about the last time you heard their voice, in person or on the phone.  Communication breakdown has a very simple solution, its communication, good communication, and sometimes that requires using your voice not your fingers.