Full-Circle Moment for PR Campaign Students

Nine senior public relations students at San Diego State University launched their first campaign with the School of Journalism and Media Studies in January 2024. Students crafted a campaign dedicated to promoting diversity, inclusion and belonging within JMS.

With more than 1,500 hours of work put into the campaign, the team gained insight for what lies in their future careers. From the beginning, Dr. Kaye Sweetser, PHD APR+M, Fellow PRSA made it clear that the course simulates real world agency life and an actual campaign. Each team member was designated a specific role curated to their skills.

“As a team we grew a lot from this experience, both personally and professionally,” said Angelika Ayala-Lopez, campaign team member.

Eight weeks before the scheduled event, the team set to work on the RPIE process.

Beginning the research process with 13 in-depth interviews and 157 pre-event survey responses, the team gained understanding of the knowledge, awareness and sense of belonging within JMS.

Research was conducted to analyze the strengths and weaknesses within JMS. Through the data, the team found the importance of faculty participation, swag items and food to engage students at their in-person event.

“This campaign was built to empower students to voice their stories,” said Rodney Manford, the team’s research captain. “This would not have been possible without the valuable insights we received.”

With JMS’s reputation for having eye-catching graphics, the team curated limited edition swag items to highlight underrepresented voices and connect to the Generation Z audience.

“I had a lot of creative freedom within the design process,” said Vy Mai, the graphic designer for the team. “We spent weeks working together to perfect the design.”

Their budget of $3,000 went into purchasing the food and promotional materials for the initiative. These promotional materials included tote bags, stickers, mason jars, notebooks, messaging tags, A-frames and digital signs.

After establishing social media pillars that aligned with the message of the campaign, the team created content for JMS on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. Implementing trending sounds and unique content, they aimed to bring awareness to the lack of media representation. The social media content aimed to ensure the initiative would resonate with diverse storytellers beyond the in-person event.

After promoting the initiative to more than 45 classrooms, the team achieved their objective of increasing faculty engagement.

Word-of-mouth regarding Screening Circle saw a 7.14% increase by the end of March. Some downsides of the results proved to be the lower attendance numbers that directly correlated with the day and time of the event.

The campaign received internal coverage from the SDSU community through the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts and the school newspaper, The Daily Aztec. The public response to the campaign included 40 social media posts about the event from attendees.

“This capstone experience has taught us what it is like to work as a team within a public relations agency,” said team lead Dorothy Leppek. “I feel so grateful to have had the chance to work with my peers on this journey. I cannot wait to see the amazing things they do with their careers.”

This campaign brought awareness to the need for diversity in the media and JMS’s role in shaping the next generation of storytellers. It is time to challenge stereotypes in the media environment and disrupt the narrative.