A Look Into My Very First PR Campaign
⌛ By Kaylin R. Staten ⌛
In 2009-2010, I was a senior at Marshall University in the throes of my first-ever public relations campaign.
While overwhelming and stressful at times, I can say that I enjoyed every minute of it. Along with my fellow students, I learned how to craft a campaign from start to finish, raising more than $10,000 for a local nonprofit organization along the way.
We coined our campaign Helping Hungry Hearts, which encompassed the Outrunning Hunger 5K Walk/Run, two penny drives, a click campaign, and other small initiatives to help us reach our goals and objectives. At the core, we wanted to raise at least $10,000 and increase awareness for hunger in our area and for the Huntington Area Food Bank (now Facing Hunger Foodbank).
I keep the portfolio on a shelf in my office and still refer to it as needed, even all of these years later! Here is a sample of some of our work, which I am still SO PROUD of 10 years later!
Here are four nuggets of wisdom I learned during my first public relations campaign that still influence my career today:
Media relations is one of my favorite aspects of PR.
I served as the media relations co-chair during this campaign, and I cultivated a love for forging relationships with the media and other publics. While media relations has changed in the past decade, it’s still vital to know your local, state, regional, and national media representatives. In this ever-changing world, you still need to maintain the human connection in order to elevate your messages. If you expect the media to come knocking on your door with a story idea, then you are gravely mistaken. While this does happen and has occurred throughout my career, you have to prepare press releases, media advisories, media kits, fact sheets, and other items. I’ve always liked to say that I like to hand over materials on a silver platter to make it easier for people. The more you hand over, the more your messages will be heard exactly like you communicated them. To this day, media relations is one of my most cultivated and loved aspects of public relations.
Having a strong brand means everything.
The creative team did a great job bringing our vision and mission statements to life. We used a blend of blue and green with various Hs to brand the Helping Hungry Hearts campaign. This is a color scheme that has aged well and was also used in the organization’s future marketing endeavors -- even after our campaign ended. Each collateral item complemented one another, giving our events and other initiatives a cohesive, united front. And I’m not trying to brag, BUT our creative team members constructed each item in Adobe Creative Suite. Since then, so many shortcut software programs have been added to our repertoires, which is good but also makes us complacent with design. They did all of this work from scratch without the use of programs like Canva. This campaign taught me that you cannot be too detail-oriented and integrated. While 2009-2010 was an entirely different time, we used print, online, audio, and video components to tell the food bank’s story. We developed an integrated communications campaign far ahead of the curve, and I am thankful for that experience and proud of our award-winning campaign!
Here are some examples of the items we used that are still used today:
Separate webpage with links to our social media accounts, news coverage, sponsor logos
Online and print registration forms for the 5K
T-shirts (which I still wear to this day!)
Table-top tents
Promotional posters
Letterheads
Social media graphics
Brochure to supplement the Huntington Area Food Bank one
Photos to accompany feature stories, social media posts, etc.
You will work with all kinds of people.
One of the reasons I think “The Office” is so relatable is because we have all known each of those characters in the workplace. I feel like any campaign is a wondrous case study into the psychological elements of public relations. I began to realize that internal communications is just as vital -- if not more so -- than external communications. If you don’t have a strong team, then you won’t find your projected levels of success. I feel like the human element can be some of the most stressful aspects of effectively collaborating on a project or campaign, and this was a deep-dive lesson into the real world. You will encounter the natural leaders, control freaks, slackers, gossips, yes-men and yes-women, and every other personality mixture under the sun. I learned a lot about myself during this student-led campaign, and it’s been a surreal journey to see how much I have changed over the years but haven’t changed in other ways. This foray into a pack of wild wolves really helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses individually and in a group setting.
Show your work.
You could do the best job you and your clients have ever imagined, but if you don’t show your work, your efforts could be in vain. When we compiled the portfolio 10 years ago, I still didn’t fully grasp the importance of evaluation. While some campaigns and projects may not involve in-depth analyses throughout the RPIE process, you will have to justify some decisions and statistics at various points in your career. There will be times in which you’re asked hard questions, and if you’re the head PR/marketing director or are the CEO of your own company, then you have to be prepared with answers to back up your work. At the minimum, collect analytics, write a report, and schedule a meeting with the powers that be. These conversations will guide you in your communications and business goals and objectives for a specific timeframe. Plus, actions speak louder than words.
Kaylin R. Staten, APR, is an award-winning, accredited public relations practitioner and writer based in Huntington, WV with 18 years of professional communications experience. As CEO and founder of Hourglass Media, she uses her compassionate spirit and expertise to delve into the heart of clients’ stories. She is a recovering perfectionist, mental health advocate, wife, Luke’s mom, cat mom, and Leia Organa aficionado. Connect with Kaylin on LinkedIn.