Every good public relations girl knows after doing research and developing objectives for a PR campaign, the time has come to begin the programming stage of the ROPES process.
Through our extensive research of East Baton Rouge Parish Library, the members of Sweet Southern Public Relations came to the conclusion that the library is in need of an awareness and acceptance campaign. We specifically want to inform our publics of the modern technologies the library has to offer. Unfortunately, many people have a distorted image of what the library is today. We believe if people were informed about the contemporary resources the library offers, they would be more inclined to use their local library. Lucky for us, a state of the art, LEED certified Main Library is currently underway and set to open in early 2014. We were faced with an important question: How can we successfully communicate all that the library has to offer to our publics using the new Main Library?
Brainstorming
We met Monday with our team to begin quite an exciting brainstorming process. Account Liaison Hailey Vincent did her research on brainstorming techniques to help our team get a clearer image of the message we want to move forward with. Who knew brainstorming could be so fun?
Not only was our brainstorming session effective, but it also allowed us to apply the concepts of ROPES, which we learned in previous mass communication courses. The brainstorming process provided us with an opportunity to think critically, creatively and independently and critically evaluate our own work and the work of others.
We each received a stack of sticky notes to begin the process. We went through seven-minute rounds in which we wrote down ideas (one on each sticky note) and stuck them to a wall. After each round, Hailey read the notes aloud and grouped them into categories based on their similarities. After several rounds, each of us went to every wall, picked out our four favorite ideas and stuck them to a new wall to narrow down our ideas.
It seemed that many of us had similar themes and words in mind. The concept of the library being a progressive and evolving place that grows with technology and gives people the opportunity to grow was one theme that resonated well with us. Several ideas were plays on words such as “turn a new page” and “start a new chapter.” Another popular idea was “discover you 2.0,” which would be centered on the idea that people could better themselves in any way imaginable at the library.
We knew we wanted our strategy to convey that the library offers more than books, is progressive and has something for everyone. But, how do you say all of this as concisely as possible, and how do you do it without “dissing” the books? After all, a vast book collection is still a major part of EBRPL.
After much discussion and several elimination processes, we were able to convey these ideas in what will become the theme or slogan for our entire campaign:
Beyond the books
discover.access.evolve
“Beyond the books” will be the theme of our campaign to promote awareness of EBRPL and the words discover, access and evolve will be used as a tagline in our deliverables. We ultimately felt that “beyond the books” is a simple phrase that will send a clear message to our publics that while the library still focuses on books, it offers much more. The words in the tagline help to further that idea in a concise manner.
Our brainstorming session was a success. We developed an overarching theme to our campaign and became closer to reaching our course learning outcomes and professional values and competencies. We hope to see this strategy reach our publics and spark their interest in EBRPL.
Stay in touch with Sweet Southern PR,
Maggie Robert
Maggie Robert is a mass communication senior from Covington, La. Follow her on Twitter or check out her work at maggierobert.weebly.com.
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