How to Create a PR Campaign Book

The final project of a public relations campaigns course often calls for the submission of a PR Campaign Book. This book is the “soup to nuts” plan for justifying, implementing and evaluating a public relations campaign for a real or fictitious “client.” To create a realistic campaign book in one semester, students must work as a team and divide all tasks or specialize in a specific area. The first requirement is to do what the professor says, so before you do anything, read the professors instructions. Beyond that, most campaign books have a few standard sections.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Research your organization or problem. Find out if and why a public relations campaign can improve the standing of your organization with its key publics. Read its annual report, search for articles about the organization and interview employees for information to write a situational analysis.

2. Identify the organization’s or person’s Unique Selling Point (USP).
   The Unique Selling Point is a term borrowed from marketing that is helpfully imported into public relations. It is the one thing the person or organization does or produces better than any other person or organization. No two successful people, products or services are redundant. If company A and company B produce an identical product, one produces it cheaper, closer to you, in better packaging, greener or in some way that makes it or the organization more desirable to a given public or market that another. This often can be found in the organization’s mission or vision statement.

3. Analyze the organization’s INTERNAL strengths and weaknesses.
   Think about the USP of the organization. Try to identify what is it within the organization that helps or hinders making it unique amongst its competitors. If the organization’s USP is that it produces an identical product more cheaply, to what is this factor attributable? Is it more efficient in the use of its resources? Does it have more buying power? Are its employees more productive? These are internal factors of the client.

4. Analyze the organizations EXTERNAL opportunities and threats.
   
   Think about the public sphere in which the person or organization operates. What, within that public sphere, could help or hinder the client? Is there a recession looming? If so, how might it affect the client? Is the client involved in anything currently considered socially undesirable, like marketing cigarettes or using animal fur? Is there federal legislation pending that might limit your client’s ability to reach its goals?

5. Conduct other research as resources allow. Primary research, such as survey data you collect, can be customized for your needs but often is too expensive and time consuming to produce. Secondary research, like information from the U.S. Census can help you identify and describe key publics.

6. Specify goals and objectives for the campaign. In this section, sum up the research and state the problem. Write objectives that are time bound, specific, measurable and focused upon what you want a key public or publics to think, feel or do by the end of the time frame: Within six months of launching the campaign, 20 percent of stockholders will know that Synergistic Energy Company is building a biomass conversion facility to cleanly augment energy production for Greenville, North Carolina.

7. Create strategies and tactics to reach objectives. Consider the full range of PR tools available including, but not limited to, press releases, press conferences, brochures, web site modifications, direct mail, or special events. Make sure you can justify the use of a particular medium. For instance, if your key public is stockholders, as in the objective above, you probably would not use outdoor advertising. Include timelines for rolling out the various campaign elements.

8. Compile the book. Start with a one-page executive summary, then a table of contents, then each of the sections listed above. Conclude with an overview and a discussion of how the campaign will be monitored and evaluated. Include bulky items, such as brochure examples and survey data, in appendices. Use tables and graphics to bring color and interest to the book throughout.