(You Stingrays, you know what that means! Everyone else, I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to wonder.)
This is just a follow-up post to fill everyone on how our work on the ShopAuburn campaign went. We just did our presentation to our client today. It went AMAZINGLY well, and we’re all thrilled to have this huge project complete! We’ll get our final grade for it at the end of next week … but we’re feeling pretty good about it. It’s one of those projects that the grade shouldn’t be a surprise — we’ve gotten feedback along the way, so we sort of know where we stand. (I’ll try to remember to come back and let everyone know our final grade.)
Our 39-page campaign book seemed to magically appear near the end of the semester. We spent about 12 weeks meeting and working several nights and many hours a week … but I swear, none of that felt like work! I know we got things done (obviously), because we always turned our periodic assignments in on time and got top grades on them … but I don’t remember WORKING. I guess all that laughter in front of the computer translated well into our final project. 
Our recommendations for our client - which was the Auburn Chamber of Commerce, if you don’t know the background - were based on thorough research into the needs of our target public and other aspects, and included the following:
- Creating several avenues for improved communication and numerous feedback opportunities, including newsletter highlights and focus groups
- A “toolkit” of items to assist local businesses in their marketing efforts
- A Web site for the ShopAuburn program, complete with a special section for merchants where they can take advantage of various tips, tools, templates, guides
That’s a very brief overview, but all of these contribute to our ultimate goal of enabling businesses to take better advantage of the opportunities the ShopAuburn program has to offer. (Our target public was actually the chamber members, as opposed to the general Auburn community.)
So anyway, we wrote up the paper explaining all of our research, recommendations, schedule, budget, etc. and also provided a design for the Web site, the items for the toolkit, a brochure, and all other elements we suggested they use in the campaign. And today … we completed the final step: the presentation to the client.
Like I said, it went extremely well! We didn’t know what to make of it, because they didn’t have anything bad to say! (Yes, I’m gonna toot our own horn here — I’m really proud of our group!!) According to our clients, we apparently did “an outstanding job!” Correct me if I’m wrong guys, but didn’t I also hear a “phenomenal” in there? They enthusiastically endorsed all our ideas and — with rapidly nodding heads — declared that they’d be implementing our ideas not only in the ShopAuburn program, but in other Chamber programs, as well!! (Yippee!)
So “Bravo!” to my group. You guys were phenomenal to work with!
Update, May 7: On Friday, we received our final grade on the project (drum roll, please ….) we made an A!! And a high one at that! That grade was divided into three sections, and our final average on the project was a 97 out of a 100. So I made an A in the class — yippee!Â
8 responses so far ↓
1 Emily // Apr 25, 2006 at 11:42 pm
I do believe I heard a phenomenal in there! Yay for us! It was a lot of work, but definitely well worth all the stress in the end. Just think… it’s the end of our PR careers at Auburn (undergrad at least!)! I have to admit, now that we’re down to the final days of the year, I’m really sad! I’m ready to graduate, but I’m going to miss everything about Auburn! And, yes, that includes stressful PR classes! We did an amazing job on our campaign and I’m so proud of our work!!!
2 Emily // Apr 25, 2006 at 11:43 pm
OOOOYYYYYY!!!!!
3 Jennifer // Apr 26, 2006 at 1:01 am
Glad to read it went well.
I had a similar experience with the Chamber campaign I’m doing as part of my internship. Now, it’s just a matter of putting it in to action.
4 Michael Morton // Apr 26, 2006 at 12:52 pm
Congrats again! You seem to be having a great week.
If possible, I would like to hear more about your thorough research for the campaign.
5 Nikki // Apr 26, 2006 at 1:51 pm
UNITED STINGRAYS!
We had some good times, we had some even better times, and we had great times. I still think it’s hilarious that we all wrote on our evals that it was the best group we’ve ever been in! I can just hear us pleading with F-H now - “I promise that wasn’t planned, we’re just so in sync that we even think alike!”
Congrats on your new job, too! I am so proud of you!
6 Erin // Apr 30, 2006 at 4:25 pm
Thanks you guys! (Obviously, Nikki and Emily are two of my group members. ;-))
Jennifer - I’m interested to know more about how your campaign is going for your internship. We didn’t get to take part in the “putting it into action” part … just because we ran out of time in the semester (and it’s not really part of the class assignment). But that’s gotta be GREAT experience for you! I hope implementing your recommendations goes well!
Michael - Well, I started to respond to your question about research here … but it was getting really long! I started a new post and explained it there.
7 Jennifer // May 8, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Congratulations on the “A”! I wish we had fared better on our Campaign plan book back when I had the course. We only garnered an 81. A friend and I had busted our butts in our group to make sure the plan was good. We deserved more than an 81 … And, well, that’s all I’m gonna say about that before I get all ranty (if you know what I mean)!
8 Emily // May 17, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Just to brag on ShopAuburn a little more… I had an interview today (the first one of the job search), and the guy I interviewed with is in the process of putting together a marketing plan for his company. So, of course, I had to ask a million questions about research, target audience, tactics, and everything else you can imagine. And then I had to plug ShopAuburn as well as Forward! Needless to say, he was impressed! The interview was amazing and he things the United Stingrays are amazing as well!
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