Assessment: PR Plan and ‘Pitch' Presentation for a Real-Life Client
Length: 2,500 - 3,000 words written (excluding references) | 15 minutes maximum presentation (including questions)
Task: For your major project, you will be required to produce a public relations plan for a real life organisation of your choice and present the plan to the class (role playing that your team is a consultancy, presenting your PR Plan ideas to the management team of your client). This is a two-part assignment: PR Plan and Presentation.
You may choose any organisation you like - business or non-business (not-for-profit), local or overseas. But it MUST be a real organisation. If you choose a large organisation, it may be sensible to focus on one aspect or division of its operations. Often, small organisations may be ideal as your ‘client' for this assignment.
Your key aim should be to show what public relations can do for the organisation and to make some practical recommendations for action. Imagine you are a PR consultant and this document is your first written submission for a new client (give your consultancy a name).
Obviously you will need to gather background information about the organisation. Ideally talk to people who work there in addition to examining as much other material as you can, e.g. website, brochures, sales literature, annual reports, advertisements, relevant newspaper and magazine articles, etc. If possible visit the organisation to interview key employees/stakeholders. Choosing a firm you have worked for is a good idea.
This project is broken down into two (2) sub-sections as follows:
2.1 Group Presentation to Class
You will imagine that you are a PR consultancy making a presentation to the relevant decision-makers in your chosen organisation. The rest of the class will take on the role of this management team. Your task is to present an overview of your situation analysis and recommendations in as attractive and persuasive a manner as possible. Think of this presentation as your consultancy's competitive ‘pitch' aimed at securing appointment as PR advisers to your chosen organisation.
All groups will need to produce a one-page background briefing on your chosen organisation for distribution to the class the week before presentations commence. Your tutor will confirm this date. This is to enable other members of the class to familiarise themselves with the company.
As you will not have completed your written submission at the time of making your presentation, it is not expected that you will be able to put forward full details of your final recommendations. However, it is expected that you will have a clear grasp of the situation facing the organisation and be able to provide a coherent summary of your key recommendations.
Your ability to handle questions will be part of the assessment so ensure you leave enough time for them. Feedback obtained from the class presentation should be incorporated into the final written submission.
If you have an issue regarding working together as a group, please ensure all members of your group (if possible) speak to your Lecturer as soon as possible.
2.2 Final Written PR Program Plan
Length: 2,500 - 3,000 words
More guidance on preparing a public relations program will be given in class. However, here are a few headings for you to think about. Your program should be presented in business report format.
Successful campaigns will be easy to understand, simple to implement, comprise measurable objectives and be of significant interest and relevance to the target audience. Upon completion, your team will submit to your tutor / local lecturer a written PR Plan in class and via Turnitin of 2,500-3,000 words (approx. 15 pages), not including tables and the appendix, and in a font size and type of your choice.
Your PR Plan will comprise the following sections:
2.2.1 Executive summary
2.2.2 Contents Page
2.2.3 Introduction
2.2.4 Research and development
2.2.5 Situational analysis
2.2.6 Goals and objectives
2.2.7 Key target publics
2.2.8 Strategy
2.2.9 Tactics
2.2.10 Timeline
2.2.11 Budget
2.2.12 Evaluation
Content descriptions:
2.2.1 Executive summary
The executive summary is a summary of your entire campaign report and is specifically written for executives who are too busy to read the all the report. It is placed at the beginning of the report, informs the reader of all pertinent content, is about ten per cent the length of your report, and written last. An executive summary is neither a glorified contents page nor an introduction to the subject. Imagine you are explaining your report to a friend or workplace colleague - this précis is your executive summary.
2.2.2 Contents Page
The contents page should neatly list each section and sub-sections. Place in a table format and consider hiding the lines. Page numbers in the contents page should link with the correct section. Ensure your document has page numbering, the campaign title and consultancy name on each sheet.
2.2.3 Introduction
The introduction ‘introduces' the reader to the client organisation and campaign. It may detail the organisation's history, vision, mission and values. It should excite and engage the reader and be about one page.
2.2.4 Research and development
The research and development section will include primary and secondary research you have conducted on the organisation, the industry in which it operates, and proposed campaign objectives. This will include an audit of existing materials on the topic and client. You may detail qualitative and quantitative findings that relate to the subject and industry. This section will be one to two pages.
2.2.5 Situational analysis
What problems and opportunities does the organisation face from a PR/communication perspective following your R&D. A situational analysis refers to the collection, evaluation and documentation of information that assists decision makers to effectively assess a situation and devise an appropriate and workable strategy. It is the ‘where are we now and where do we want to be'. It is the examination of the internal strengths (S), weaknesses (W), external opportunities (O), and threats (T) affecting the organisation (SWOT analysis). It also involves an assessment of political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors affecting the organisation and the industry in which it operates (PESTLE analysis). A situation analysis assists in the identification of real and valid problems. Risks also need to be documented.
2.2.6 Goals and objectives
What is your program intended to achieve? This section includes descriptive and clear goals and objectives which will be easier to document once you have completed the research and situational analysis sections. Goals refer to overall long-term aims and are usually qualitative (e.g. Improve client's reputation in local community). Objectives are smaller, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART) steps required to move towards the achievement of goals. Consider including both outcome (e.g.raise awareness of issue by 15% within 12 months) and process objectives (issue four media releases per month).
2.2.7 Key Target Publics
It is essential to identify clearly the relevant publics or stakeholders and to justify your selection. The target audiences need to be described in detail and in a format that make sense to the client. Include primary and secondary audiences. You may like to present this information in a table and combine it with a message strategy - and possibly with a target media section if your strategy and tactics rely heavily on media relations.
2.2.8 Strategy
Key themes/messages/broad channels of communication - an overview of how you intend to achieve your goals and objectives.
Message strategy ~ key message/s (optional)
The message strategy includes a succinct narrative of the key overriding message and separate individual messages pitched at each target audience group. Sometimes a campaign may only have one key message pitched to all target audience groups. All key messages need to be complementary, easy to remember and reinforce the organisation's vision, mission and values. Visuals used also need to support the key messages. You may consider combining this section with the next one on target audiences.
2.2.9 Tactics
Tactics linked to each strategy. Highlight the major PR tasks/activities you recommend together with a brief outline of how they would be carried out and give an indication of the proposed timescale. (The seminar topics in your weekly program calendar in the unit outline may be a good starting point for discussions in your group meetings.)
2.2.10 Timeline
The timeline should be a graphical representation of when each event is to take place. You may like to use a Gannt or PERT chart. Ideally this information should be one page and act as a quick reference guide.
2.2.11 Budget
In your budget include full details of administrative and program costs. While teams are encouraged to include budgets that adhere to accounting principles, it is not considered essential in this unit.
You are NOT expected to attach an exact dollar cost to the activities you recommend. But you should demonstrate an understanding of what items in your program would need to be costed and present this information in an appropriate manner.
2.2.12 Evaluation
Highlight how you intend to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Evaluation is to measure the achievement of the campaign objectives by the use of pre and post-test design. If you don't have SMART objectives in the first place (refer 2.6), you can't evaluate the program (SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely). In this section describe how each objective will be measured.
If you have any extra documents that relate to your strategy and are not considered essential, place them in an appendix and ensure you include an appendix item in the contents' page.
It is important for your group to meet regularly and to work together in creating and producing the PR Plan. Please refrain from completing separate sections because the final exam requires each of you to understand all areas of a PR Plan. Your consultancy team is expected to keep an up-to-date attendance logbook of all group meetings, including face-to-face, telephone and online and this should be attached to your final report. The peer review form may also be considered when group strategies are marked. Each group member is also to upload the consultancy's PR Plan to Turnitin before the deadline.