students drinking tea

February 19, 2013, by offcampus

PR Project Management – The Nottingham Advantage Award

Hello, my name is Zoe Baker and this is the first blog I have ever written.

I am a Graduate Trainee currently working in the Off-Campus Student Affairs department here at the University and as part of this role I have been given the responsibility to lead the Nottingham Advantage Award PR Project Management module.

When I was a student I completed the Nottingham Advantage Award scheme myself and took the following modules: Work experience, Skills for Employability and Introduction to Mentoring. However when Melanie, my manager, gave me the responsibility of leading this module I was both thrilled and disappointed. Thrilled that I was given the opportunity to run such a fun module and disappointed that I didn’t know about this module when I was doing the award. I guess I didn’t really know what PR was all about so instantly dismissed it justifying that it wasn’t for me. Now I think I may have been wrong.

This PR module gives students a taste for PR as well as the responsibility to run their very own campaign. They are given a key message, some key ideas, a £500 budget, a campaign launch date and are then left to their own devices to deliver their project.

This year 5 students interested in PR have been given the task to promote the benefits of good neighbourliness and to encourage students to meet and befriend their neighbours. This project aims to revitalise the ‘Make time for tea’ campaign our department already runs which encourages students to share a brew with their neighbours by giving them free tea bags to take round.

I gave them an idea which I had of giving out ‘introduction cards’ which students can simply fill in and post through their neighbours doors – an easier and more subtle way to start befriending neighbours. This idea evolved from my uneasiness of going round to my neighbour offering to make them tea but from my willingness to introduce myself by posting a hello through their doors. And thus, this new campaign was born.

Now the PR students have a lot of work to do in creating these cards from scratch, publicising this new campaign and launching it in Portland on 20th march.

There is also another catch; their campaign will be launched alongside Nottingham in Bloom, a year long campaign which aims to improve Nottingham with the beauty of its gardens. This year Nottingham in Bloom will be giving out strawberry plants to students for them to grow at home. Therefore, the PR students are asked to carry on the strawberry theme and link this in with their project.

So there it is – my first ever blog…done.

Look out for the weekly update from my PR students and I look forward to seeing you all on March 20th at the launch of their strawberry themed be-a-good-neighbour campaign!

P.S. There may be some eatable freebies on the day – so all the more reason to jot the date in your diaries now!

Posted in CampaignsNews