The Loyola Bateman Team wants New Orleans to be Down For The Count.
The Bateman team, made up of public relations students, participates each year in the Bateman Case Study Competition, the national competition sponsored by the Public Relations Student Society of America.
As part of the competition, students put together a campaign for an organization.
This year, the client was the U.S. Census Bureau. For the competition, Loyola’s Bateman team came up with the theme of “Down for the Count”.
According to their press release, Down for the Count aimed to “educate, motivate and activate the hard-to-reach” audiences in New Orleans, such as college students and the Latino and Vietnamese communities, about the importance of the Census.
“The 2010 Census is important for everyone in the New Orleans area because it determines the amount of funding and representation (in congress) for our city,” said Kate Gremillion, Bateman Team member and mass communication sophomore.
The team partnered with several organizations including the Vietnamese Young Leaders Association, Hispanic Apostolate, The Boot, Fresco’s Café and Touro Infirmary to help spread the message of the importance of the 2010 Census.
The team also held several events to raise money for organizations like the Vietnamese Young Leaders Association and Hispanic Apostolate that work with hard-to-reach communities, since bilingual forms will not be available in New Orleans.
Patrons at Fresco’s Café were able to contribute to the Vietnamese Young Leaders Association by mentioning the campaign Feb. 22.
In addition, the team held the Down for the Count’s Night at The Boot Feb. 24, which included a raffle to raise money for the Hispanic Apostolate.
As part of their campaign, the Bateman team also “lectured in classes and went to the Loyola Hive night” to educate college students about the Census, according to Gremillion.
The team worked to dispel misconceptions about the Census among hard-to-reach audiences.
Many college students surveyed, for example, thought the Census was too long and that their parents fill out the Census form for them, according to the Down for the Count press release.
“Our main message for the college audience is that they are responsible for filling out the 2010 Census for themselves. This guarantees that funding for education goes to the correct place. For instance, if you attend Loyola, funding for your education should go to New Orleans,” Gremillion said.
The team also worked to dispel the notion that U.S. citizenship was required to complete the Census form.
“We focused on addressing multiple concerns of our Latino audience, and directed them to 2010 Census assistance centers for help,” Gremillion said.
Now that campaigning is done, the Bateman Team is preparing its 100 plus-page book to mail to the competition by the end of March.
After campaigning throughout February, the Bateman Team is preparing its campaign book for the national PRSSA office to review. The campaign book will summarize the team’s research, planning, objectives, tactics, and evaluation of the campaign, saccording to Down for the Count’s account executive, Christine Minero, an English literature and public relations senior.
PRSSA reviews every participating chapter’s campaign book and selects three teams to present their campaign before the judges from Census Bureau and Public Relations Society of America.
Zainab Aziz can be reached at [email protected]
