This Year's Bateman Case Study Team

Each year, the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) hosts the Bateman Case Study Competition, which provides college students across the country the opportunity to gain experience planning a comprehensive public relations campaign with a real-life client. The US Census Bureau was selected by PRSSA as the campaign client for this year’s competition.

Five AU public relations students participated as part of campaign team CountAUIn in this years competition. The campaign was dedicated to assisting the U.S. Census Bureau by working to ensure college students and other select publics understand the importance of completing the Census and how and when that is done. Given the importance of this initiative, the US Census was selected by PRSSA as the campaign client for this year’s competition. Given the importance of this initiative, the US Census was selected by PRSSA as the campaign client for this year’s competition.

Despite facing additional challenges due to the suspension of all face-to-face classes and activities, the Bateman Team remained dedicated to the goals of this year's campaign: to educate and engage.

The first public every Bateman team was tasked with understanding and reaching was undergraduate students at their academic institution. The second public, Ashland County Amish and Old Order Mennonite residents, were selected after careful research of the Ashland community.Team members conducted primary and secondary research to understand what these populations knew and did not know about the census and how to best reach each population with key messaging strategies. 

#CountAUIn coffee sleeves

To reach campaign objectives, a variety of tactics to engage AU students were utilized including coffee sleeve advertising, pledge cards, radio and newspaper articles, free promotional pens, tabling events, and an interactive and informational Instagram account. To reach the Amish and Old Order Mennonite population of Ashland County, a group without technology, the campaign utilized two-step theory to focus on building relationships with community opinion leaders, sending out informational letters to the houses of Amish and Old Order Mennonite residents living in Ashland County, and posting info-graphics about the census in community areas frequented by this public. 

The CountAUIn campaign met, and exceeded, the overarching goal as well as the specific objectives of the campaign due to strategic research, planning, careful execution of the strategies and tactics, and implementation of crisis management contingency planning due to the COVID-19 disruptions. The campaign reached 79% of the Amish and Old Order Mennonite population in Ashland, Ohio and 49% of the Ashland University’s undergraduate population with key messages and engagement opportunities. 

This was a yearlong project for these communication studies students; however, the campaign implementation dates were limited to March 1-20. Students will learn the results of the national competition from PRSSA by the end of April.

2020 AU Bateman Team Members

To learn even more about the work this year's AU Bateman Team has done, check out these (one, two) articles in AU's student newspaper, The Collegian! 

This year, the Communication Studies Department had to cancel its in-person Recognition Night, during which we highlight and celebrate the academic achievements of our students. Though we're unable to get everyone together in person, we're incredibly proud of our students' accomplishments and are shouting them from the roof- or blog-tops! Be sure to check back all week long to read about the other fantastic things our students have achieved this year!