February 26, 2014 jaytummi

Novel Media uses teamwork to conduct EBRPL research

When planning a campaign, perhaps the most exhausting—yet essential—part is the research process. Luckily, the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s Assistant Library Director Mary Stein provided us with a plethora of research materials; we had more than enough information to gain a better understanding of the library, its resources and its publics.

Image courtesy of http://nbca.library.unbc.ca

Any agency conducting a public relations campaign should express professional values and competencies, which includes engaging in research and a critical evaluation of its organization. Our team came up with a plan to evenly divide and conquer the components of the research report, and everybody contributed his or her part in order to complete a thorough research assessment for EBRPL. While it was initially challenging to get everybody on the same page and meet deadlines, we made sure help to each other as needed. Over communicating among ourselves and with our client allowed our team to work more effectively, as questions or concerns pop up when you least expect it. Our team’s GroupMe notifications were nonstop for the past week, but we successfully completed the research report draft of the final campaign book.

We also participated in another one of the professional values and competencies by critically evaluating our own work and the work of others. This week, each group member of Novel Media conducted peer evaluations. While grading your peers on the quality and quantity of their work can be difficult, it is important to get feedback on your own performance and learn how to improve. As students, it can be tough to create a campaign for a nonprofit from scratch (not to mention balancing an internship, a part-time job, extracurricular activities and a social life), but with Novel Media’s teamwork and efficiency, we always seem to pull it off. I am proud to be a member of such a wonderful team.

We are excited to get the ball rolling on the next part of our campaign: the beginning stages of event planning. The team has thrown around several ideas for events at client meetings with Mary, but we will need to narrow down many ideas to one if we want to create a detailed event plan in a timely manner. Two months is a brief time to research, plan and implement a campaign and event, but I know we can do it.

To learn more about the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, feel free to visit its social media profiles: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and YouTube.

Novel Media

February 19, 2014 novelmedia4005

Devising a research game plan for East Baton Rouge Parish Library

The opportunity to work with East Baton Rouge Parish Library has already been rewarding for Novel Media. As we continue to learn about our client, our agency has developed a passion for EBRPL that will help drive our campaign to success. Over the past few weeks, we have been reviewing secondary research and laying down a solid foundation for our campaign. One of our campaign’s primary goals will involve increasing awareness of the resources EBRPL offers to current library cardholders. Many of the library’s patrons are unacquainted with the diversity of resources they have at their disposal, so it will be our job to effectively communicate the benefits. Below is an EBRPL-directed video about CultureGrams, one of the many services the library provides to its cardholders for free.

On Monday, we met with Mary Stein for the second time to discuss a primary research strategy and potential event ideas. In order for our campaign goals to be met (and hopefully exceeded), we decided that conducting six focus groups at the new main library would help us to evaluate the general opinions, attitudes and patterns of current library cardholders over the age of 18. Because the majority of our team had never participated in or facilitated a focus group, developing a consent form for the Institutional Review Board (IRB) was a great learning experience. Upon receiving approval from the IRB, our next steps will be to schedule appropriate dates and times that will be convenient for both participants and Novel Media team members. We will encourage participation in the focus groups via EBRPL’s social media platforms and by creating fliers that will be distributed at EBRPL.

In addition, Novel Media will be organizing an event in April, which corresponds with National Library Week. Our event director, Stormy Good, will review the ideas we cultivated in our brainstorming session with Mary. The information we hope to gather from our focus groups will aid us in developing our “resource awareness” campaign messages for EBRPL, as well as narrowing down an appropriate theme for our campaign’s event.

Now that we have spent a significant amount of time learning about our client, we will begin to work on our campaign research report draft. This draft will include a client overview, a SWOT analysis, situation research exploration, a key publics breakdown, primary research information and an evaluation of media coverage.

While working with and researching our client, our agency has addressed many of the top 10 competencies employers look for. In addition to planning, we have prioritized, managed time wisely and expressed our creativity. Our creativity began the moment we started crafting our agency style guide and continues to flourish as we mature our brand. With less than three months to develop our campaign, we meet frequently to divide work and set deadlines. The deadlines are set to ensure work is completed in a timely manner and edited before being published. In the upcoming weeks we expect to tackle more of the competencies employers look for. We are excited to keep you updated on the progress of our campaign and our professional growth.

To learn more about the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, feel free to visit their social media profiles: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and YouTube.

Megan Senger
Novel Media strategy director  

Megan Senger is a mass communication senior at Louisiana State University. Connect with her on LinkedIn or send her an email at msenge1@lsu.edu.

February 12, 2014 novelmedia4005

Novel Media creates agency identity and establishes client relationship with East Baton Rouge Parish Library

In the world of public relations, it is crazy to see just how much gets done in a week. Since our last post, the members of Novel Media have been hard at work. We met with our client, developed our agency mission, created a logo and so much more. To see tangible results already being produced is quite rewarding, but it also serves as a reminder that we have a long way to go when it comes to executing our campaign.

Last Wednesday we met with Mary Stein, assistant director of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, and our point of contact for the semester. After a long meeting filled with research, SWOT analysis and goal discussion, we left the library with plenty of ideas. We had to put all of that excitement aside, however, so we could take a step back and focus on creating our agency’s style guide and in-class presentation.

Members of Novel Media meet with East Baton Rouge Parish Library
Assistant Director Mary Stein. Photo Credit: Mary Stein

Since our first agency meeting in class, we have been very fortunate to mesh well as a group. We support each other, provide constructive criticism and manage to have a few laughs in between. We also all agreed that Baton Rouge continues to thrive as both a city and community, and used this inspiration to help us develop our name. We felt that “novel” described the originality we wanted to represent; thus, the name Novel Media was born.

I think I can speak for our entire team when I say that mission statements are not easy to make. From the get-go, we knew what we wanted Novel Media to stand for, but we quickly realized how hard it is to condense several ideas in to a brief mission. After some research and discussion, we were able to create a mission statement that sums up everything we want Novel Media to embody:

With a fresh perspective on public relations, Novel Media strives to make our clients thought leaders in their respective industries and the local community by providing them with innovative and unique communication strategies and services.

We expanded on our mission when developing our logo design and overall agency brand. Under the expertise of Caroline, our design director, we were able to select a logo and color palette that we all loved. As you can see in the logo, we strategically included three dots to represent Novel Media’s three pillars: innovative, fresh and unique. While Caroline took the reins on the majority of design elements, the rest of our team took on the task of selecting our agency’s fonts for our published materials. (We might have enjoyed that a little too much.)

As for our next steps, we will be meeting with our client again next week to start formulating a detailed research plan and campaign strategy. We are so excited to take you on this journey with us and can’t wait to share every moment along the way.

To learn more about the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, feel free to visit their social media profiles: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and YouTube.

Cathy Juarez
Novel Media account liaison

Cathy Juarez is a public relations senior from New Orleans, La. Connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn, or email her at cjuare1@lsu.edu.

February 5, 2014 novelmedia4005

Service-learning expectations: Novel Media to bring engaging public relations strategies to East Baton Rouge Parish Library

Think for a moment about your favorite brand. What makes you purchase their product or service or support their cause? It’s probably because you find them original, trendy, knowledgeable or truthful. Their ability to communicate is captivating and makes others relate to the stories they’re telling. They maintain credibility and follow through on their word to ensure satisfaction to the highest degree.

Here at Novel Media, we strive to do just that for our clients and keep their brands innovative, fresh and unique in the eyes of their publics. We’re over-the-moon to be able to work with East Baton Rouge Parish Library this semester as a part of Dr. Jensen Moore-Copple’s service-learning, Public Relations Campaigns course.

Service-learning courses allow students to work with “real-world clients” in order to gain practical experience while in an academic setting. Service-learning goals and objectives include fostering an understanding of social issues and civic responsibilities in our community. Through reflective projects, class discussions and presentations, we will have developed a set of well-rounded skills to help prepare us for life after graduation.

Each Novel Media team member plays an integral part in the operation of our agency. Cathy Juarez, account liaison, serves as the primary contact with the client by setting up meetings, handling logistics and keeping meeting minutes. We have three strategy directors, David Jones, Megan Senger and Jayme Tumminello. All three will be working very closely together throughout the entirety of our campaign, coming up with our overall research and communication strategies to reach diverse audiences for EBRPL. Caroline Simpson, design director, is responsible for the look and feel of all campaign materials, as well as our agency style guide. Stormy Good, event director, will plan, organize, and implement all events within our campaign. Lastly, I bring up the rear as writing director, where I am primarily responsible for all written communication of the campaign, serving as final editor when necessary.

A peek into the new Main Library on Goodwood Boulevard.
Photo Courtesy of East Baton Rouge Parish Library.

When Mary Stein, assistant library director and our main point of contact, “pitched” EBRPL to our Public Relations Campaigns class, we could tell 2014 was going to be a big year for the nonprofit. In 2014 the library will celebrate its 75^th anniversary, as well as plan a grand opening celebration of its new Main Library on Goodwood Boulevard. We’re so excited to begin this journey with them and will meet with Mary this afternoon to obtain more background information and talk strategy. Stay tuned next week for a recap of our first official client meeting and an update on our agency’s personal brand development—logos design, mission statement, business cards and more.

Mallory Richardson
Novel Media writing director

Mallory Richardson is a mass communication senior at Louisiana State University. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn or send her an email at novelmedia4005@gmail.com.