Question: MCH8060 STRATEGIES AND MANAGEMENT IN PR ASSESSMENT: Whether an effective communication plan is necessary for organizations to cover from a crisis and protect their reputation?

Whether an effective communication plan is necessary for organizations tocover from a crisis and protect their reputation?

PR Campaign Review (50%)

Assessment brief: 

In her book, Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns, Anne Gregory states: “A good reputation is not something that is earned overnight. It has to be carefully and considerately cultivated. It is something that is earned over a period of time as understanding and support develop for an organisation.” (p5. of 4^th edition).

Using both theoretical and practical analysis, write a report for your CEO which takes a clear position on Gregory’s statement. Your report must be based on a comparative analysis of two PR campaigns from 2022 (see list below) and use the SOSTAC planning model as its foundation (https://prsmith.org/sostac/ ).

The report must provide a comparative analysis of both cases, evaluating their effectiveness and offering relevant recommendations.

Guidance notes for the campaign review:

The campaign review must be written as a client facing document (see examples on Canvas) with clear sections and sub-headings and should include screen shots of earned, shared and owned media to illustrate and support your discussion.

Please note that screenshots (including text) are not included in the word count, but you need to make sure any visual evidence you provide is readable and clearly explained or translated into English.

For the purpose of your analysis, you must select ONE of the following options for your review:

1. Air BnB Ukraine campaign AND Penguin Random House: The Unburnable book

 https://www.airbnb.org/help-ukraine (AIR BnB)

https://unburnablebook.com/ (Penguin)

2. IKEA Seedball AND Lego’s MRI scanner models

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ikea-seedballs-37073128 (IKEA)

https://learningthroughplay.com/lego-mri-scanner-models/press (LEGO)

3.  Birds Eye’s ‘Welcome To The Plant Age’ AND Mars: removing Bounty from Celebrations

https://www.green-cuisine.com/en-gb/  (Bird’s Eye)

https://gbr.mars.com/news-and-stories/press-releases/mars-bars-bounty (Mars)

You cannot select organisations that are not included in the list.

• As well as the links above, your research should include a range of paid, owned, shared and earned media. Remember, that earned media can be positive and negative and using earned media will help to critically evaluate the campaigns
• Use library newspaper databases (e.g. Lexis via https://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/
  news/current (Links to an external site.)), Google search and social media channels to research your case studies.
• Write in business English using standard sections, in active voice, in 12-point on 1.5 line spacing in Arial.
• For more guidance on writing a report, see Cottrell, S. (2013) The study skills handbook. 4^th Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 357-363.
• There will be a 5-mark reduction for exceeding the ‘range of the word-limit plus or minus 5%’, i.e. word count of the report must fall between 1900 and 2100 words.
• An academic reference list in Harvard style is required (not included in your word count), but please use footnotes for any in-text references as this is an industry-facing report.

Suggested report outline:

1. Title – indicating who has written the report (DO NOT USE YOUR REAL NAME DUE TO ASSESSMENT ANONYMITY)
   • Who the report is written for
   • The title of the report
   • The date
2. Introduction
   • explain the background of the campaign
   • take a position on the Gregory statement and briefly explain how your report will reach that view
3. Main body – to include both ANALYSIS (not just description) of both campaigns from both a theoretical and practical perspective
   • Use the SOSTAC planning model as the foundation for your analysis
   • Critically analyse the campaigns and support with theories covered on the PR programme, for example, Grunig and Hunt; Moloney; Jefkins; PESO model; Sheldrake etc
   • This means you should be able to assess whether the campaigns support or go against key PR theories and concepts
   • Apply those theories to your two cases rather than have separate sections on theory and practice – higher marks will integrate theory and practice together. 
   • Consider how the campaigns have incorporated elements of SOSTAC into their planning and delivery – do not just describe what happened. 

4. Summary, evaluation, and recommendations - Identify which campaign you think is better (or more effective) and say why. Use evidence to support your view
   • Make recommendations as to how the campaigns could be improved
   • Make sure this section includes your clear stance on Gregory’s statement

Assessment criteria

Your review will be marked using the taught postgraduate assessment criteria (please see template at the end of the MCH8060 Module Handbook). Within those criteria, your reviews will be marked broadly in terms of:

• Knowledge and understanding – how well you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of key concepts relating to public relations and communications. We will also assess how these ideas can be applied in practical contexts
• Research and use of evidence – your ability to research the case studies, drawing together a range of secondary sources across PESO media channels and to clearly apply these to your analysis
• Argument and critical analysis - here we are looking to see how well you make your arguments to link the cases to key theories and frameworks. Make coherent arguments, linked to evidence, to draw conclusions and recommendations.
• Organisation and presentation of content - you are writing a client-facing report, therefore, here you will be assessed on the structure of the report, its clarity, consistency and accuracy
• Professional presentation and acknowledgement of sources; fluency and clarity of expression – this assesses your presentation and acknowledgement of sources, as well as your written language skills

Your review will be marked by members of the PR teaching team and we aim to return your marks by April 21. The assessment is worth 50% of the module mark and therefore, you will only need to resit the module IF your overall mark for both assessments is below 50%

Support for this assessment

• Revisit the MCH8060 seminar from week 1 and the Small Talk Saves Lives campaign, when we analysed this campaign using SOSTAC. This will help you to plan your review.
• A discussion forum on Canvas will open in early March and run until submission, to answer any questions you may have. Please check the discussion forum before contacting teaching staff and post any questions you may have in the discussion thread.
• Assessment surgery in week 5. You will also have the opportunity to discuss the assessment in your group seminars in Week 5. You can also book a meeting with your group tutor within their office hours.

https://apaxresearchers.com/storage/files/2023/03/27/9667-x4c_21_10_15_sample-2merit.pdf