AU was chosen to participate in the Bateman Case Study Competition this year.

The Bateman Case Study is a national competition that gives students the opportunity to make and put into effect a public relations campaign.

The competition team is made up of five students majoring in public relations or communications: Seniors Kathleen Foster, Morgan Badenhop and Susanna Savage, and juniors Erin Staley and Katie Dailey.

Universities make teams of four or five students and they compete by running a campaign for the same client. This is put on by the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA).

The client is called With Purpose, whose goal is to give kids with cancer safe and effective treatment options.

Senior Susanna Savage, a public relations and strategic communication, health and risk communication and English triple major, said, “AU has had an active chapter of PRSSA on campus for quite some time, but has never participated in the Bateman Case Study Competition before. This is the first year that AU’s PRSSA has entered a team of students in the Bateman Case Study Competition.”

Savage explained how this campaign works.

“This year teams are developing a campaign on behalf of With Purpose, to bring awareness to the necessity of safe and effective treatment options for children with cancer in America,” Savage said. “After the campaigns are over, each team writes a case study about the campaign, describing the research that went into planning the campaign, how the campaign was implemented, and how the campaign met the team’s goals and objectives. Each Bateman team will submit their case study to be judged by a group of public relations professionals. Finally, three finalist teams will be selected to present their case studies in front of the judges in person.”

The AU team has not started their campaign yet, but Savage laid out what the team will do when the time comes.

“The Bateman team will carry out an original public relations campaign for With Purpose,” Savage said. “We’ll start with research into With Purpose and into our target audiences. Once we have a good foundation of research, we’ll use research insights to develop a campaign that will be effective in meeting the goals of With Purpose. We’ll implement that campaign, evaluate our success, and write our case study.”

Junior Katie Dailey is a triple major in health and risk communication, public relations and strategic communication and religion.

“The end goal of this campaign is not to win the competition, but to know that I have helped to make more people aware of the organization, With Purpose,” Dailey said. “The client has personally been affected by childhood cancer having lost a son to it. After our team spoke with her personally, I would be pleased just knowing that I could help her to bring awareness to her cause in Ashland, Ohio.”

Dues must be paid in order to be a part of PRSSA.

While the team has already been formed for this year, there may be a team forming next year, according to Dailey.

The campaign will run from Feb. 15 to March 15.