May 2004

USC Bateman Team judged tops in the nation -- Again!
A second team places third

A student public relations team from the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications was selected best in the nation Friday in Detroit. It was USC's second victory in three years in the competition sponsored by the Public Relations Student Society of America. A second USC team placed third behind Loyola of New Orleans.

I'm so excited at the caliber of work the students produced, and our sending two teams to the finals is unprecedented in the 31-year history of the contest,” said Shirley Staples Carter, director of the school.

“This is like having two teams in the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament,“ Beth Dickey, faculty adviser said. View QuickTime Video slideshow.

About the competition ...
The Bateman competition is a national contest sponsored by the Public Relations Student Society of America and a client. This year the client was Ford Motor Credit, and the challenge was to develop a comprehensive educational campaign for 17-23 year olds explaining the importance of credit, what credit is, how to obtain it and how to protect it.

"All three of the finalists produced a high quality of work and exhibited the creative energy necessary to produce effective campaigns," said Ron Iori, vice president of Public Affairs for Ford Motor Credit Company. He added that the Red Carpet Group created a comprehensive campaign with measurable objectives that demonstrated how the knowledge and retention of the target audience improved.

The teams were not allowed to use Ford Credit’s name as they designed the curriculum and events to educate their target audience(s). Both teams created campaign books that included situation analyses, research, strategic objectives and tactics, special events, timelines, budgets, evaluations and appendices.

The winning teams competed in Detroit May 7 against each other and Loyola University of New Orleans. The teams began work on their campaign just prior to the start of the spring semester and delivered their final product March 26 to PRSSA headquarters in New York. They named themselves Palmetto Solutions and The Red Carpet Group.

The teams ...
The Red Carpet Group won first place in the competition.

From their presentation: “Our campaign, Credit Opens Doors, expands Ford’s current program and gives them the advantage over all other competition. As you will see throughout this presentation of our road to Detroit, our campaign, while interactive and engaging also connects with the community and minorities. It’s easily reproducible within Ford’s budget and will attract local media attention to give Ford a positive image in the community.”

Palmetto Solutions earned the third place award.

From their campaign book: “The Palmetto Solutions media plan can be compared to a series of concentric circles: grassroots efforts are at the center, followed by scholastic media, community media and mass communications. This organizational method allowed us to craft complementary target-specific messages while still maintaining a broad focus.”

Jeffrey Ranta is the professional adviser of the Bateman Team. Faculty adviser is Beth Dickey.

Quality of the students ...
The school decided to field three teams in the competition this year. “We had extraordinary applicants," said Beth Dickey. “We created three teams because we wanted these outstanding students all to have the Bateman experience."

Selection to a Bateman Team is highly competitive. Student resumes included: Three members of the ODK honorary fraternity, one is in ATO and one in Gold Key; a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an Eagle Scout, a Congressional Fellow, a USC Presidential Ambassador, a director of the Dance Marathon, a sorority president, a McNair Scholar, a Palmetto Fellow, a student member of the South Carolina and Southeast Outdoor Press Associations, a paramedic, a political party worker, members of the mountain climbing and women’s lacrosse teams, and a high school color guard instructor. Eighteen received scholarships. Most had experience with internships and jobs. One speaks fluent Italian, another Hindi, and one is from Nigeria.

One of the winning team members, Jacque Riley wrote in her application: “I’ve learned the theoretical framework for successful public relations campaigns. I’ve even seen some of these abstract notions put into practice during my internship. Now I am ready to step off the sidelines and, within a supportive team environment, apply some of the knowledge that I’ve spent the last three years accumulating.”

Jeff Ranta, a partner at The Other Agency and professional adviser to the teams added, “When we won (The Bateman Competition) two years ago, that was my first time out and we had a great stroke of beginner’s luck, not to mention quality students. We are making some superb account executives, media relations directors and event planners here. The end result of the Bateman program is a crop of highly trained, highly experienced, public relations professionals who will be a great asset to their future employers as well as students with something very proud and very special to look back on during their college career.”

Previous campaigns ...
Previous campaigns have included situations dealing with nuclear energy, the American Heart Association, international relations, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, SOLOBiz and Visa USA, Kontiki tours and Nutella.

A USC team placed first in 2002 (read more) and seven teams have won honorable mention
recognition.

The competition honors the late J. Carroll Bateman, a past president of both PRSA and International Public Relations Association. After a career as president of the Insurance Information Institute, he became professor of public relations at the University. He was instrumental in founding PRSSA during his PRSA presidency.