Public Relations Highlights
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

The primary goal of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies’ public relations office is to create and maintain a favorable environment for student and faculty recruitment, private giving and public funding by raising awareness of the college and its accomplishments among essential elements and constituencies. The office advocates the use of planned and purposeful marketing communication ideas, strategies and tactics. Ronni French coordinates media relations activities for the college.

2002 Overall Institutional Relations Program

The Echols Group, first hired in 2001 to provide marketing and public relations expertise, and to write and produce our publications, continued their work for the Andrew Young School in 2002. Publications included The Briefing, Viewbook, Experts Guide, and various brochures used for recruiting. This team did an excellent job in its first year. This year we created an internal team to work with the Echols Group to further enhance our efforts to reach our alumni, supporters, and the community at large. This internal team, Cynthia Blasdell, Avani Ravel, Ronni French and Bob Moore within the college, and Beth Flanagan from University Relations, worked together throughout the year, resulting in excellent exposure for the college in a variety of mediums.

We are continuing our efforts to create a brand for the Andrew Young School. At every opportunity we have used a consistent message and image in our communications efforts.

Publications

The Briefing: Three issues of The Briefing were published this year. The Winter 2002 Briefing was 16 pages long, the Spring/Summer issue was expanded to 20 pages, and the 2002 Research issue of the Briefing contained 26 pages of information about the research efforts ongoing in the college. Strong writing skills, excellent design, coupled with outstanding cooperation and participation within the college have raised The Briefing to a new level of excellence. We continue to receive accolades for this publication.

The Viewbook: Shortly after the college was created in 1997, the Viewbook was created to introduce the college to the community and to be used as a recruitment and development tool. This year, a new Viewbook was designed and printed, with information about all of the programs within the college, highlights of several important events, and featuring key members of our Board of Advisors.

Dean’s E-News: Robin Steinbrenner, Associate to the Dean, compiled and produced several issues of the Dean’s E-news, an electronic newsletter for faculty, staff and our Board of Advisors.

The 2001 Annual Report: Cynthia Blasdell coordinated the development of the 2001 Annual Report, working with faculty and staff throughout the college to compile a list of activities and accomplishments for the year.

Advertising:

• Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Conference Program and Pre-program.
• Public Administration Times
• American Society for Public Administration, Education Supplement
• Atlanta Business Chronicle, Education Issue
• Georgia Trend Magazine: Education Issue
• Georgia Public Radio: 13 week series of ads, reaching 90 percent of the state. There were nine 15-second spots weekly on such programs as Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Georgia Gazette, and the Weekend Edition. The ads were produced by Georgia Public Radio.
• Georgia Public Television: In November, The Andrew Young School sponsored the GPTV program, "The Carters, A Conversation," seen nation-wide. The college bought 15-second spots for each of the 8 broadcasts of the program.

Marketing/Promotional Materials:

• Photo Wall Display in lobby – updated as events take place
• Photography
• Web site – we continually update and add to our web site

Special Events

Leading off the year, the University’s Legislative Leadership Appreciation Night in January allowed us to showcase two of our programs which provide valuable resources and assistance across the state: our Water Policy Program and our Health Policy Program. As always, our display booth was a popular spot for legislators and their staffs. In April, we again hosted our Honors Day program. Because of the great popularity of this event, we moved from the Commerce Club to the Ballroom at the Student Center, allowing an additional 100 people to attend. In addition to faculty, staff and students, the event was attended by parents, board members, donors and community leaders. In September, we hosted a seminar on the Aftermath of September 11th, and its future implications. Three of our faculty, William Waugh, Rick Charles, and Kelly Edmiston, made presentations and fielded questions from the audience and media in attendance. In October, we co-sponsored for the second year the Coca-Cola Student Leadership Conference for high school students.

Media Relations

As always, our faculty, staff and researchers are in great demand by the media on the local, state and national scene. A number of important research projects this year led to an increased number of interviews and requests for information from the media. Lee Echols also arranged interviews and editorial board sessions to further expose the media to the Andrew Young School and its resources.