PR Brain

November 15th, 2013

I love stepping outside of the classroom and experiencing things first hand, which is something this program has really afforded me so far. And it's not always during class time that my mind starts going and thinking about PR or communications; I recognize more and more how I notice things when I'm on the train or at the mall or watching the news. I start to look at things in day to day like with a 'PR brain'.

I definitely was able to put this 'PR' brain to work this week when we attended an event for Financial Literacy Month hosted by Money Mentors. We attended the event as a class since we are writing an integrated marketing plan for Money Mentors as one of our class assignments. Since events is a major component of our IMC plan, we thought it would be very useful to attend.

The event featured two guest speakers, Kelley Keehn and Bruce Sellery. Both have extensive backgrouds in financial management and banking. While their talks were both very interesting, we listened while considering the kind of events we would have for our plan, and how they differed from what we were attending. Again, the PR brain was in full action and thinking about what we would different or do the same. Based on what I know about targeting audiences and promoting and stressing key messages now, I approached the event from more of a research perspective than simply as a spectator there to learn or be entertained. And while I too was entertained and learned some new things about money that I hadn't considered before, for me the best part was putting to practice things I had learned and understanding how to apply them to something else. All in all, a successful day!