To say the last four months has truly been one of the busiest (and most rewarding) times in my professional career would be an understatement.
Lots of brainstorming, team meetings, and event planning sessions all were part of my schedule for this semester.
It has truly been one fabulous journey!
I have to admit, I probably consumed more coffee this semester than any other semester before. I lost track at times how many ounces of coffee I was having and there were times where I was running from place to place! 🙂
However, it was all worth it. I’d do this all again in a heartbeat!
That’s what makes FrebergPR and the experience I had with these amazing students and clients so special, and will be a class I will always remember.
FrebergPR was more than just a class for credit. It was a vibrant community of rising thought leaders coming together to brainstorm ideas, perspectives, and take initiative in a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I have written about Breeders’ Cup many times over the past few months, and I am still amazed and thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with them.
Our last class featured two presentations from the class about what they found during their semester long project in creating a strategic PR plan. This was one aspect they had to do for the class.
What were some of the other factors that made this successful? This was truly a team effort with a lot of people who have been instrumental in providing us this incredible experience!
Support of professionals as guest speakers. We had the chance to have several leading voices and thought leaders come to our class in person and virtually to speak to FrebergPR. Dennis Yu, who is one of the best people out there in the business for analytics and measurement, flew out to Louisville JUST for this class! WOW!
Leo Morejon shared his experience in the industry and working on iconic campaigns with Oreo (amazing!) and Melissa Agnes shared her crisis ready practices for the students so they were prepared for what they could face in the PR industry. Thank you all so much! It’s truly wonderful to have professionals take time out to help and mentor the future generation of professionals. Thank you all!
Applying tools for research and insights. With such a big client and opportunity to work with a brand like Breeders’ Cup, you have to have the right tools for the job. The right tools for not just creating content, but analyzing the content and be able to talk about the strategic implications this has for the future of the brand and their community.
I have to thank the following brands and professionals for allowing us to be able to analyze, review, and apply their insights into our reports. Major thanks to Talkwalker, Zoomph, and Delmondo for their support!
We were able to other tools and platforms for education purposes and certifications. Major thanks to HubSpot, Stukent, and Hootsuite!
Thank you to all of these brands for your support of our class! Can’t thank you enough!
Testing out new tools for storytelling. One of the new featured requirements I had the students do for this final PR plan was to create a “visual element.” At the beginning of the semester, I gave the students the option of choosing what they wanted to do. What changed the game for my class was the launch of Adobe Premiere Rush, which I was able to access when it was in beta. This was a perfect tool for video editing on the go, and create videos to be immediately shared to social.
Here are the group’s presentations using Adobe Rush:
As I was sharing with the team at Adobe Rush on a conference call what my students were going to do for the Breeders’ Cup – they were like – we want to see this. I was thinking – cool! I’ll make sure to share the videos with the team!
What happened next was EPIC. Not only did Adobe want to see the final presentations, they wanted to do this in person. Andrea and Patrick, two wonderful members of the Adobe team, flew out from California to Kentucky to 1) meet with the students in the class to talk about Rush, 2) meet with faculty on campus about storytelling and content creation, and 3) come to the final presentations and host a pizza party for the class.
The students were able to share their stories and experiences from using Adobe programs and tools not just from this class, but for their internships.
This is again one of the reasons why I truly, truly LOVE Adobe as a brand and community! They go beyond what is expected to truly make a difference in the lives of our students.Â
Amazing clients. This could have not happened without the support of Shona and Kaitlin. Thank you both for this amazing opportunity and allowing us to work with you these past few months.
Special thanks to Bryan for getting us some incredible media access (wow!) and to Joey Wagner for making this initial connection. This truly has been a once in a lifetime experience here for my students at the University of Louisville.
One of a kind class with incredible students. I am going to take a moment now to talk about my class – the 15 students who made this class special. These are some of the hardest working and most dedicated students I have had in class during my time as a professor, and I have been teaching for 10 years now.
These students did it all for this class. Content creation. Certifications. Listening and monitoring. Run of show planning and execution. Influencer marketing. Analytics. Client relations. Influencer relations.
Other things the students did that impressed me:
- They did this in a span of four months along with taking on full loads of classes, working full time, doing internships, and in some cases – taking comprehensive exams for graduate school.
- They put forth the extra hours outside of class for this project. I talked to the class about how this course really should be 6 or even more credit units for the amount of writing, projects, and work they were all doing.
- They volunteered to do extra work to get the experience. Our influencer project was something the students had ONE month to plan, execute, and evaluate. This alone could have been a huge final project. This was ONE of the FIVE events they did.
- They sat down to learn Adobe Rush – a new video editing platform – and some students never had any video editing experiences.
Why am I making a big point about this? It’s because UofL students are indeed a rising and special group of future professionals. Their dedication, work ethic, commitment, and innovativeness are some characteristics I have not seen in other programs – even those that list themselves as being “top programs” with an established reputation.
Another thing that is unique is the fact that each student comes in from a different background and voice – which is very refreshing to see. Most of the time, you see students come through programs in a “cookie cutter shape” where they are all the same and think alike. This is not the case here for UofL. In fact, that’s what brands and companies are looking for are new fresh perspectives, ideas, and experiences. This was something that was highlighted by our guest speakers in our class, as well as Patrick and Andrea from Adobe.
I am very proud of each of these students. They have shown great commitment this semester and it was an absolute pleasure and honor being their professor.
Brands, agencies, and other professionals: If you are looking to hire professionals for internships or jobs, you have my 100% full support and endorsement for all of the students in this class!
Fellow colleagues in the industry – if you are looking for rising professionals to bring on your team, I would endorse each of these students 100%. I would also like to give special praise to our four group leaders (Katie, Berry, Candice and Megan) for leading their team to the finish line and setting the standard for the class.
Thank you all again for a great semester!
Have a great day!
Best Wishes,
