This past few months all came down this week of amazing events for The Breeders’ Cup. After months of planning, coordinating, researching, and prepping – the week finally arrived here in Louisville.
I would have to say – this week was quite the whirlwind of activities and project preparation for me. However, I can say that it was beyond worth it!
The Breeders’ Cup has been our class client for my PR and Crisis Communication class this semester, and this has been one of the best experiences I have had. We have had a lot of activities, assignments, and conference calls all leading up to this event this week.
What were some of the responsibilities of the students who were part of this week’s events? To say they did A LOT would be an understatement to say the least.
Just to give you an idea of the work they have done, here’s just a “snapshot” for the work they did for this one project:
- Covered five events as a class (four days this week, and one in September)
- Coordinated, researched, planned, and executed influencer event on 9/29
- Participated in several conference calls for events with The Breeders’ Cup
- Interviewed with the media about experience working with The Breeders’ Cup
- Created content for social media channels leading up to The Breeders’ Cup Festival for October and November
- Content coverage for Equestricon
- Content coverage for The Breeders’ Cup
- Created recap listening and monitoring reports from Meltwater, Zoomph, and Talkwalker for Influencer Event, Equestricon, and The Breeders’ Cup.
This was just from this point of the semester. Yes, they have readings, assignments, and other activities as part of the class. One of these events for the semester (like the IM event) would have been considered to be a final project for most classes.
That’s why I am so proud of the dedication, commitment, and hard work each of them provided here for this project. We had four days of events this week – two that were dedicated to The Breeders’ Cup, and two that were dedicated to the convention for the horse race industry this week called Equestricon.
Student responsibilities. What did this structure look like? Well, you want to make sure each student has experience on both sides to the coin here for event coverage for PR and social media purposes. The class was broken up into two teams each day: the on-site team and the remote team. Each team for each day had a lead who was able to supervise and make sure the rest of their team had their responsibilities on hand. This brought some more leadership and team work experience to the table.
Each student was able to cover each day for a certain amount of time with a team member (there was always at least one other student present at a time, so they could work together).
The on-site team was responsible for content creation duties. The teams would meet up at the event a bit early so they would be able to meet with the BC team and then get their run of show list of must have pieces of content to be shared across the different platforms.
They were tasked to making sure they were able to capture content to be presented across all channels. The Breeders’ Cup wanted three main platforms to be covered as far as content goes (ex. FB, Twitter, and Instagram). So, even with these three pieces of content and features (Live video, Boomerangs, etc), that’s a lot.
The remote team was off site and they were designated to listen, monitor, and evaluate content coming in from social media. These students were able to collect analytics and share with the on site team and The Breeders’ team any updates that needed to be flagged for opportunities like surprise and delight (any person celebrating an anniversary, first time attending, etc), potential influencer collaborations to note for the future, examples of user-generated content to share, etc.
Getting Press for Partnership. We had the chance to get several stories written (like this one from The Voice-Tribune) about the class experience and press release this week leading up to the event.
For my fellow educators and professors, we all know more universities and programs are looking for us to have popular press mentions for what we are doing not only in our research, but teaching as well.
Investing in the Right Tools to get the Job done. What do you need for effective must have content creation?
- Coffee. Obviously that is a given, but essential to have! I consumed more coffee than I have ever done for a class project over the span of this week. Invest in Starbucks gifts cards. They will be like gold for you and your students.
- A battery pack. You (and your team of students) will appreciate it. I went with Mophie for mine and I was able to be fully charged for the entire day and then some! Bring extra connectors to share w/ your students if need be.
- Gimble. This is a game changer for video content. As we are seeing on social media, video is everything, and making sure your video is not shaking is so important. I loved the DJI Osmo Mobile 2 I got. I had a chance to play around with it before hand, and I felt it was one of the best things I could have invested in for this project. My goal for this investment was 1) help students get content they would need from different angles and 2) get some hands on experience as well with video editing and content creation myself. The app allows you to edit the video as well with additional features, music options, transitions, effects, etc.
- Adobe Rush. I love this program and this has been a HUGE part of my project with The Breeders’ Cup. In fact, my students, along with a final plan and presentation, have to create a “visual element” to tell their story for the project. I introduced Adobe Rush to them after coming back from Adobe Max, and the rest is history! I can’t wait to see what the students create!
You may be asking – what were some of the biggest takeaways from this experience, Karen? What would be some things you feel professors and students could learn from this experience.
Well, these past few months have truly been a whirlwind of lessons learned, major takeaways, and experiences I will never forget. I have learned more the past few months about project management, content creation, and storytelling I ever would have thought of before. Here are some of the things I have gained from working with The Breeders’ Cup.
Validation for assignments and preparation. The biggest takeaway I was able to get from this project was that the assignments, lessons, and work I have done over the years and showcased in my new social media book worked. Not only did they work, some assignments were absolutely essential to have in play here for some of the activities.
The assignments I was able to incorporate into this class (which are featured here in my portfolio building workbook) included the ones focused on:
- Influencer Marketing
- Listening and Monitoring
- Content Creation
- Message Strategies
- Strategic Plan
If you have any questions about any of these assignments, please let me know!
You must be a team player. If you are asking your students to partake in a campaign like this at such a huge scale, you have to be involved 110 percent. If you are asking your students to create content, you do too. Professors – this means you have to truly walk the walk and talk the talk.
This means, you have to do everything you are asking your students to do, and sometimes even more. If students are able to see you are also creating content, learning new tools, and holding yourself to the same standards, they will follow that. However, if you feel you can go and sit back and relax while they do all of the work themselves – that will not go over well. You have to inspect what you expect for a class such as this.
Students will give 110% if shown the impact assignments truly have on their future. When I have told my colleagues and others the work my students have done this semester, their jaws literally drop. They have asked me – How have you been able to get your students to do this work?
Simple – they have seen the impact of how this one class has given them opportunities for their future careers.
For example, one of my students is now a paid intern working in Communications with Papa John’s. Two have gotten jobs before they have graduated in the industry. Another got three job offers at the LDA conference after I mentioned what she was doing for my class and the work she did for the influencer event we coordinated. Several have been able to make an impact in their current jobs and internships. This is just the beginning.
You have to be the support team. This was a huge part of what I was able to do for all four days of the event. You are the cheerleader for your class.
My job as a professor was not to not to oversee and micromanage the students – it was to support them in their creative work and make sure they had everything they needed to do the job they came to do. For me, that meant making sure 1) they had plenty of coffee (or hot chocolate!) on hand, 2) Be a hand model (for proper food and drink pictures to share on an Instagram boomerang for Breeders’ Cup), 3) being a stand by photographer to capture pictures of them working (to show employers – hey! I actually worked at this event – like I did here for Steph and Eiman!)
The ultimate goal is being there so the students have the support system in place to do their best work.
Learning new hacks to add to social media assignments. Seriously, this was such an eye opener for me and I was very grateful to see some of the tools and features from the industry to be able to coordinate more efficiently in my future classes!
Here are some of the things to think about as you are coordinating events and social media coverage:
- Create a shared iPhoto album for everyone to share and upload content to. This way, if you take a video that needs to be uploaded and shared offsite – it’s there. If you have students with Google or other phones – have them text them to the team lead for them to upload.
- Monday.com will be your new best friend to create content calendars. We used this program this week and SO HELPFUL! It is a paid program – but if you are going to be doing content calendars for your classes, this program does this very well and I know I will be using this again for my future classes.
- Set up a consistent chat message for your teams. Group Me was our class choice here, but you want to make sure you are flexible for each group involved. Communication and making sure everyone is on board is crucial for an event.
- Certifications and access to analytics programs is key. We had a ton of access to various tools and programs here for class this semester, such as social media certifications (ex. HubSpot Social Media Marketing and Hootsuite Social Media Marketing), analytics (Zoomph and Talkwalker), simulations (Stukent). All of these programs helped the students gain the necessary insights, experiences, and lessons needed to be fully prepared for this assignment. Thank you all for your help and support this semester!
Having evidence to show to the industry university programs ARE preparing our students for the workplace. For years, I have heard many people in the industry professors are not “current” or “preparing our students for the workplace.”
My answer to this now is simple: Here’s what we have done and let me know if this is up to your standard of “work experience.” These students have experiences, stories, and the evidence to back up this work experience. These students learned things on this project that will help them in their next chapters after graduation.
I highly encourage my colleagues in academia to pursue larger opportunities like this. These are the things students are looking for to be competitive in the marketplace. Yes, these opportunities are out there and we have to seek these out. It may take some more energy, time, commitment and work to do this, but it is beyond worth it.
Summary
I’m beyond thankful to the great team at The Breeders’ Cup and Grand Slam Social for the opportunity to work with you all these past few months.
Bryan Pettigrew – thank you for the opportunity to work with you all at The Breeders’ Cup. This has been truly one of the best client projects I have done in my professional career. Thank you for allowing us to work with you all this year!
Shona Rosenblum and Kaitlin Christopherson – you two ladies are two of the hardest working and dedicated professionals in the industry! GSS is an amazing agency and it was truly a pleasure to work with you both these past few months!
Joey Wagner. I am truly honored to have you as a friend and supporter of the work we are doing here at the University of Louisville. Thank you for your advocacy and making this connection happen for my students! You are the best!
#FrebergPR students. Words can’t describe how proud I am of my students. I have had a lot of classes over the years with some truly exceptional students, but I have to say, #FrebergPR has done me proud.
I have truly asked my students this semester to work harder than I have ever done to any of my classes. The amount of work they have done to do for this class really is a testament to the dynamics, hard work, and character of each and every one of these students.
I would like to give a special shout out to the team leaders this year (Megan McLeroy, Candice Champlin, Berry Craig IV, and Katie Wells). You all have been great leaders and have put forth a tremendous amount of work here for this class.
To my class, I am very grateful to each and every one of you. You have made the University of Louisville extremely proud, but you have made me truly one super proud professor. You all have my endorsement and support as you venture out to the workplace – I know you will be changing the game for our industry!
I can’t wait to see the final projects at the end of the month!
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
