A team of Elon University corporate communications students will be one of three teams vying for the Bateman championship, the most prestigious award available to public relations students. This year, close to 200 teams from over 100 universities entered the Bateman competition, which is sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America.
The Elon team is comprised of seniors Brigid McCauley, Julia McIlrevey, Kristin Tremoulis, and Elizabeth Vanderwerker. They will compete against teams from the University of Georgia and California State at Fullerton for the title, May 17-18, in Teaneck, NJ.
Honorable mention went to Brigham Young, Loyola of New Orleans, LSU, Miami of Ohio, Michigan State, and the universities of Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Texas at San Antonio.
Bateman is a case study competition in which teams create and implement a campaign on behalf of a national client. The competition began in November and ended with judging by a panel of public relations executives Sunday, April 15, in New York City. This year’s client was the National Family Caregivers Association, underwritten by the giant pharmaceutical company Eisai Inc.
Dr. John Guiniven, associate professor of communications, served as the team’s faculty adviser.
“Our campaign included a virtual campaign in Second Life and a podcast,” Guiniven said. “The students utilized cutting-edge technology and strategic communications. It was well-thought-out in both strategy and execution. It says something for our program, that we can stand up with any program in the country.”
Guiniven initiated Elon’s entry into the Bateman competition three years ago, after previously doing so as a professor at Syracuse. In 2005, Elon’s first Batemen team submitted a campaign for that year’s client, Ford Motor Co. Last year the client was Habitat for Humanity.
“The first two teams really helped,” Guiniven said. “They made the effort. They got our name in the competition. They raised the bar for each team that followed.”
The national Bateman competition began in 1973.