One College, One Project: The Heart of Lincoln ADPR 361: Owned, Earned and Paid Media
About the Project
The media ecosystem is increasingly complex, and connecting with consumers in meaningful ways is more challenging than ever. ADPR 361 focuses on how to think holistically about that ecosystem and identify, evaluate, and create meaningful opportunities for brands to connect with their audiences across owned, earned, and paid media.It is very hands on, very current, and very learning-by-doing. Collective Impact Lincoln (CIL) was our partner in fall 2018 for a wonderful experiential learning project.
Collective Impact Lincoln is a unique organization focused on building civic health and rooted in the belief that neighborhoods build democracy. It was formed to lift up six historic Lincoln neighborhoods dealing with poverty and create positive change that’s resident-led. To sustain positive change past their remaining 18 months of funding, CIL needed to create consensus across the Lincoln community about the importance of these neighborhoods and these issues. The challenge for ADPR 361 students, then, was to help Lincolnites care about and invest in those neighborhoods and CIL’s work.
After studying content developed by other CoJMC classes and doing additional research, teams identified insights, determined a target audience, and developed a variety of strategies and tactics across owned, earned, and paid media. Integrated communications plans included recommendations ranging from boosting content created by other classes through social media, todeveloping videos crafted for community leaders about “giving back to move forward,” to a custom event and radio promotion celebrating Lincoln’s anniversary and reminding residents that the issues that affect some of us, affect all of us. It was a difficult challenge—much different than a very tangible goal of a client wanting to sell more shoes, for example—but students learned much more about issues faced by residents in neighborhoods dealing with poverty and about how our collective voices can and do make an impact.