For the past couple of weeks, I’ve felt especially important, because outside of the initial research report, there came a time for me to evaluate the research we’d done thus far. Pinocchio had come and gone and left a 2-week break before the next Playmakers production. These 2-weeks proved to be the perfect time to tabulate results from the Pinocchio surveys and make some conclusions based on the results. We conducted primary research (as outlined in this site: http://stedavies.com/2006/06/12-steps-to-a-successful-pr-campaign/)  and were finally going to have our own results to work off of instead of just what we were being told.

The site (http://www.slideshare.net/prlab/using-research-in-pr) entitled “Using Research in PR” was a very basic reminder of why we research in PR and set a great foundation for my work to calculate these results. This site mentioned how research in public relations helps us plan campaigns and in this case it couldn’t be more correct. Karli, our client, used many types of marketing and advertising approaches in her work, but we came to find out that many of these outlets weren’t making an impact at all. Well at least not according to the surveys we received. There was an overall positive response on the surveys i.e. people saying they are very likely to attend another production, but there were of course a few negative responses. This, however, did not discourage us, because as we been told time and time again, both negative and positive feedback can be helpful to a campaign.

We also received the email from Dr. Moore about Karli’s changed decision regarding their current website (www.playmakers.net). Much to our delight as an agency, she decided to do away with the current website completely and start anew. After originally being told that we could do nothing about the website and that hands were tied regarding the situation, this was extremely refreshing! The new website isn’t of course as advanced in design and/or content as the previous website but with a lot of hard work and attention from our team in the next few weeks http://www.playmakersbr.org will be on the same level if not better than the original site. We really want to give it a positive, colorful, and kid-friendly spin because right now, the website that represents Playmakers now embodies the exact opposite of that description.

The lesson that stuck out to me these past couple of weeks is cliche but true: If at first you don’t succeed, try again.