While the quality of the materials you have prepared for Thursday are important, the organization of the presentation itself will be almost equally crucial. You should give a role to each member of your team, and make sure they practice. If you can, hold a formal “rehearsal.”
Probably the easiest and most effective way to do the presentation is to have all of the material in written form that you can hand to the judges at the beginning of the presentation, and then have each member of the team explain part of it in his or her own words. The judges will be told that they should ask you questions, so be ready for that. If a team member is not comfortable with this, they can have something that they can read.
They should know it well enough that they can look up and make eye contact with the judges. And they should show enthusiasm and salesmanship. Remember – the idea is that you want the judges to hire you. You are NOT just “giving a report.” You want to make a sale.
It seems to me that it makes the most sense for the leader to go first and read or explain the “strategy statement” spelling out what you think is causing the problem, and how you propose to correct it through public relations.
Then you “unveil” your slogan, explaining how it implements the strategy.
Next would come the presentation of the advertisement(s). Here you explain how you intend to get your “message” across to the “recipients.” Tell who or what is the “source” of the message, and detail the ways in which you intend to present this advertisement. That is, what “channels” will you use (newspapers, radio, television, billboards, etc.)? If you need help getting color copies of your proposed ad, send it to me, and I will make it (them) for you. In fact, I will give you whatever help you need in making copies, provided that you don’t give it all to me at the last minute.
Following that, discuss the press release. What is its purpose and how does it accomplish it? (The purpose, to review, is to tell journalists what they need to know about your campaign to prepare articles and reports about it. Make sure that the written version you give the judges gives the date of the release, the source (with contact information), and an indication of when the information can be released. In this case it should say, unless you have some special reason for delaying the release, “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.”
The last “required” item is the letter to community groups. What groups are you aiming at, and what do you want them to do? Note that even if you have prepared a letter aimed at only one group, you can tell the judges about other groups you will aim at in a similar, narrowly focused manner. (Think about the discussion we had on Friday. If you’ve forgotten it, ask me and I´ll tell you the suggestions I made again. That goes for any of the things we’ve gone through.)
