A student team from Elon University won third place in the nation in the 2007 Bateman championship, the most prestigious award available to public relations students.
A team from the University of Georgia won first place, and a team from California State University at Fullerton finished second.
This year, close to 200 teams from more than 100 universities entered the Bateman competition, which is sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America.
The Elon team was comprised of corporate communication seniors Brigid McCauley, Julia McIlrevey, Kristin Tremoulis and Elizabeth Vanderwerker. They competed for the top title on May 17-18 in Teaneck, N.J.
Honorable mentions went to the University of Florida, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Tennessee, the University of South Carolina, the University of Texas at San Antonio, Brigham Young University, Loyola University of New Orleans, Louisiana State University, Miami University of Ohio, and Michigan State University.
Bateman is a case study competition in which teams create and implement a campaign on behalf of a national client. This year’s client was the National Family Caregivers Association, underwritten by the pharmaceutical company Eisai Inc.
Dr. John Guiniven, associate professor of communications, served as faculty adviser of Elon’s team.
“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 being involved in the Bateman competition 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.