BOSTON — Teams of Boston University (BU) students planned and presented social media marketing campaigns for a panel of industry expert judges at an event hosted by the school’s PRSSA Chapter on March 18, 2010. The students were given one hour to plan their campaigns for Pavement, a local coffee shop and high-end café opening in April 2010.

“This competition allowed our student members to show off their creativity and social media knowledge in front of some of the leading minds in the industry,” said Executive Vice President of BU PRSSA Eric Leist.

The judging panel consisted of Solo PR and Marketing Professional Bobbie Carlton, Social Media Journalist Jeff Cutler, Social Media for Social Change founder Gradon Tripp, and Senior Account Executives from fama PR Zach Servideo and Jeff Benanto. Pavement’s Food and Beverage Manager Jake Robinson was also on the panel. The students made five-minute presentations pitching their zero-dollar budget campaigns.

“I’m definitely going to be stealing a lot of these ideas for our marketing,” Robinson said at the end of the competition.

The winning team of Jenny Hogrefe, Lauren Weil, Abe Seth, Stephanie Florez, Chelsea Alexander and Allison Shannon received gift certificates to Pavement for their campaign “Find your perk at Pavement.” The campaign featured user-generated content and leveraged coffee lovers in Boston.

For more information about the competition, please call (215) 869-6489 or visit BU’s Chapter Web site. Find video coverage of the event at the BU YouTube channel.

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About Boston University’s PRSSA Chapter
BU PRSSA is a student-run professional development and public relations group at Boston University’s College of Communication. The members meet weekly to hear local professional speakers and attend local, regional and national events. This year BU PRSSA also hosted PR Advanced, the PRSSA New England division’s Regional Activity.

Contact:
Eric Leist
(215) 869-6489
EricLeist@gmail.com