Commentary: Ten Considerations for Developing and Maintaining a Student-Run Communications Agency

Abstract

IntroductionStudent-run advertising, public relations or integrated communications agencies at colleges and universities give students hands-on client experience, help them develop their professional skills and provide students with an understanding of how to work within an agency structure. For faculty advisers, managing a successful student-run agency can be much like running a small business. It is a time-consuming endeavor involving a good deal of trial and error to get it right. In fact, like many small businesses, universities often launch student agencies, only to have them fail a year or two later.In 2007, I established Elon University's student-run, integrated communications agency: Live Oak Comunications. While looking for resources to determine the best way to construct our agency, I was dismayed with the lack of research on student agencies in academic literature. Thus, I embarked on two studies to classify student agency structures, identify the risks for failure and understand the benefits for student learning (Bush, 2009; Bush & Miller, 2011). I am currently working on a third study, interviewing graduates about the career benefits of their student-agency experiences. Through talking to students, advisers and graduates of student-run communications agencies, and from my own experience as a student agency adviser and a professional who spent twenty years in the advertising/PR agency business, I have developed a list of ten best practices to consider when starting or maintaining a student-run agency.Student-Run Agency: Ten Best Practices Make Your Agency as Real World as PossibleOne of the biggest benefits students and graduates have shared with me is the benefit of having experiences - e g., dealing with difficult clients and team members, developing just-in-time solutions to compensate for mistakes, working within realistic clientagency structures and processes, meeting tight deadlines, etc. Having an agency that looks and feels like the professional world not only helps students understand how agencies function, but it also helps them understand how the world of work functions. Establish titles and roles such as account executive, account supervisor and creative director that mirror those of a professional agency, and put processes and protocols in place (reporting structures, dress codes, creative review processes) that will make the agency an authentic experience for student members.Seek Out For-Profit Clients, Not Just NonProfit ClientsWorking on commercial businesses is where students leant about the bottom line. While it is important (politically and for the local community) for the agency to take on nonprofit clients, including for-profit businesses in your client mix helps students understand the significance of ROI in the corporate world. If you only have nonprofit clients, students tend to treat the agency as another service learning project. Graduates have told me they wish they had known more about the ROI obsession of the corporate world.Offer a Diversity of Client ExperiencesIntegration is here to stay. If you want multidisciplinary experiences for your students, seek out clients who need a diversity of solutions. It is my belief that integration is not driven by agencies; it is driven by clients. In fact, my research has shown that student agencies are already practicing integration, often more so than what is formed in communications curricula (Bush & Miller, 2011). The reason? They work with clients who need and demand integrated solutions. If you always take the client who wants a logo or a Facebook page, you are not giving students a diversity of experiences. In addition, give students as much client contact as possible with as many different types of professionals as possible. Graduates have told me they spent the majority of their college careers working with other communications majors who think like they do. But in the world of work, they are working with engineers, financial managers, salespeople, front-line workers, etc. …