Presidential Debate at Ole Miss The University of Mississippi hosted the first Presidential Debate of 2008 on September 26. The Cirlot Agency served as the agency of record for the University and the promotion of this watershed event. The debate was proclaimed a tremendous success by the Commission on Presidential Debates, as well as thousands of journalists who traveled to Oxford for the event. Media began focusing on Ole Miss three days before the debate. Coverage skyrocketed when Senator John McCain announced he was suspending his campaign because of the U.S. economic crisis and was possibly not going to attend the debate. By September 30, the University earned the advertising equivalence of approximately $35 million in publicity from the debate and the events leading up to it. By Election Day, the final public relations value for Ole Miss was estimated to be at $50 million.
Research The Cirlot Agency began working with Ole Miss nearly a year before the debate by conducting research. In an effort to gain more insight into The University of Mississippi and its current recruiting efforts, The Cirlot Agency conducted numerous focus groups with current and potential students across the state of Mississippi. Questions centered around the students’ overall impressions of The University of Mississippi’s recruiting tactics utilizing both written materials and on-campus events. Students were also asked to evaluate other universities’ recruiting efforts across the Southeast.
Brand Development A key element in preparing Ole Miss for the global spotlight of the debate was to pinpoint exactly what makes the University unique and different, determining its brand. The Cirlot Agency held a two-day Brand Development Strategic Planning Session for the university’s Executive Management Committee. The objective of the Brand Development Strategic Planning Session was to establish a central message and set the foundation for a brand execution strategy that will be used to differentiate The University of Mississippi from its competition and to leverage the school’s brand and image prior to, during and after the presidential debate. This was done by reviewing The University of Mississippi’s primary objectives, defining its core values and identifying market segments and competitors. The Cirlot Agency has taken the information from this session and used it to create a full, strategic “plan of attack,” which includes all strategic communication and positioning tactics necessary for meeting Ole Miss’ stated goals and objectives.
Development of Debate Logo The Cirlot Agency developed a debate logo and slogan that successfully communicated Ole Miss’ association with the presidential debate. In the minds of both national and international audiences, the logo served to further promote Ole Miss as being one of the three national hosts for the presidential debates in 2008. “The Debate Starts Here” was chosen as the official slogan after leaders at Ole Miss reviewed a number of options, each promoting the University as host of such an historic event. In particular, the slogan, “The Debate Starts Here,” communicates that Ole Miss was host of the first in a series of three presidential debates held before election day. The logo and slogan were incorporated into all promotional materials and was used on banners, decals, yard signs, etc., on campus and around the Southeast.
Media Planning & Execution The Cirlot Agency created a customized media plan for The University of Mississippi that tied in to all recruiting efforts, campus events, public relations, debate- related activities, etc. The Cirlot Agency recommended a combination of traditional and nontraditional media to be utilized to best reach the University’s target markets, goals and objectives.
Debate Event Planning The Cirlot Agency assisted the University with suggestions for debate-related events for students, faculty, alumni and the Oxford community. The Agency reached out to various groups, such as Rock The Vote, to initiate their involvement on campus debate week. The Agency worked closely with EventWorks, Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio-based full-service event planning and audio and visual production company, on logistical and planning issues for the debate and debate-related events. The Agency also made entertainment recommendations for student events, such as a Rock The Vote concert featuring Mississippi artists or artists with ties to the University. Statewide high school debate contests, alumni debate watch parties and voter registration drives recommended by The Cirlot Agency were also executed.
Debate Website Design and Navigation Well-known brands become well-known because of successful branding campaigns, which include the brand’s online presence and how that presence ties into current branding efforts. The Cirlot Agency was responsible for the design and navigation of the University’s presidential debate website, http://debate.olemiss.edu. The website was a tool developed to be used by the thousands of journalists on campus the week of the debate, as well as current and potential students, faculty, alumni, business leaders, K-12 teachers and faculty across the state, political leaders and the general public. The University of Mississippi asked a corporate friend of the University, FedEx, to review the website for effectiveness and ease of navigation. Below is feedback from FedEx’s web experts:
“The overall ‘look and feel’ of the site is very pleasing. Page layouts, use of color, fonts and images are consistent throughout the site, reinforcing the overall branding of the site. The design of the site aligns well with overall purpose of the site and is appropriate for intended audience. The few images we were able to review are relevant to the content of the site. Page layouts use space effectively. Space is used appropriately and well, especially on the two content pages, with distinct areas and proper sectioning of the content. The site provides the right contrast of background color (white or light blue) against the font colors (dark blue, red and grey) in the copy of pages, making it easy to read. We also liked well placed spacing between content sections and within paragraphs, which again made it easy for us to scan, read and navigate. In our opinion, the appearance of the site accomplishes the ‘presidential’ and ‘media’ feel that a journalist may expect to experience and at the same time portray a ‘university’ look that a faculty member, a student or a prospective student would expect from this site.”
Website Marketing The Cirlot Agency assisted the University with all marketing efforts for the debate website. The website URL is included in all public relations efforts, as well as on all collateral materials. The Cirlot Agency also developed banner advertising for Ole Miss that features the debate logo and a link to the debate site. The Cirlot Agency contacted numerous businesses and organizations across the nation and asked that they post the banner on their sites free of charge to assist in the promotion of the University as host of the first of the 2008 debates.
In addition to finding out more about Ole Miss and the first presidential debate, visitors to the debate website could register to vote. A link to Rock the Vote’s voter registration application enabled users to easily do so. With more than 900 registrations completed through the Ole Miss debate website, Rock the Vote ranked the Ole Miss debate website as one of the top 100 partners in Rock the Vote’s voter registration campaign in 2008.
The Ole Miss debate site proved to have a very successful online presence due to the large number of page visits. On the day of the debate, Google logged 221,211 hits to the Ole Miss debate website. The site had 724,854 unique visitors from when the site went live until Election Day, November 4. There was a total of 1,240,199 page views during that time period as well. During that time period, Ole Miss was at the top of the list for the following Google search terms:
Presidential Debate
First Presidential Debate
2008 Presidential Debate
First Presidential Debate 2008
1st Presidential Debate
For multiple other terms, Ole Miss was the 2nd and 3rd top listing in Google as well. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was usually second to Ole Miss in Google rankings, and when Ole Miss was second, CPD was first. Since Ole Miss was at the top of Google search results so often, Google generated what it calls Sitelinks for the site. Sitelinks appear under a search result and help users navigate the site. The Agency was able to get the debate website to the top of Google’s lists due to creating a strong Wikipedia presence, other sites linking to the debate site, and customized keywords, descriptions and titles for every page on the debate website.
Development of the Debate Intranet In addition to the website, which was developed for external communication, The Cirlot Agency developed a Debate Intranet to be used for all internal communications between The University of Mississippi, The Cirlot Agency and Event Works, a Cleveland-based media event production specialist. The Intranet includes a calendar complete with upcoming deadlines, meetings, conference calls and on-campus events. The Intranet also housed a list of contact information and served as a place where individuals could post project updates, creative concepts, media coverage, website traffic reports, etc.
Facebook Strategy The Cirlot Agency also recommended that a Facebook group be created by Ole Miss to assist in the promotion of the presidential debate to students across the United States. This group has been implemented and is currently serving as an educational tool, as well as assisting Ole Miss in student recruitment efforts.
Faculty Media Training The Commission on Presidential Debates initially determined that the debate held at Ole Miss would focus on domestic issues. The topic later changed to foreign affairs. As the campus prepared to host approximately 3,000 national and international journalists in September, The Cirlot Agency trained key faculty members who are experts in their fields of study. During the training, faculty members learned how to prepare key messages to use during interviews, and also how to best communicate sometimes complex issues to media. In addition to instruction, on-camera “mock” interviews were also conducted to simulate an actual interview. After media training was completed, each faculty member was sent a critique of his or her mock interview. The Cirlot Agency also provided a media tips card for each faculty member to utilize prior to an interview.
Public Relations – Prior to Debate The Cirlot Agency and The University of Mississippi recognized that there may never be another opportunity of this magnitude for Ole Miss to impact a worldwide audience. The Cirlot Agency began working with The University of Mississippi nearly a year prior to the debate to develop a sound public relations strategy to maximize positive media coverage for Ole Miss. The strategy included consideration of the 3,000+ journalists on campus the week of the debate, many of whom were unfamiliar with the University and the success of its students, faculty and alumni. The Cirlot Agency worked daily with the University to plan and execute tactics to maximize the publicity surrounding the debate as a catalyst for Ole Miss to continue telling its success story around the globe. In the months prior to the debate, The Cirlot Agency began pitching stories about Ole Miss to national and international journalists. In August, an NBC Nightly News crew traveled to Mississippi to interview a graduate of the Mississippi Teacher Corps program at Ole Miss, which trains those without education degrees to teach and then places them in some of the Mississippi Delta’s poorest schools. This story’s publicity impact, meaning if Ole Miss had purchased the air time, was nearly $400,000. Throughout the summer, the Agency also assisted the University with media visits, including meetings with local media to discuss debate planning, as well as the initial debate site visit by dozens of national and international journalists to Ole Miss. Due to the length of time before both presidential candidates announced their running mates, national media outlets could not begin previewing the debate. Media were transfixed on the running mates and political conventions in the weeks prior to the first presidential debate. As soon as the conventions concluded, the curious eyes of the world began to turn toward Ole Miss. The world wanted to know if the University had changed since riots broke out on campus in 1962 when James Meredith was admitted as the first African-American student at the University. Understanding that this would be the first story every media outlet reported, the University and the Agency worked as partners to prepare. Ole Miss was ready to show the world a modern institution of higher learning that is fully integrated today with a student body containing 19% minority students.
Public Relations – Debate Week The Cirlot Agency provided a team of experts to coordinate national and international media interviews and logistics on-site debate week at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). As lead public relations strategists for the University, the Cirlot team planned several media opportunities/press conferences which had broad appeal to the 3,000 journalists on campus. As events were determined, pitch strategies were developed to send to local, national and international media the day before each event to garner coverage. Events featured Governor Haley Barbour, Chancellor Robert C. Khayat, distinguished alumni, faculty and students. Agency staff also strategically managed Chancellor Khayat’s media availabilities and accompanied him to all media interviews. The Cirlot team also worked directly with the University’s media and PR staff to schedule faculty interviews, provide University information and help facilitate any general media requests. As public relations practitioners on the debate team braced for the first stories about Ole Miss’ past, the University was catapulted into the world spotlight on Wednesday as Senator John McCain announced he was suspending his campaign and would not debate on Friday night. The Cirlot Agency, Ole Miss and the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) held strategy meetings to determine PR strategy and talking points after Sen. McCain’s announcement. On Thursday, a “Welcome to Ole Miss and Mississippi” news conference was planned. Thursday morning, network news producers decided to air the news conference live. Immediately before the news conference, a final meeting took place with Chancellor Khayat, Governor Barbour and CPD staff. More than 100 journalists covered this news conference, hoping to hear the latest news on whether there would be a debate Friday night. There was no official word from the McCain campaign until Friday morning. The indecision in the air kept media flooding our press events until the announcement was made. The debate went forward as planned and had an estimated television viewing audience of 55 million.
To see a daily account of debate week, please visit our blog.
From June through September 30, the media coverage public relations value totaled more than $34.5 million. The number of stories mentioning “Ole Miss and debate,” “University of Mississippi and debate,” or “Oxford and debate” totals 11,409.
Media Coverage from June 2008 through September 2008 is as follows:
State, National & International Broadcast Coverage: Total Hits: 6,663 Total Audience: 642,973,530 Total Publicity Value: $29,106,798
State, National & International Print Coverage: Total Articles: 727 Total Circulation: 163,701,984 Total Publicity Value: $2,195,475.95
Internet Coverage: Total Articles: 4,019 Total Publicity Value: $3,240,875.65
Total Media Coverage: Total Stories (Print, Internet, Broadcast): 11,409 Total Circulation/Audience: 806,675,514 Total Publicity Value: $34,543,149.60
