Producing PSAs for Big Buddy Program- Watch the Awesome Results!
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Designing a public relations campaign for Big Buddy Program, has been not only exciting and fun, but also very exhausting.
If I haven’t been able to return your calls, answer your emails or even post very often on my blog in the past month or so, it’s because of how busy I’ve been with designing a campaign for a huge non-profit organization here in Baton Rouge called “Big Buddy Program.”
Big Buddy is like “Big Brothers, Big Sisters” in other areas, and much like “Boys and Girls Club.” They do mentoring and activities with often underprivileged kids.
There is so much to say about this campaign but I’ll save a lot of it for later posts.
Big Buddy gave me an advertising budget to work with. And I thought what better way to use some of that money than to make videos that encompass what Big Buddy really is. These videos will be going on their website (which will completely be redesigned in the coming days, my PR group all agreed it was the first thing to do since it’s baaad lol).
However, what’s even more exciting was the idea to produce PSAs (Public Service Announcements) to be broadcast on TV. Big Buddy has a very close, good relationship with all the local media, making my job as a PR person very easy; let’s just say, publicity is NOT a problem.
Big Buddy normally had someone that worked with them for doing video work. I asked to see samples, and let me tell you, it was like a cheese factory had exploded. They were the typical cheesy local commercials; low budget and overly priced.
Since working for Leechon, I’ve really come to appreciate the quality of Br. Belal Khan’s work. He makes complicated things seem pretty effortless. And the greatest example is in the video I’m about to show you.
I told the executive director of Big Buddy whom I’ve been working very closely with since the beginning of the semester of someone I have worked with who I think can do great video work for Big Buddy and for a great price. I had to convince Belal to give us a discount, and Big Buddy got him to come down and shoot some footage.
A group member and I sat there doing the interview with the kids and staff members, while Belal shot the footage. We literally came up with the idea for the PSA five minutes before shooting. I came up with a script, and read it line by line to the kids while they repeated after me. They messed up a couple of times, they were nervous at times but they were awesome. I thought editing this would probably take a lot of time and effort, but again when you see this video, Br. Belal made it look effortless.
So the following are the 4 different versions of the PSA that will be played on TV very soon. We created 4 different versions because:
1. We have an event we wanted to advertise that will take place on the 31st of October
2. Another event on November 18th
3. A general 30 second one to be played all year
4. A 15 second version to also be played all year
When you work in media you have to give TV stations every option to make their lives easier and in turn, you get the coverage you want.
Thanks, Leechon for producing these PSAs and I’ll follow up in the next couple of weeks with various aspects of this AWESOME campaign on this blog, inshaAllah.
And for the record Big Buddy went CRAZY OVER THE RESULT! THEY LOVEEEEEEDDD THE PSAs. In our meeting the executive director, Gaylynne Mack, kept telling me to replay the video, (and I was happy to do it!)
I showed my public relations professor and she said she was speechless. 
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****Watch them in high quality on YouTube****
Day of Mentor version of PSA:
Evening of Champions version:
30 Second- Serving Community PSA:
15 second version:
Amatullah Says: 19.10.08 at 8:12 am
MashaAllah Shirien! May Allah azza wa jal grant you tawfeeq, Ameen!
Those were very awesome. I totally see what you mean by “effortless”, mashaAllah. I like how there wasn’t any music either
shirien Says: 19.10.08 at 9:12 am
Ameen! barak Allahu feeki!
Yeah, it was completely awesome. some of my group members after watching it were like “We never expected it to be this good.”
I had a public relations/media coordinator we also are working closely with tell me she HAS to get his contact information or business card or something.
I was like 10+ points for the Muslims
yeah no music is our standard, and since me being in charge of the PR aspect, it was completely up to me how this was done. So the organization really didnt request anything specific, they completely public relations coordinator decide everything (as is usually the standard, and the way it usually works)
Another reason why I love my job!
Seriously I really feel that non-Muslims take muslim sisters so much more seriously in their work than muslim brothers do, unfortunately…
I’m SOO not a feminist, but that will be my next post. It’s really discouraging, I never thought i’d think that way.. but I can completely see why people say that.
bintwadee3 Says: 19.10.08 at 2:14 pm
Lol @ 10+ points for the Muslims
SubhanAllaah that was awesome! May Allaah (SWT) put barakah in everything you do. Ameen.
Zaynab Says: 19.10.08 at 8:09 pm
this is awesome, masha’Allah.
I don’t want to get all emotional but…it’s really inspiring to see a sister using her talents to help her community, and not having to compromise her deen. May Allah reward you and increase you in goodness sis
And please keep us all informed about your projects!
Amatullah Says: 19.10.08 at 9:29 pm
I agree with Zaynab, mashaAllah
we’re proud of you Shirien!
wa feeki barak Allah ukhtee.
So maybe you can write about how you got involved with the program? I’ve worked with programs like that (taught CPR/First Aid at Red Cross, worked as the activities person for nursing homes), but i’m on the Social Work side and not the PR side. Please share if you can, i’m so interested!
shirien Says: 20.10.08 at 1:47 am
Subhanallah you guys are so sweet. Jazakum Allahu khairan khatheeran, wallahi I feel very rewarded doing this type of work for a non-muslims non-profit organization. They really are doing such a great service to the community.
While we were doing an interview with one of the staff members, it was our last interview of the day. The lady had been sitting watching us do the interview with the kids and at the last min I told her I wanted to interview her.
So she sat there describing how sometimes you cant really tell how much of an impact you have on kids until a lot later and she gave us a specific example. There was a kid who was way behind on his learning, he didnt know how to read and write, but he was in like 1st grade. I mean he didnt know his Alphabet or anything… So she said she would sit with this kid and start from scratch, teaching him the alphabet, etc.
Then one day someone came and told her to go look at the little boy… she went and found that he was reading a book in front of the whole class. You could tell she was kind of tearing up while she was saying the story. And she said that really, it’s moments like those that make you really love your job and make you feel so good inside.
It was possibly the best interview of that day, and we ended it on that note.
Her telling me that story in turn made ME feel so rewarded to be helping this organization with PR work.
————
With that said, I’m taking my capstone PR class at LSU right now. What this is, is basically a service learning class.Possibly one of the only PR classes in the country to do this in an undergraduate level.
So basically we pick a non-profit organization that needs help and we design a whole campaign to be launched in one semester. We have to design a big event, and we also have to create a huge campaign booklet outlining everything from beginning to end. We should be able to get a lot of media coverage and measure our results in the end.
A couple of us chose Big Buddy. They are approaching their 30th anniversary, and are in need of funds. So we’ve planned an event called “Evening of Champions” in which we are getting star athletes from various LSU sports to come and dine with the kids. Tickets are $100.
We plan to raise at least $30,000 for the organization with this event inshaAllah.
It’s been a BLAST working on this project, because we are given free reign to do what we want.
I’ve been in charge of a lot of aspects of the campaign.
1. I’m in charge of the new website
2. the video work
3. planning of the event
4. meeting with the exectutive director and other Big Buddy personelle every week.
(I basically am the one to communicate between Big Buddy and our group members)
5. In the meetings come up with execution plans for the campaign and the various aspects of what will happen and how it will happen
6. assign duties to the rest of the group
7. NETWORK… I’ve got a huge list of “local celebrities” as well as access to all local media personnel now. It’s amazing.
I have to say this is really the busiest i’ve ever been, but I really really love this job.
I have SOOO much to say about this campaign. But for now i’ll just leave it to advice to Muslims.
A. YOU NEED PR WORK
B. YOU SHOULD TRUST YOUR PR PERSON
C. GIVE THE PR PERSON ROOM TO DESIGN CREATIVE CAMPAIGNS
D. SAVE A BUDGET FOR ADVERTISING
E. AND JUST BECAUSE WE ARE SISTERS, DOESN’T MEAN WE’LL DO A BAD JOB.
wallahu ta’ala alem.
B Says: 20.10.08 at 1:59 am
ma sha Alaah! awesome work on the videos! The kids are super cool!
“E. AND JUST BECAUSE WE ARE SISTERS, DOESN’T MEAN WE’LL DO A BAD JOB”
Welcome to the club
ahmed eid Says: 20.10.08 at 7:06 pm
Cool….the Big Buddy Program sounds awesome
@ “Seriously I really feel that non-Muslims take muslim sisters so much more seriously in their work than muslim brothers do, unfortunately…”
Thats true for all Muslims…Doing ANYTHING with nonMuslims is unfortunately more seriously taken than doing ANYTHING with Muslims…
Its sad, but true…
(I mean in terms of expectations, professionalism, etc)
@ ” A. YOU NEED PR WORK
B. YOU SHOULD TRUST YOUR PR PERSON
C. GIVE THE PR PERSON ROOM TO DESIGN CREATIVE CAMPAIGNS
D. SAVE A BUDGET FOR ADVERTISING
E. AND JUST BECAUSE WE ARE SISTERS, DOESN’T MEAN WE’LL DO A BAD JOB.”
Yup…I think number 1 and 3 are the most important
hk Says: 21.10.08 at 9:30 am
that was great! – so proud of you, mashaAllah
may Allah put barakah in all that you do for His sake – ameen!
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