#SheCan Campaign Comes to Life
#SheCan Campaign Comes to Life written by Cara Hunter
When students spend an entire semester working on a project, they long for their ideas to be utilized for a real organization. For Alexandria Dodson and her fellow group members, Kayley Green, Maci Mays, Madi Mayfield, Bridgette Givand, Madeleine Constantine, this dream became a reality.
Dodson is an alumna of the School of Advertising and Public Relations and graduated from the University of Tennessee in December of 2017. During her final semester at UT, Dodson completed Public Relations Campaigns, a course that brings together all the skills that public relations majors have learned over the years in order to create a campaign for a real client.
Dr. Courtney Childers taught campaigns that semester and was tasked with choosing the client. The campaigns professors are often approached by a local nonprofit or small business looking for new ways to improve its communication efforts. Dodson and her fellow classmates were presented with Girl Talk, Inc. as their client for the semester. Girl Talk is a local nonprofit, founded by UT alumna Denetria Moore, that exists to empower young women to become their best selves by reducing the likelihood of teen pregnancy and helping them to advance educationally.
After recently celebrating its 10th anniversary, Girl Talk was looking to expand in donations and volunteers in order to serve more girls in the community. After learning more about their client, the various campaign groups worked towards creating a campaign that would help Girl Talk reach multiple audiences.
While all of the groups created campaigns that would benefit the client, Dodson’s group went above and beyond. By taking the time to interview the parents of girls being assisted by Girl Talk and going to the school programs to interact with the girls, Dodson better understood the client’s needs.
Dodson’s group’s campaign consisted of a new website, various branding materials, and a social media campaign titled #SheCan. “We wanted to focus on getting people inspired by the message of Girl Talk,” recalled Dodson. “Everyone talks about what she can’t do. We wanted to talk about what she can do.”
Following the campaigns groups’ final presentations to the client, Girl Talk immediately began implementing Dodson’s ideas into their organization. “Their project was bold and really captured the mission and vision of Girl Talk. #SheCan summarizes why we do what we do,” said Moore.
This social media campaign continued to transform when Girl Talk presented its #SheCan 2018 Fashion Show Gala consisting of professional women and Girl Talk girls walking the runway with poise and confidence.
“It was so rewarding to see our ideas come to life. #SheCan is so much more than a hashtag. It is a movement to empower young women,” said Dodson.