University Faculty
Macquarie University Faculty of Business and Economics appointed CP Communications to raise their profile in Australia as a leading business and economics faculty.
Macquarie University Faculty of Business and Economics (‘the Faculty’) offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in addition to strong academic research in the fields of accounting and finance, actuarial studies, business, economics and business law.
We developed a public relations strategy to best meet their objectives of raising their profile in the academic and business community, attracting quality academic staff and students at both a postgraduate and undergraduate level.
The professors
With a large staff body offering a wide range of areas of expertise, we decided to focus primarily on raising the profile of the key members of the Faculty, these being the Dean and the Heads of Departments, while also drawing on other media talent when opportunities arose.
Media announcements
CP Communications writes and distributes media announcements regarding new courses, senior level staff appointments and other newsworthy events. These media announcements are distributed to carefully selected media based on the topic of the announcement; common examples are higher education, economics, business and accounting.
Topical angles
We monitor the media to determine opportunities to have professors interviewed for feature articles, regular columns and to provide expert opinion about topical news affairs. When an opportunity is found we develop a media pitch. For example, following the announcement of the carbon price in July 2011 we arranged several radio interviews for a professor who specialises in carbon policy, resulting in fantastic media coverage for the Faculty.
Case studies
We regularly interview current and former students of the Faculty about their experiences while studying, and pitch these stories as media angles. An example of this is Sarah Ho, who studied while working full time and pregnant with her first child. She was profiled in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Articles
When the professors complete research reports, we assess their suitability to be edited into a shorter article to be pitched to media. This results in a well-supported article that is valuable to relevant publications. For example, an article by Executive Dean of the Faculty, Mark Gabbott, was published in Management Today.
Speaking engagements
Given the professors’ experience in public speaking in lectures, and their expertise in areas of business and economics, we regularly pitch them to speak at conferences. This raises their profile and the profile of the Faculty. We have secured some great speaking engagements including the Australian HR Summit and the National Learning and Teaching Forum.
We’ve had fantastic success in increasing media coverage of Macquarie University Faculty of Business and Economics and raising their profile in Australia. Significant media coverage includes ABC radio, the Australian Financial Review, BRW, HR Daily, Human Capital, In the Black, Insto, The Conversation, The Sun-Herald and The Australian.