Berbay Marketing & Public Relations has awarded a $1,000 scholarship to Cristina Schmitter, a first-year public relations student at Biola University. She was selected based on her in-depth case study examining a poorly executed marketing program and how she would have executed the campaign differently.
Cristina wrote about the 2012 McDonald’s #McDStories Twitter campaign, which was meant to be a platform for customers to share their positive McDonald’s experiences. However, the campaign took a turn for the worse when customers instead used the hashtag to recount stories of unpleasant experiences they had at the fast food chain. Cristina suggested that the restaurant chain could have instead used a more specific and positive hashtag such as “#ImLovinItBecause” to encourage consumers to share good experiences.
Berbay launched its scholarship program in 2015 and plans to continue supporting marketing, public relations and communications students working toward a professional career in the field.
