Why science, tech, engineering, and math need better PR

Careers in science, tech, engineering, and math (STEM) are growing, but not enough students are pursuing them.

Momentum Communications Group partnered with the Siemens Foundation to help promote the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. We award them top honors in the Best Media Relations Campaign—Under $100,000 category of PR Daily’s 2013 Media Relations Awards because the effort exceeded its goals and let more people know about the importance of pursuing a STEM career.

Each year, students submit original research projects for a chance to win scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $100,000, according to the entry. More than 90 students were selected as regional finalists to compete at MIT and Caltech.

To promote the competition, Momentum Communications Group did the following:

• Team members localized competition news with customized press releases and conducted intensive media outreach to the 25 states of the 93 regional finalists, as well as the seven competition event markets.
• They enlisted students as social media ambassadors to post Twitter and Facebook updates throughout the competition.
• They evaluated student projects to tease out trends and commonalities for national media.
• They populated an in-depth Internet news release with multimedia assets, including bios and photos of national finalists and video that humanized the students by showing whimsical hidden talents, such as tap dancing and solving a Rubik’s cube.

These stats illustrate the campaign’s success:

• 679 media stories, appearing in such outlets as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times
• 100 unique TV and radio segments, including stories on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX affiliates
• 9.3 million people reached through Twitter activity during regional and national events

Congratulations to the winning team.

Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.