The marketing plan was essential for reaching the client's attendance goal. For the event to be successful we needed students to attend. All marketing mediums included the class created hashtag, #SweetOnGV. The hashtag would allow the class to promote the event and link relevant media to the hashtag, and engage with attendees who post their own event photos. Since our target audience was GVSU underclassmen, we utilized print, social media, and physically marked the event with tabling. Below is the breakdown of each of the three marketing mediums:

 

Print

My class was fortunate enough to connect with a GVSU graphic design student, Riley. Once the class selected the theme of "find your sweet major" she developed a poster with pastels. The poster was then hung through both GVSU campuses, sent in an e-mail from the Student Academic Success Center to undeclared major students, used on the plugger at tabling sessions, and used as a basis to develop other advertising means. She also designed a border to be used on signage to correlate with the theme and poster. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Media

Social media was the best way to connect with our target audience. The students on the marketing committee utilized the event's hashtag, #SweetOnGV, with all social media postings. The marketing committee also created a public Facebook event where we could post all updates on the event, invite students, and share on our personal profiles. Each student in the class posted on social media numerous times before the event to promote it on sites/apps such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and any other site that supported the hashtag. A Snapchat geofilter was also purchased for the event. It was available to use in Henry Hall between the times of  3-5p.m, the event's duration. Most of the social media postings were screenshots of the poster, pictures of the class preparing for the event, and the event itself. A few promotional videos, which were slide shows of the poster information over a candy-theme, were also shared on social media.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tabling

On the dates of March 16-19, between 11a.m.-1p.m., the marketing committee promoted the event by tabling. A table was placed in Kleiner, a building many GVSU students walk through to get to class, where the marketing committee passed out event pluggers, passed out event stickers, talked to interested students about the event, and gave out free candy. The banner, using Riley's design and border, was also used during the tabling sessions which helped establish a theme.