Fall 2014

Blog #12: 

What a semester! It was certainly one of the most stressful few months of my life. Now that it’s almost over, I can honestly say I have no clue where the time went. I started this semester at San Diego Mesa College as my second year in the Hospitality Program. I have enjoyed every single moment of it. Even through all of the blood, sweat, and tears (literally), I can honestly say i learned so much.

This class was a very enjoyable class. I was so stressed with everything in my other classes, that when I was about to step foot into my  sponsorship and promotion class, I could let out a sigh of relief. It was informative and challenging, but I made it worth my while. I took each assignment and never looked at it as busy work, to me it was a learning tool.

I feel as though I have learned how to market, promote, and sponsor an event. Of course it takes experience to become an expert, but I definitely know how to create a marketing strategy, and how to create a sponsorship program for any type of event. Event marketing can differ from corporate events, association events, festival events, and social events. Each event has it’s own target market, which will ultimately result in finding the right sponsors that can help with the marketing and promotion.

To my instructor Nicole Matthews CSEP, I would like to thank you truly from the bottom of my heart for letting us as students grow from your experiences. You have given us all real world scenarios to walk away from class with, not just textbook knowledge. You made all of us as students feel comfortable asking questions, and to tell you just about our personal lives as we strive to pursue careers in the event industry. Thank you so much for sincerely being an inspiration to me.

Controversy is Better Than Nothing At All

Blog #11: Identify marketing practices used in non-profits.

Marketing practices used in meetings and events can vary. The very first non-profit organization that I thought of that has successfully used marketing practices is PETA. PETA is a well known non-profit organization which stands for People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.

This cause is supported by millions of people worldwide, and gets millions of dollars worth of global press coverage. PETA’s most famous marketing campaign is the “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur.” This campaign is supported by dozens of celebrities, and is a brilliant way to get people talking while also making a point. Whether it is good or bad and even though it has been said that they are exploiting women in their ads, it is consistently talked about.

The hottest marketing trends right now are of course anything to do with social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Of course PETA has taken advantage all of the social media marketing strategies. It is safe to say that if you aren’t connected to social media than you most likely won’t be successful in today’s business world.

Sponsorship Proposal Template

Blog #10: Create event sponsorship proposals

This is a draft of a sponsorship letter, which would be your first letter of introduction to a potential sponsor. The letter should also include a brief overview of what you are proposing. For this blog I will give an example of a sponsorship letter template I would create for a non-profit organization. Here is my example of a sponsorship proposal for the To Write Love On Her Arms non-profit event.

Dear Mr. Sponsor,

On behalf of the To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) Organization, I would like to discuss sponsorship opportunities for the 2013 TWLOHA Festival. The Festival is a fundraiser event that creates a network of over 500,000 high school, college, and university students in the San Diego district along with 1 million alumni to raise funds and awareness of the cause. The 2013 TWLOHA Festival will be held March 29th at San Diego State University.

Since the majority of TWLOHA Festival participants fit your demographics, sponsoring the TWLOHA Festival is a great way to reach your target audience and potential advertisers, while also making a difference in our community.

I hope you will allow me the opportunity to provide you with sponsorship opportunities and discuss how we can make this a mutually beneficial experience. I will follow up with you later this week. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me at (555) 555-5555.

Sincerely,

Rachel Bradley

Movie Premier Sponsorship Opportunities

Blog #9: Identify qualified prospective sponsors

You are charged with self-producing your own high-profile movie premier. Which movie would you choose? What are the elements of your event? Identify your list of qualified prospective sponsors based on your target market.

The Hunger Games: MockingJay Part 1

The movie is not expected to be released until the Fall of 2014, and the movie premiere is sure to be a huge event. If I was to produce this event I would bring to life the characters that are associated with the movie. They would be dressed in character so guests can interact, and take pictures with their favorite characters.

If my budget allows for it I think it would be fun to create personalized gift bags or “swag bags” per each character. So for each character their gift bag could include just a few small things like pins and merchandise for the movie such as a shirt or poster. Each guest could choose which character gift bag they want, and in return it will create a surprise for each guest depending on who they choose.

My target market for this type of movie is huge since so many different types of people would go see the movie. It can range from adults and teenagers that have read the book trilogy to a generation who just likes the movies.

The target market type of sponsors that I would look for would be book brands or something similar like (Amazon: Kindle), technology brands (Sony), and fast food brands (Subway). They chose sponsors in previous events that are extremely well known that could promote and advertise the movie in a variety of different ways.

Non-Profit Event Sponsorship Program

Blog #8: Formulate an event sponsorship program

Creating an event sponsorship program for a non-profits’ annual fundraiser event is a huge task. An annual fundraiser can raise a lot of money for a non-profit, and of course you should try to recruit as many sponsors as you can. A sponsorship program should have different levels of sponsorship. Depending how much money the sponsor donates, the sponsor receives that level of recognition at or before the event. Levels usually range from Gold (being the highest) to Silver, to Bronze, so on and so forth.

If the organization is large enough there can be national sponsors which usually consist of large companies that are willing to donate a large sum of money to the cause. National sponsors can be limited to just a few chosen companies, and those companies will in turn be a part of the marketing, promoting, and advertising for the event. Of course for a potential sponsor there must be enough value included with the marketing, and promoting of their company for them to donate to the organization.

Each company has a different outlook on what value is to them. Value could range from brand building, opportunities to sample, the audience, or media coverage. Each of these things can be included in the different levels of sponsorship.

PR Strategy for an Art Gallery

Blog #7: Develop a public relations strategy

Developing a public relations strategy is something that needs time, effort, and of course online and offline marketing. In this blog I will create a PR strategy for a local artist who has just opened a new art gallery of her own work.

First she must gain followers of people who like art, and enjoy going to art galleries. To do this the artist if she doesn’t already must create every type of social media available. This way people can understand the type of art she is creating, and they can see samples of work she has to offer. Creating social media will show us how many people could potentially come to her gallery if she has an event.

The next step would be to bring some samples of her work to a community event so people can see her work outside of the gallery. Being in the local community will give her the opportunity to show off her art, and talk to anyone that is interested. Of course this will also bring those people to the gallery, and she will be able to give them her information to her social media sites and website.  Once she has followers it would be smart to create a press release describing her story, her art, and her journey.

December Nights

Blog#6: Conduct market research for a potential event.

December is a month filled with events. The holiday season is upon us and with that comes many things to do. One event in December that is always exciting here in San Diego is December Nights in Balboa Park.

Balboa Park December Nights took place for the 35th consecutive year on Friday, Dec. 6, 3-11pm, and Saturday, Dec. 7, noon-11pm. As always, the event brought families and friends together to spread holiday joy, learn more about the cultural value of Balboa Park and kick-off the “most wonderful time of the year.”

Participating Balboa Park museums open their doors free of charge from 5-9 pm both evenings and more than 350,000 visitors are expected to experience the joy of San Diego’s largest free community festival. Those who attend will participate in a truly multicultural experience, enjoying food, music and entertainment from around the world.

The target market for an event of this excalibur is for really supposed to reach anyone who wants to experience Christmas cheer. I believe the demographics for this event usually falls into the family category, however.

Conducting a SWOT for this event will help us get a bigger and better picture of how to improve this event.

Strengths:

• Has excellent resources to venues
• Volume of attendees grows every year
• Has a history within San Diego

Weaknesses:

• The event only lasts for two days (6th &7th)
• Parking is pretty much impossible
• Does the same thing every year. Some new ideas could be good for the festival

Opportunities:

• They could make this event last for 2, or even 3 weekends, and attract way more people towards the actual date of christmas.
• Improve parking by opening up the lots at SeaWorld, and doing some kind of sponsorship opportunity with SeaWorld.
• With new technology being discovered everyday, Balboa Park could add new features.

Threats:

• Injuries due to the capacity of the event holding 300,000 people.
• Competitors are doing similar events that could take some business
• People could be detoured from coming to December Nights just due to traffic

My SWOT analysis of December nights is completely due to my own opinion. There are many positives and negatives that happen to revolve around this event, but some would say the positive drown the negatives. If you can get past the enormous amounts of people, and terrible parking and traffic issues, and manage to make it into the park – you will truly experience something like a mini wonderland. 

 

Converse: Traditional vs. Social Media Advertising

Blog#5: Evaluate the strengths of traditional vs. social media

Converse is a brand almost anyone around the world can recognize. Whether you call them Converse, or Chucks, or sneakers, they are a brand almost anyone can identify with. Converse has such wide spread recognition, yet like any brand they must constantly advertise so people don’t forget them.

One of the ways Converse advertise is through traditional techniques. They use ad campaigns across the globe to further their brand. They use billboards, magazine print ads, and broadcasts on TV. This is good because it can help shape the mold of the brand if they ever choose to change its direction. They are considered a “skateboard” brand, but may people who don’t skate wear these sneakers. They are more than just a shoe brand, they are a style choice for the people who put these on their feet.

There are also other ways that Converse advertise, including social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and many others are ways that converse can stay connected to people directly. They will know who likes what, and what appeals to their target market based on what people on the internet respond to positively. Converse are constantly doing contests to get people more engaged in their brand. The one for 2013 was to upload a picture of yourself in your most fashionable ensemble wearing Converse sneakers for the chance to win an all expenses paid trip to NYC including a $1,000 Back-to-School shopping spree, personal consultation with a Seventeen Style Pro, $250 Journeys gift card, and more!

There is a team behind the scene who reflects on comments from social media to improve the brand, and to reach out and make their customers feel like they are a part of something more than just a shoe.

Related articles

• How Brands Can Effectively Engage with Social Leads on Twitter (business2community.com)
• 4 Big Don’ts For Your Social Media Marketing Strategy (tailwindapp.com)
• 4 steps to gauge a brand extension with social media (prdaily.com)

A Perfect Day To Be a Kid

Blog #4- Identify and develop a promotional strategy, including the event proposal, invitations, advertising, publicity, contests, promotional merchandise, sales promotions and packaging.

Adventure to Santa Clarita, CA where you will find a paradise built for kids. At Mountasia, there is everything for a kid to enjoy. Literally, everything. It has Rock Climbing walls, Laser Tag, Bumper Boats, Go Karts, Mini-Golf, Batting Cages, and an Arcade. This place was built to satisfy the developing mind. This event would consist will a full day of a variety of activities geared towards working together and making new friends.

Promoting an event like this would be something anyone could do. Speaking with teachers in schools, posting up flyers in major children oriented areas, and of course taking it to the internet with some social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Working with the schools would be my main focus, seeing as how it would be the most possible to make a promotional deal with them. This kind of event would be a fantastic way to bring kids from all different schools together, and it would certainly make for an event that would keep them entertained.

Promotional strategies are fairly simple when the event on its own is a match made in heaven. I believe a lot of kids would enjoy all the available activities, and getting them to want to come seems like a task that is fairly simple.

Analyzing Generations

Blog #3:Analyze market segments and their corresponding product, meeting or event needs

Assume you have to plan an event for Gen X/Y vs. Baby Boomers. What are the market segments for both, as well as the common demographics and psychographics. What type of event would you plan for both markets? To begin a task such as this, we must first define the demographics and psychographics of each of the generations.

Baby Boomers: is the generation who was born during the demographic Post–World War II baby boom between the years 1946 and 1964. They are risk-takers, idealistic, workaholics, confident, and visionaries.

Generation X: is the generation born after the Western Post–World War II baby boom. Demographers, historians and commentators use beginning birth dates from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. They are highly educated, active, balanced, happy and family oriented.

Generation Y: is the generation also known as the Millennials. are the demographic cohort following Generation X. Commentators use beginning birth years from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. This generation has a strong sense of community both local and global, and a marked increase in use and familiarity with communication, media, and digital technologies.

All generations are active, and have a sense of a good time in their own ideals. For a baby boomer event, a good evening for them would be an event to take them back in time to a sense of when they were young, confident, and simply having fun living life. With dancing, music, and backdrops of life when they were young, it would be a night to remember. For a Gen x event, a day event with activities for their family and friends with some good food and laughter would make for an event they would like to return to annually. And finally for a Gen Y event, something tangible and new and exciting for them to discover would be an ideal good time. Perhaps new technology in an innovative room.

Related articles

• Goodbye Boomers. Hello Gen X and Gen Y (blogs.wsj.com)
• Multi-Generational Workplace – Are You Ready? (business2community.com)