Advertising Campaigns

ADPR 7740

Looking at the impact of COVID-19 on college campuses, Advertising Campaigns was a fantastic delve into real-world client work pertaining to a continuously changing outer environment. Working with my team, our greatest challenges were surrounding how to uncover our primary research in a quick and efficient way while also capitalizing on the socially-distant restrictions we had in place.

Firstly, the group conducted in-depth interviews and a multiple-question survey to gain more insight into the public needs and desires when it came to vaccination and the re-opening of campuses within the state of Georgia. Through this process, I thought it was incredibly useful to analyze the motivations of each of the students and to come up with ways to best reach said audience through engaging and stimulating content. Hearing the feedback from the individuals we approached and their own opinions surrounding the handling of the pandemic was also incredibly insightful in showcasing how different people focused on different aspects of their life, yet could still be united in a single goal: wanting a better future.

For this particular endeavor, I really enjoyed being able to showcase a little known out-of-home piece that I believed could prove beneficial: pop-up vending machines. Inspired by the “Hug a Coke” machines that had circulated campuses world-wide in 2012, I wanted to create a social media initiative and physical implementation of modern day tech in a new and creative way. Using a QR code for individuals to scan and select options from, the vending machine project would use motion sensing technology similar to that of the Xbox Kinect to “scan” the individual once they reached a designated point 6 feet away. Once the person’s positioning was confirmed, the vending machine would drop down a free mask with a design that they had chosen via the link provided upon scanning the QR code. With this, one could physically see how far 6 feet really is when it comes to social distancing, gain a free branded mask for promotion of the CDC Campaign as well as for promoting general safety, and finally providing a cool social media phenomena where individuals would be encouraged to post about and follow the pop-up to see where it could show up next.

Through the constant revision process and the large team effort, this class further solidified the importance of proper presentation techniques and simplified explanation when it came to new technologies. Many individuals did not understand what the purpose of the vending machine was when I first presented because I failed to give real-world examples to anchor the technology in. Additionally, many of our slides were either too word heavy, or used language that would alienate most of our audience. Placing a greater emphasis on simplicity and accessibility–even in word usage–was thus crucial to making our proposal stronger and more successful. As such, continuing to hone my speech and general presentation skills proved helpful for future projects, placing value in communication and being concise.