This coordinated marketing plan helped create overflow attendance for two events featuring author Margot Lee Shetterly at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. The plan included print, social and grassroots elements, and resulted in both events being sold out.
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EXCERPT FROM MARKETING PLAN
The Big Idea
As students return to campus in January, 2017, they will begin hearing about a new movement. Students are posting images, tweets and declarations using the hashtag #IAmNotHidden. The posts are at once defiant and moving. Proud and thoughtful. They are giving voice to the communities on campus who are feeling marginalized or forgotten. Those who want to proudly assert their presence and celebrate their differences.
The hashtag can be seen on buttons worn by students throughout the College. About two weeks into the semester, rolling whiteboards appear in the Dude connector with signatures and messages using the hashtag. And posters appear across campus with the hashtag attached to an event: a speech, chat and book signing with author Margot Lee Shetterly.
All this is connected to the event, and raising awareness for underrepresented minorities at the College. It all ties into the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the history of the hidden African American females at NASA who helped win the Space Race. Through this campaign, students are encouraged to celebrate the diversity of this College, and come hear and talk to Shetterly, who has been studying the history of these remarkable women for decades.
The Plan
- November
- Complete description and post to multiple websites
- Print/purchase advertising assets, including posters and bus signs
- December
- Email student groups to raise awareness and support for upcoming campaign, asking them to be prepared to use the hashtag and pick up their buttons when they get back on campus
- Distribute posters and bus signs throughout campus and local high schools
- January
- Print/purchase pins and other assets for the event, including large event signs and programs
- Social media campaign with hashtag begins
- Feature event on College platforms, including homepage, Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat and Instagram
- Email campaign about event to student orgs, all female engineering students, STEM undergraduate and graduate women and K-12 contacts
- Distribute press release and pitch to local websites/news orgs
- Create student-staffed stations on campus to give away books, pins and increase awareness of event and hashtag
Jennifer Judge Hensel 