2. 2
A strategic public relations proposal prepared for:
IC Club BaseballNovember 24th, 2016
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Executive Summary
Ithaca Club Baseball (ICB) a new sport at Ithaca College was invited to participate as a
client in the Department of Strategic Communications’ Public Relations Lab “Lab16”
during the 2016 Fall semester. Lab16 is a senior capstone course of the Roy H. Park
School of Communications designed to operate as a real world public relations agency to
enhance learning in an experiential setting.
I was tasked to design and develop strategic initiatives that work to enhance the brand
image and fundraising efforts of IC Club Baseball. As such, I have designed a campaign
to establish and validate the organization’s brand formation and to elevate its brand
awareness within target segments that would directly benefit the bottom line of the club
sport.
I believe that IC Club Baseball currently lacks a clear branding strategy and that a
strategic branding campaign is immediately necessary for its short-term and long term
success, ultimately, to increase its fundraising capacity. The organization must increase
their fundraising efforts utilizing current fundraising technologies to IC Club Baseball’s
benefit.
The strategic initiatives suggested in this proposal will allow IC Club Baseball to
communicate key messages to its publics through the use of strategically chosen
communication channels.
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Table of Contents
Situational Analysis……………………………………………………………………….
Competitor Analysis……………………………………………………………….
SWOT Analysis……………………………………………………........................
Target Audience Analysis………………………………………………………….
Proposal Objectives……………………………………………………………………….
Strategic Initiatives………………………………………………………………………..
Brand Strategy and Tactics…………………………………………………………
Fundraising Strategy and Tactics………………………………………………………
Implementation……………………………………………………………………………
Timetable……………………………………………………………………………..
Measurement and Evaluation
Branding…………………………………………………………………….
Fundraising ………………………………………………………………….
Estimated Fees…………………………………………………………………………….
Agency…………………………………………………………………………..
About……………………………………………………………………
Bio……………………………………………………………………………
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Situational Analysis
IC Club Baseball is a club organization on Ithaca College’s campus located in Ithaca,
New York. The team officially became a club at Ithaca College in August of 2015. IC
Club Baseball competes against many different competing collegiate clubs at other
schools throughout the school year such as Alfred, Cornell, Cortland, Syracuse, Buffalo
and etc. See APPENDIX A. The club team is made up of about 25 members.
Club teams are voluntarily organized by students and only exist for the purpose of
furthering a common interest in a physical activity through competition, instruction,
participation, or performance. Ithaca College students elect their own officers, draft their
own constitution, request facility space, get approval for and make travel arrangements,
schedule contests with other teams, develop contracts with officials and artists, and
manage their budget.
IC Club Baseball serves to provide collegiate student-athletes with the opportunity to
play competitive, organized college baseball and to continually improve this experience
for all participants. They strive to accomplish this by building lasting relationships based
upon trust, commitment, dedication, understanding and strong lines of communication.
IC Club Baseball strongly values:
Diversity: in opinion, thought and culture.
Leadership: in the classroom and on the field.
Integrity: in how we conduct our business.
Courage: to be different, take risks, accept failure, to take a stand.
Safety: in a supportive learning environment in which participants can build a
sense of community.
Accountability: in all our actions.
Teamwork: in working as a team we can achieve more
Responsiveness: to community interests, needs and new ideas
These values help IC Club Baseball to clearly define their mission as an organization in
the Ithaca community.
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The Ithaca Club Baseball team provides an opportunity for male students 18-23 who
attend Ithaca College to join the club team. Members must try out to make the team. They
judge each individual player based on his merits at his chosen position. A pitcher is not
judged by the same criteria as a third baseman, as the skills needed to play their positions
are very different. Playing multiple positions is thought of very highly, as the demands on
our members' time is great. Each player receives at least two days of evaluation, unless
we determine on the first day that his presence endangers himself and others, as baseball
can be a dangerous sport when highly skilled competitive players compete with
beginners.
IC Club Baseball is primarily sponsored by Ithaca College physically and emotionally.
There are 19 club sports teams at Ithaca College and they are managed by Brian Beam
the Program Coordinator, Intramural & Club Sports. To look at the different sport clubs
look at APPENDIX B. IC Club Baseball’s interim President is Jack Fagan who is a
senior sports studies major and interim Vice President is Aaron Jay a junior psychology
major, both manage the newest team, IC Baseball.
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Competitor Analysis
IC Baseball Team: The baseball team that represents Ithaca College. They are a division
III baseball team and one of the many teams in the Empire 8 Conference. Games they
play are very competitive.
Facebook: 175 followers
Twitter: 547 followers
Instagram: 395 followers
Ithaca High School Baseball Team: This is the baseball team that represents Ithaca
High School in Ithaca, NY. They play in Section 4AA Division I with other close high
school from around the area such as Horseheads, Corning Post and Elmira/Southside.
Facebook: 574 followers
Twitter: N/A
Instagram: N/A
Ithaca Football: Is the varsity football team that represents Ithaca College. They are one
of the best division 3 football teams in the country and have won multiple division titles.
Games they play are very competitive.
Facebook: 770 followers
Twitter: 2,050 followers
Instagram: N/A
IC Men’s Club Lacrosse: Voluntarily organized Lacrosse club by students. A
competitive sports club for the purpose of furthering a common interest in a physical
activity through competition, instruction, participation, or performance. The Lacrosse
club members elect their own officers, draft their own constitution, request facility space,
get approval for and make travel arrangements, schedule contests with other teams,
develop contracts with officials and artists, and manage their budget. They also compete
in the National Collegiate Lacrosse League. They are one of the more popular men’s club
teams on Ithaca’s campus.
Facebook: 45 followers
Twitter: 178 followers
Instagram: 5 followers
IC Men’s Club Hockey: Voluntarily organized Men’s Ice Hockey club by students. A
competitive sports club for the purpose of furthering a common interest in a physical
activity through competition, instruction, participation, or performance. The Men’s Ice
Hockey club members elect their own officers, draft their own constitution, request
facility space, get approval for and make travel arrangements, schedule contests with
other teams, develop contracts with officials and artists, and manage their budget. The
Men's Ice Hockey club competes in the competitive National Collegiate Hockey
Association (NCHA), specifically in the UNYCHL (Upstate New York Club Hockey
League). Practices and home games are held at the Rink in Lansing. The team is coached
by Oni Sutich who recently graduated Ithaca College undergraduate program.
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Facebook: 513 followers
Twitter: 296 followers
Instagram: 95 followers
IC Men’s Club Soccer: Voluntarily organized Men’s Soccer club by students. A
competitive sports club for the purpose of furthering a common interest in a physical
activity through competition, instruction, participation, or performance. The team
competes in a fall league against schools in the central New York area in an effort to
qualify for a regional and national tournament. In the winter the club team plays in an
indoor league at a soccer facility in Lansing, NY. In the spring the club team schedules
games against other schools in the central New York area.
Facebook: 301 followers
Twitter: 71 followers
Instagram: 32 followers
IC Men’s Ultimate Frisbee Club: The 2006-07 Ithaca College Men’s Ultimate Frisbee
Team, also known as Nawshus Ultimate, competed in 11 tournaments this year traveling
to places as close as Binghamton and Rochester and as far as Newark, Delaware,
Charleston, South Carolina, and Tybee Island, Georgia. Their overall record was 34-21,
and their 27-man roster was a younger team that included 10 freshmen.
Facebook: 213 followers
Twitter: 198 followers
Instagram: N/A
IC Men’s Club Rugby: Voluntarily organized Men’s Rugby club by students. A
competitive sports club for the purpose of furthering a common interest in a physical
activity through competition, instruction, participation, or performance. A pretty popular
Men’s club on Ithaca’s campus. A lot of competitive former athletes play on this team,
especially America Football players.
Facebook: 917 followers
Twitter: 606 followers
Instagram: 45 followers
Intramural Sports: Each year approximately 20% of Ithaca College students participate
in our Intramural Sports programming. They offer 5-7 week leagues in a variety of sports
including soccer, volleyball, flag football, and basketball, in addition to single day events
such as tennis tournaments and battleship. All people are welcome to join – there are no
tryouts, just an online sign-up sheet. Intramural Sports are designed to appeal to all skill
levels, whether you are trying something new or looking for a more competitive
experience. The Intramural Sports office hires student workers as office assistants,
officials, and supervisors.
Facebook: 255 followers
Twitter: 245 followers
Instagram: 128 followers
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SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
Ithaca College is the parent company
Newly established Club Sports Team
Club Baseball has a lot of members compared to the various club teams
Team manages their own budget and drafts own constitution
They choose what teams they want to play against
Fewer members getting cut from team
Continuing to play the sport you love/ Furthering a common interest
More relaxed team with fewer practices
Market through Facebook, school activities fair and school's website
Have their own logo
One of the best Club Baseball team’s in the country
Weaknesses:
They are only a Club Team not an actual athletic team that represents Ithaca
College
Many competing Ithaca College sports teams
Unknown Club Team
Lack of resources (money and space)
Small number of participants try out for team
Lack of audience watching games
Website
Lack of various social media’s
Lack of branding efficiency and consistency
Time commitment
No hook to get students to participate in co-curricular activities that are part of the
liberal arts experience/learning
Opportunities:
Instead of solely targeting the younger demographic, it may be advantageous to
reach Generation X that have children beyond campus.
To appeal to an older audience with children, would be beneficial for getting loyal
fans, having a bigger audience, and spreading awareness about the brand.
Increase social media involvement across all handles.
In order to increase awareness and raise funds for the organization, planning fun
events for consumers to attend (besides the game) would be a great opportunity to
connect with IC Club Baseball’s audience.
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Threats:
IC Club Baseball is missing out on Generation X (ages 34-54) with kids.
IC Club Baseball is in competition with many other sports teams in the area
mainly with the Ithaca Collegiate Baseball Team and Cornell’s Collegiate
Baseball Team.
Many people don’t appreciate the game of baseball
Baseball is a great sport to play, however the games are on the weekends and
there are many other professional or collegiate sports games going on those days
such as football, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, volleyball, wrestling and basketball.
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Target Audience
IC Club Baseball’s current target audience are millennials 18-24 years old. IC Club
Baseball has successfully captured this audience as they currently have around 25 players
and that many players that have tried out for the team unfortunately didn’t make it. They
have three tryouts annually. For IC Club Baseball to further develop their brand and
enlarge their fundraising efforts it is very important to continue targeting Ithaca College
students and the Ithaca community to start building relationships with them in order to
gain their loyalty and desire to donate to a good club sports team. IC Club Baseball
should continue to target potential players, which is their current target audience,
however they need to focus on working with the community, which will help their brand
awareness and will bring in more donations.
Millennials:
The primary audience I would recommend for IC Club Baseball is millennials. We define
millennials in 2016 as individuals who are in the 18-34-year-old range who are also
known as Generation Y. In this specific case, IC Club Baseball is targeting millennials
only 18-24. IC Club Baseball is already targeting their current audience. This target
group will tremendously help IC Club Baseball get their brand to be recognized by
students who attend the school. These students have stable income and the ability to
donate both small and larger amounts, since they go to a college institution that is very
expensive, around $60,000 a year. Their primary target market is both male and females
who are currently in college, however they are more focused on males to get potential
players for their team. However, females still play an important role as they can spread
awareness about the brand and help donate to a good and upcoming club team.
IC Club Baseball should be able to understand their primary audience and how they can
help bring many opportunities to them as they share the same specific characteristics with
their primary target. It is important to play into the target audience strengths in order to
be successful. Millennials are very collaborative, tech savvy and innovative. These
specific audience insights can help influence IC Club Baseball accomplish their primary
objective, which is brand awareness. For fundraising, millennials tend to spend money
depending on the occasion and like to spend least as possible.
Millennials need constant communication. Millennials are digital natives that were born
into an era in which digitally provided services are a commonplace. They expect speed,
convenience, flexibility and power in anything they do. Millennials keep their time and
commitments flexible in order to take advantage of better options. Simply put,
millennials want “the experience” the moments that are personalized, relevant to their
lives, and worth sharing with family and friends. According to the NACDA report
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“(81%) of millennials say they value experiences over material items and (75%) want
brands to provide opportunities for more life experiences”. Millennials want to contribute
and add their skills and knowledge to any project or team. They have difficulty in dealing
with delays, waiting in line, or any other “counterproductive” processes. It is important to
grab their attention from the start or they will doze off. They think education is important
but dread the financial burden where they often spend a lot of money. To get millennials
help in fundraising it has to be low involvement and simple to donate, usually connected
to technology/social media.
When considering ways to attract and incentivize millennials to attend live games more
regularly the organization should consider tapping into fans’ additional passion points to
deliver value. Across the sports landscape, a significant number of brands and properties
are actively beginning to leverage music, entertainment, food and wine, and live theatre
relationships and assets in conjunction with sports to effectively reach and engage fans.
Sports fans who are millennials attend collegiate sports games at (36%) which is the
second highest percentage only behind Generation X. Also fans that would go to the
game are more likely to be adults 18-24 at (41%). About (30%) of millennial sports fans
are also listeners and would listen to the game on the radio.
Generation X:
The secondary audience I would recommend for IC Club Baseball is Generation X (ages
34-54) otherwise known as the “neglected middle child”. To reach this audience the club
organization would have to support community events and do community work. They are
one generation younger than Baby Boomers and are most likely going to have children
ranging from 1-18 years old. This generation has a stable income and the ability to donate
both small and larger amounts. They are college educated and are both male and female,
and are in the beginning to middle stages of raising their family. To understand this
secondary audience, it is important to know how they think and why they act the way
they do. Gen X often feels forgotten, as they are a significantly smaller group than Baby
Boomers and Millennials. This generation is independent and is focused on work to
achieve success. This focus on work and success makes them enjoy structure and
timeliness. This particular insight may help to influence the IC Club Baseball branding,
as it would be important to Gen X to have consistency and structure in a brand they like.
For fundraising, it would be important to note that Gen X tends to save their money and
can be conservative in their spending.
Gen X communicate best directly through email, cell, texting, or instant messaging.
Respect their independence and be flexible with their choices they communicate better
when they have freedom to choose the method. They have very clear expectations and
may be intensely independent, but they are also goal-oriented and responsible. They
focus on facts and results using straightforward language. Generation X individuals are
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resourceful and self-sufficient people who seek fun and meaningful work. As well, they
prefer flexible work schedules and work-from-home options. They like to separate their
work from personal life by preferring their work to stay on a work phone and email. Also
this generation can be skeptical, cynical, lazy and quick to question everything at times.
To appeal to Generation X, it is a good idea to use humor in fundraising and advertising
techniques. A brand’s story is important to developing loyalty with Gen Xers. This
audience like both slow and fast paced sports. They like to watch sports games online, on
TV or actually going to the game. This group is caught in the middle of streaming sports
games or going to the game. Out of all the different professional sports, professional
sports fans who are apart of Generation X still enjoy baseball (26%) as the 6th most
watched sport. In addition, (39%) of college fans who attend sports games are a part of
Generation X, as well, (43%) listen to live collegiate sporting events. Adults 35-54 are
(19%) more likely than the average individual to listen to a game on the radio.
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Objectives
Build brand awareness of IC Club Baseball at Ithaca College and in the
community.
Design and develop strategies with accompanying tactics to elevate the financial
resources of the organization.
I believe the objectives listed above directly support the following organizational
priorities:
o Create and distribute all content on available social media platforms.
o Develop and implement an audience growth strategy to obtain a larger
audience and more viewership during games.
o Develop and increase funding strategies to elevate the organization in the
Ithaca community.
Branding:
Objectives: Build Brand Awareness of IC Club Baseball at Ithaca College
Strategy I: Implement the use of content marketing across multiple social platforms.
They currently only have a Facebook page and they are hard to find on Ithaca College’s
website through the Ithaca’s Office of Recreation Sports page with the amount of other
sports and clutter. By having content marketing through the multiple social platforms
brand awareness will ultimately spread quickly and it will get the message out there to
the audience. This will allow people to easily locate valuable, relevant and consistent
content through the various platforms. As well, people will recognize the brand and
they’ll be reminded of the brand through effective and consistent content. Use social
media platforms to generate brand awareness such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
See APPENDIX C+D
Tactics that support this strategy include, but are not limited to:
1. Create events and invite people to them.
a. This will notify people multiple times about the event.
b. Will get people excited, and encourage fans to share information about the event
with their friends.
2. Stream live action on Facebook and Twitter.
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3. Get visual with photos and videos put on Instagram.
. Grabbing the attention of the target audience is made all the easier when the
organization attach images with updates, regardless of the platform.
4. Have social media followers with high engagement and follower count to post
about the IC Club Baseball brand after establishing the brand.
5. IC Club Baseball should build a group of influencers to help improve brand
awareness value. This is very time consuming and a laborious task starting from
scratch, however the top social media sites have been around long enough for
many people to have built up an audience of the target buyers, already. The
organization wants to connect with non-competing “influencers” in a way that
benefits both parties and forge a joint partnership. Influencers meaning people
who have a strong social media following and influence in the industry. They will
help speak to the particular target audience and engage with them. I would
recommend that IC Club Baseball starts with at least one influencer. This
influencer for IC Club Baseball should help raise awareness about games or
relevant articles relating to IC Club Baseball at least once a week through their
platforms. IC Club Baseball will provide web links to the influencers for each
event or article they can help promote to easily track the effectiveness of the
influencers. The contracts with the influencer will stand for each full school year.
After the full school year, IC Club Baseball will have the opportunity to analyze
the social impact of each influencer and decide whether to stay with their current
influencer, or bring in a new one.
Strategy II: Use one consistent logo across all platforms.
Currently, the IC Club Baseball logo on Facebook is different from the logo on the Ithaca
College’s website. This creates confusion amongst people. By having a consistent design
across all platforms, they will be thought of more as an established brand and people will
be constantly reminded who IC Club Baseball is.
Tactics that support this strategy include, but are not limited to:
1.Use a style guide for reference to ensure that all branding is consistent across websites
and media platforms including design, overall message, color scheme, tone of voice,
purpose, etc.
2. Make sure it can’t be confused with other sports teams.
3. Less is more
Strategy III: Relocate from the Ithaca College website to the Ithaca Athletics
Website.
IC Club Baseball along with the other club and intramural sports teams should be
relocated from the Ithaca College website to the Ithaca Athletics Website. This will get
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rid of confusion and make the IC Club Baseball brand more noticeable and in a better
position with less unrelated information and in less clutter. IC Club Baseball falls under
the Ithaca athletics canopy.
Tactics that support this strategy include, but are not limited to:
1. Talk to an individual who works at the athletics department at the college or set
up a meeting and see if they can put the organization on the Ithaca athletics site
with the other men’s and women's sports organizations. This will be someone that
can give the organization an explanation on why the organization can or can’t be
on the Ithaca athletics site. If not find out how the organization can be a part of
the athletics site. Find out what it takes.
Strategy IV: Get involved with community.
Also start getting involved with the Ithaca community by doing community service and
supporting other local sporting events. This will grab the attention of the older working
demographic in the Ithaca community and the younger demographic who attend the
Ithaca schools. The organization might not even be aware of how many sports teams
surround Ithaca. Think about it. Does the town have a Little League? What about a Minor
League? Think about high school and college sports teams can the organization go
support them? Players play because they love the game, but seeing fans in the stands can
make a world of difference. Go the games, cheer and support other local sports teams. If
the team supports another team that team the organization supported will be happy to
send back the favor to the team. Also to get an older demographic to go to the games do
community service or favors for the community. By doing this people don’t have an
excuse not to go. The more the organization gives to the community the more they give
back to the organization.
Tactics that support this strategy include, but are not limited to:
1. Join the Ithaca College volunteer list to follow the most up-to-date community
engagement opportunities in the area.
2. Connect with the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) and volunteer. By
volunteering more people would have a reason to come to the organizations sports
games.
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Fundraising:
Strategy I: Encourage and focus on getting small donation amounts.
By receiving small amounts of donations people are more likely to donate.
Tactics that support this strategy include, but are not limited to:
1. Have a donation jar where people swipe into the fitness center at Ithaca College.
2. Make connections with local businesses and other sports teams on campus. This
will encourage people to donate small amounts of money for the organization if
they know the team is heading in the right direction with positive attitudes. Also
think about doing them a favor or giving something to them so they would really
want to donate more in return for what you have done for them and possibly
attend the organizations game.
Strategy II: Create more fundraising events and expand fundraising ideas (besides a car
wash or Moonies Nightclub Fundraiser on a Wednesday night with another team). Events
help position you in your category (sports teams) and events establish interest. People
register for events because they want to learn more about the topic or issue that the
invitation promises to take them through. Make sure the event delivers the expectations
with relevant and valuable content.
Tactics that support this strategy include, but are not limited to:
1. Pitch-a-thon. Rent a radar gun and measure how fast people can throw a baseball
or kick a soccer ball. Charge $1 per try and give a prize to the fastest individual.
Many millennials will want to do this to prove they are better at throwing than
their friends.
2. Restaurant night. Everyone needs to eat! So match that need with an opportunity
to earn money from the profits of a local restaurant and it will create a win-win
situation! Many restaurants will share 10-20% of total sales with the organization.
Simply set up a night with the restaurant and get as many people to eat at that
particular restaurant on the designated date.
3. Rent an IC Club Baseball member. By having an auction, the organization gets
100% of the profit. IC Club Baseball can offer to “rent a club baseball member”
to families to do mow their lawns, do yard work, walk their dogs, help clean out
their garage or any other jobs they might need done. This is typically done in
increments of 30 minutes. It’s pretty simple and dry but can make a lot of money.
This event will bring people in from the school and the community.
Strategy III: Being more involved in the school and community events that take place.
Tactics that support this strategy include, but are not limited to:
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1. Being involved in other events that are taking place will help increase donations
for the team. Ways that IC Club Baseball can be more involved are tabling at
popular school and community events that include Apple Harvest Festival, Ithaca
Ice Festival, Ithaca Festival, Chili cook off, bake sales, Cortaca Jug and Ithaca
college spirit week. This will get the IC Club Baseball brand in the mind of the
students and community and gives them a chance to donate at the organizations
table, which may be more convenient to donate in person.
Strategy IV: Implement social media.
Social media allows the organization to have a fundraising presence on many platforms
and it's a great way to target and remind Millennials for donating. This platform can help
further encourage donors to donate and get fundraising events talked about on social
media. Social media provides an invaluable and underused set of tools that can facilitate
the fundraising process.
Tactics that support this strategy include, but are not limited to:
a. Identify: Begin by pinpointing relevant ‘interest indicators’, or ways in which
people express their interest in an idea or cause by talking or interacting about it in the
form of likes, shares, comments and posts.
b. Cultivation: build the social media audience and engage with the people who
follow the organization, the organization will inherently cultivate donors and doers.
Focus on getting to know the audience and building relationships so that they will want to
support IC Club Baseball and the cause when the organization asks. Having great
cultivation is a key ingredient in the fundraising process.
c. Solicitation: A strong, emotive message is important when the organization is
making a fundraising ask on social media. People use social media to make connections
and enjoy interesting content, so the organization needs to engage them to actually want
to leave the social media platform in order to sign up or donate. Use engaging content
such as videos, images or stories to show people what they’ll be contributing to if they
donate or fundraise for the cause.
d. Acknowledgement: critical to retaining the donor base. Social media allows the
organization to say thank you in a highly personal, public and creative way. In addition,
thanking the donors and fundraisers plants the seeds for future engagement and support.
Social media is a great opportunity to get more people to hear about the events and
receive invitations to them. Also will get more people to donate that aren't even in the
area. It can lead to more people visiting the page, more donor conversions and higher
conversion rates. This medium has fundraising potential and should be used to build and
increase fundraising efforts and the brand awareness.
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Branding Measurement & Evaluation
Social Media
Social media will be monitored through analytics platforms like Hootsuite or Facebook
Analytics. By using social media analytics platforms, the organization can manage
multiple social media accounts under one umbrella. It allows the organization to schedule
when posts go out on the different platforms, as well as analyze how specific posts are
doing throughout a given period of time. Weekly reports are available to the account
owner as a way to figure out what went right and what did not go forward. Facebook
Analytics is a key component when running a Facebook page. The organization is able to
monitor engagement as well as target ads to the specific target audience the organization
wants to reach for different campaigns.
See APPENDIX E
Logo
Next, a style guide will be created to make sure all branding is uniform across all media
platforms. To confirm this style guide is being implemented correctly, the organization
will need to look over all the materials from all the various platforms before publishing to
guarantee there is no confusion on style and layout. This will make the brand remain
consistent as defined by the style guide.
Influence
A subjective metric that relies on the company’s perspective for definition. In sum, the
organization wants to look at whether the engagement metrics listed above are positive,
neutral or negative in sentiment. The organization can also use tools like Social Mention,
Radian 6 or ScoutLabs to make it easier. Influence is generally displayed as a percentage
of positive, neutral and negative sentiment, which is then applied in relation to the
engagement metrics and to the metrics for reach where applicable. See APPENDIX F
Lead Generation Funnel
Measure and evaluate the brand through the lead generation funnel. This is where the
brand awareness portion of the funnel ends and the traditional ROI-driven action begins.
The organization can use excel to help organize their data. Excel can help build the
organization a standard dashboard in that highlights the key metrics that matter to the
organization. Also the organization could use Kissmetrics which is an analytics platform
designed to optimize marketing success and ROI. It lets the organization track
individuals, groups of similar individuals, and the organizational users as a whole
throughout their visit to the site.
See APPENDIX G
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Fundraising Measurement and Evaluation
Small Donations
Small donations collected at events, ask donors to fill out a form that includes name,
address, age, and any other basic information the organization may need to know about
them. Once the information is gathered, import it into Domo. Everything that is stored in
Domo, will help build the relationship IC Club Baseball needs to have with their
members. This program will allow a better understanding of the specific demographics
around the donors at each event, to make improvements for future events. By building the
relationship with the donors, the small donations will come in more frequently. See
APPENDIX H
Social Media
For social media donations Domo will provide the organization with an analytics
program that shows how many donations the organization had received and any available
demographic information about donors. This will allow IC Club Baseball to monitor the
success of their social media platforms and see which demographic is contributing the
most. This service is designed to provide direct, simplified, real time access to business
data without any IT involvement. It is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) venture. With the
implementation of Domo, IC Club Baseball can create events they are hosting or
participating at to the database, and connect with everyone who attended. By using
Domo, the donor/member profile becomes more and more personalized and it allows
Domo to analyze which events were successful, how much money was donated and much
more.
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Timetable to execute suggestedstrategies
Phase 1
Branding
● Create social platforms in order to spread brand awareness: November 2016 -
April 2017
● Develop a style guide for logo and make sure logo is consistent across all
platforms: December 2016 - May 2017
Fundraising
● Fundraising efforts will not begin until Phase 2.
Phase 2
Branding
● Create social media events
● Two-Five posts per month on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Fundraising
● Focus on getting small donations through social media and do one fundraising
event suggested
Phase 3
Branding
● Relocate from being on Ithaca College’s website to the Ithaca Athletics web page
● Five to Seven posts per month on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Fundraising
● Continue asking for small donations through social mediums
● Attend 1+ community event per month
Phase 4
Branding
● Attend 2+ community or sporting events
● Five to Seven posts per month on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
Fundraising
● Continue asking for small donations through social mediums
● Continue attending 1+ community event per month
22. 22
Estimated Fees
BRANDING FEES:
Style Guide: $0-1000
Kissmetrics: $220/per month
Social Mention: $0
Hootsuite Business Platform: $99.99/mo per user
FUNDRAISING FEES:
Rent A Radar Gun: $75-150/month
Domo $2,100/per year
Event Costs: Tabling $0 (application
required)
TOTAL: $8,739.88 per year
The total represented above, depicts the highest monetary value, this total is not set
and place and will definitely fluctuate.
Estimated Fees
Style Guide Kissmetrics Social Mention Hootsuite
Rent A Radar Gun Domo Event Tabling
23. 23
About the Agency
The strategic consulting experience creates a transformational learning environment for
the students enrolled in this senior capstone course (PRLAB ~ Lab16) in the Department
of Strategic Communication at Ithaca College.
The agency simulation of Lab16 allows for situated cognition – or learning in context – a
concept at the forefront of contemporary educational reform. As higher education moves
away from strictly content-laden curricula to curricula that emphasizes experiential
learning, it is critical that strategic communication majors have the requisite knowledge
and skills to use simulation as an apprenticeship that leads directly to securing
employment.
Lab16 operations consist of a set of activities that naturally overlay a business setting
with a focus on three elements: business coaching, executive briefings and longitudinal
assessment. The instructor assumes the role of a strategic consulting coach while
mentoring students through a series of executive briefings. These briefings enable the
instructor to evaluate 17 students according to a rubric designed after Bloom’s revised
hierarchy of learning. As well, an element of learner self-reflection is core to the success
of this simulation.
Lab16 provides a rich learning opportunity for students to integrate theory with practice
while making real-time strategic communication decisions in an environment that
embraces failure as much as it applauds success.
Bio
Austin Gomar a student at Ithaca College in the Roy H. Park School of Communications.
He is a Senior Tech, Issues and Operations Manager in Lab16. As an Integrated
Marketing Communications student, he is learning to effectively promote brands through
the mediums of social media, advertising, public relations, and more. Eager to learn more
about these fields through a hands-on approach.
This past summer he worked as an intern at Vaynermedia. He gained great knowledge
about the e-commerce and social platform fields. Austin researched and analyzed
international markets and specific product categories in the U.S. He worked with bringing
in various high profile clients while working on current clients. Also kept updated on the
new and current platforms to keep team members up to date on the latest buzz. He prides
himself on being an incredibly motivated and deadline driven worker when it comes to
producing quality projects. In addition, I am an individual who is very results driven.
28. 28
Appendix E: Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of many tools referred to as a “Social Media Management System” or
tool. It helps you keep track and manage your many social network channels. It can
enable you to monitor what people are saying about your brand and help you respond
instantly. You can view streams from multiple networks such as Facebook, Twitter and
Google+ and post updates or reply directly. Hootsuite came up as the top Social Media
Management System, with over 20% of companies using it to manage their social media
empires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ahpkJJBUA -Hootsuite Demo Video for Beginners
https://hootsuite.com/about/contact-us -Business Contact Page
29. 29
Appendix F: Social Mention
Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user
generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. It allows
you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new
product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Social
Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook,
FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNlBybJ20vo -Social Mention Business Demo
32. 32
Appendix H: Domo
Domo, Inc is a form of business intelligence (BI) that is a business management platform,
delivered as a service, to CEOs and executives. The service is designed to provide direct,
simplified, real time access to business data without any IT involvement The Domo
partner network is an extension of The Business Cloud, representing a diverse range of
industry-leading companies with complementary technologies, solutions, and services.
Together we enable executive decision makers and business users to easily connect to
their most relevant data, collaborate around that data in an open, self-service platform,
and make faster, better-informed decisions to achieve optimal business results.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovb4Dfw0Des - About Domo and Demo Video
https://www.domo.com/company/contact-us -Business Contact Page
