This document outlines an advertising campaign for News21, a digital journalism website. It includes a situation analysis of the market and competition, as well as a target group analysis and recommendations for creative and media strategies. The proposed strategies include mini stories placed across websites and campuses, videos on YouTube, and a working media plan focusing on internet and on-campus advertising with a contingency plan for increased spending.

1. Advertising Campaigns (ADV 625)
Syracuse University
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
June 25, 2009

2. Agenda
Situation Analysis
‐ Market Overview
‐ Competition
‐ Problems & Opportunities
News21
‐ Target Group Analysis
‐ Creative Strategy
‐ Media Strategy
Agency Recommendations
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3. SITUATION
ANALYSIS

4. Market Overview
• The downfall of traditional media provides increased opportunity for online
journalism
• Americans who said they got “most of their national and international news”
online increased 67% in the last four years
• With the number of online news sites increasing, it makes it difJicult to retain loyal
readers
“The Web is still dominated by big media. Of the 25 most­visited news
websites, 22 were owned by the richest 100 media companies.”
‐Based on analysis of data from Advertising Age and Nielsen Online
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5. Competition
Direct
The following websites are where Southern Californians 18‐29 years old obtain
their local news:
• Daily Trojan (USC School Newspaper)
• Los Angeles Times
• Neon Tommy (USC News Site)
• The Press Enterprise
Indirect
The following are national news websites where those 18‐29 obtain their news:
• CNN
• Los Angeles Times
• MSNBC
• NBC
• New York Times
• Time Magazine
• USA Today
• Wall Street Journal
[Sources: Alexa & Simmons]
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6. Problems
• Content: not fresh enough
• Tone of Stories: News21 currently lacks news with a twist
• Low number: of universities involved
• Low interest: in local news among 18‐29 year olds
• Cluttered Market: Many sources where the target can get their
news from
• Lack of professional experience: of the student writers
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7. Opportunities
• General Topics: Other competitors websites focus on more general and
broad topics, there is an opportunity for News21 to address more speciJic,
detailed feature stories/news for local/urban developments in the community
• Multiple Issues: News21 to publish their content into 6‐months issue
magazines (two issues/year)
• More Colleges: Increase the amount of colleges and universities involved in
the product
• Credibility: This venture is backed by strong names in academia
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8. NEWS 21
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9. TARGET GROUP
ANALYSIS
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10. Target Group
Age Group: 18­29
Gender: Male and Female
Education: Students (Graduate & Undergraduate) and College Graduates
Psychographics
Some of the personality traits of this target group are:
adventurous, daring, absent minded, careless, authoritarian,
demanding, aggressive, self centered, stubborn, and headstrong.
Leisure Activities
• They visit Theme Parks, State Fairs and Zoos
• They go to the movies
• They attend comedy clubs and concerts regularly
• They go to night clubs/bars regularly
• They listen to music and enjoy playing musical instruments
• They regularly play video games
Sources: Alexa.com; Simmons, 2005
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11. Media Usage
• The target group is highly Internet active
• They are most likely to be on the Internet
between 1 pm ‐ 5 pm in the afternoon and 10 pm ‐
3 am at night.
• They listen to the radio, and are more likely to
listen to it the whole day.
• Our target group is more likely to be captive
viewers • Cell Phone Usage
‐ Internet access on their
mobiles
‐ Highly usage for text
messaging
‐ Play games on mobiles
‐ Built‐in cameras
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12. Consumer Insights
Common Threads based on survey:
•Respondents tended to read or watch news
between 8am-6pm “If it affects me, people I know,
•Popular news venues included Associated or places I am familiar with, then
Press, CNBC, CNN, NBC, NY Times, and I’ll take a look at it.” -Aaron
AOL feature stories
•Few respondents paid or subscribed to news
online
“I like to share stories with my friends when “There are too many news channels out there,
the stories are very funny, it makes me smile so I tend to check out sites who updates
and feel better.” -Fang constantly and often post breaking news.” ~
Yvonne
“I like my news short and to the point. I absolutely
hate stories that carry on for more than 2 pages
(online).” -Caitlin
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13. CREATIVE
STRATEGY

14. Advertising Strategy
Positioning
To 18‐29 year olds, News21 is an in‐depth digital journalism website that
engages the active participation of youth because it fosters an interest in
journalism by combining student‐generated content with the expertise of top
journalism schools across America.
Marketing Objective
To increase page views by 2‐6 million within
12 months for the News21 website.
Advertising Objective
To increase brand awareness among 18‐29
year olds by attaining a reach of 75% and a
frequency of 3.
Rationale: This is needed in order to attain the marketing objective of 2‐6
million page views.
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15. Creative Idea
Tagline: “Everybody loves a great story!”
Idea Execution:
• We will place mini stories innovatively on websites and campus through out
the advertising campaign.
• The mini stories are similar to the stories covered on the News21 website
online
• Video− videos will be made for some stories, and
will be placed on YouTube, participating students’
SNS sites.
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16. MEDIA
STRATEGY

17. I. Media Plan
Campaign Duration: ONE YEAR
Media Used
Internet, On Campus, PR, Guerilla Marketing
Keeping in mind the budget considerations, we have come up with two
plans: the Working Plan and Contingency Plan.
The Working Plan will involve minimal ad spends
and will concentrate more on the free or cheaper
means of advertising.
Incase we don’t get the planned number of users on
the News21 website. We would launch the
Contingency Plan to support the Working Plan.
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18. Media Plan
Working Plan
Internet:
• Websites and online social networking
• Widgets
On Campus:
• Campus Quad and other potential areas like walkways, buildings, etc.
• Student Center
• Collaborating with the participant school's newspapers (online and print)
• PR & Guerilla Marketing
Contingency Plan
• Websites beyond Yahoo and MSN
• Text messaging
• iPhone application
• Collaborating with the participant school's
newspapers (online and print)
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19. II. Media Execution: National
Energy Conservation­ Northern Carolina
On Campus
Based on the story “Keeping the lights on”
PR: The Big Idea ‐ "Lights Out"
Where: A power outage would take place on
Northern Carolina's campus in high trafJic areas
such as the campus student center, dining halls
across all dormitories, or a heavily populated
academic building.
Time: The power outage would last for 60‐120 seconds
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20. II. Media Execution: National
Energy Conservation:
Northern Carolina
Internet Execution
Based on the story “Keeping the lights on”
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21. II. Media Execution: National
Youth and Wireless­ Syracuse University
Guerilla Marketing & Internet: The Big Idea ‐ "Big Talker"
What: A News21 student representative will be dressed as a giant cell phone and will be
speaking and passing out Jlyers promoting News21 and SU’s “Youth and Wireless” story.
Character Description: The “Cell Phone Dude” is likeable,
although intrusive and somewhat obnoxious . Humorous
videos of his disruptions across campus and the local
community will be posted to YouTube and will be
advertised on the Jlyers as well.
Where: The student center and outdoors on the campus quad
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22. II. Media Execution:
National
Southwestern Shifts­ University of Southern California
Guerilla Marketing & Internet: The Big Idea ‐ ”You could…/I could…"
Based on the story “Entrepreneurship Amid a Recession”
What: Thought provoking phrases (complete with the News21 website) will be stenciled
around campus. For instance:
(i.) At a campus construction site: You could... build it better
(ii.) One the side of a campus building: You could... start you own school
(iii.) On a brick sidewalk: You could....lay it better
(iv.) In the campus food court: You could...make it tastier
Where: The guerilla advertising will be done at all 8 incubator schools. On the News21
site, however, we will create a page called "I Could...” On this page, anyone can write a
story or a comment about what they want to do, a business they want to start etc.
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23. III. Media Scheduling
Flighting Media Plan:
• The campaign will be a one year long campaign that starts from summer
(June‐August) till the fall semester (September‐November)
• The reason we chose summer and the fall semester instead of the spring
semester is based on the site's content updates scheduling.
• The ads will basically run between the months of September‐ mid
December, and June to August.
Geographies:
• The only difference between promoting News 21 and USC is that we are
aiming News21 nationally and USC locally.
• Times: Here are two time periods in the day when our target group
spends a lot of time online. These time periods are 1p.m.– 5p.m. and 10p.m.–
3a.m. We can target our ads in these time periods.
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24. III. Media Scheduling
Media Flow Chart
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25. IV. Reach & Frequency
Frequency
‐ Based on Dr. Herbert Krugman’s benchmark “three plus” theory
‐ Frequency capping
‐ 3 exposures per individual
Reach
‐ Because frequency is fairly low, we expect a high reach. The media
vehicles have been strategically chosen have high a viewership/
readership to extend reach
‐ We predict a 75% reach
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26. V. Budget Allocations
• The Budget is divided into two phases, based on the months we are
advertising. Phase I comprises the Summer Semester, and Phase II comprises
the Fall Semester.
• The “On Campus” includes both PR and Guerilla Marketing
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27. RECOMMEN-
DATIONS

28. Recommendations
1. Video news (speciZically targeted to students interested in journalism
and broadcasting):
­ We suggest USC post video news on their incubator.
2. Collaborate with photography students for photojournalism related
content:
­ In order to create more interesting news content and grab young people's
attention which creates a visual impact.
3. Place links for USC's incubator on USC website and USC Annenberg:
­ We suggest to place the incubator's link on both USC's ofJicial website and
USC Annenberg website to drive more trafJic to the incubator.
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29. Recommendations #4: Redesign of USC Incubator
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30. Recommendations #5: Goals to Set for Google Analytics
In order to gauge the performance of the website, we recommend setting the
following goals in Google Analytics so as to effectively use the data provided
through it:
• Audience Growth
‐ Should be measured both onsite and offsite.
• Average time spent on the site
‐ Would tell us whether users are reading an article
and Jinding it relevant
• Depth of visit
‐ Refers to the number of pages visited by a user at
one time.
• Sharing
‐ Refers to how many times a particular article has
been shared, which can be through linkbacks, social
bookmarks etc.
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31. Recommendations #6: Search Engine Optimization
• Add title tag, description tag and keywords tag in the metatags in the html
pages.
1. Title Tag: It deJines the title of the document (which is what users see as
the title in the search engines).
2. Description Tag: This is a short description of the content of the article. It
appears right below the title tag in the SERP (search engine results page).
3. Keywords Tag: using keywords directly related to each story, other
keywords through Google AdWords' keyword tool.
• Add videos
• Tagging images and videos
• Adding site map
• Create related inbound, outbound links,
and links within the website
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32. QUESTIONS?