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<\/a>\u201cThis gives the students a boot-camp experience of working on an actual marketing campaign,\u201d said Ashley. \u201cThey have a limited budget, a limited amount of time, limited resources, so they have to make trade-offs. They need to apply their skills in communication and teamwork, and their content knowledge in marketing. But the biggest difference I see with this kind of project is the need for problem solving. You have to analyze and fix and adjust and evaluate. You can\u2019t say, \u2018I made a plan, so I\u2019m good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The class has been divided into departments \u2013 public relations, advertising, research, and strategy and implementation \u2013 and the students have named their agency Rhody Performance Marketing, or RPM, and chosen the slogan \u201cLevel Up.\u201d<\/p>\n
In many ways, the project mirrors a real marketing scenario, says Ashley. Students have done primary and secondary research, looking into such topics as what Acura\u2019s competitors are doing, customers\u2019 purchase motivations, and an evaluation of the campus target audience\u2019s awareness and perception of the brand.<\/p>\n
Along the way, the students have created graphic ads and filmed commercials that have been shared on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, along with producing flyers that have been posted around campus and radio ads that have run on WRIU. All advertisements had to meet Acura branding guidelines and go through an approval process before they could be used. The team also held a full-day event on the campus quad on April 18, during which community members checked out the Acura ILX.<\/p>\n
Lauren Burgess \u201919, of Narragansett, Rhode Island,<\/strong> has served as agency coordinator for Rhody Performance Marketing, overseeing all departments, helping out where needed and sending weekly reports and metrics of RPM\u2019s campaign to EdVenture Partners\u2019 program coordinator.<\/p>\n \u201cThis class has helped me beyond anything I could have ever imagined,\u201d said Burgess. \u201cIn the future, we are going to have times in our careers when we feel like something could be too challenging but I know every single person in the class will be able to persevere because they proved that in this class. I learned real-life marketing skills, how to succeed in teams, and how to lead successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n Mckenzie Knapp \u201919, of Westwood, New Jersey,<\/strong> has overseen the 15-student advertising department, which has created the ads and had them approved by Honda, contacted media outlets for ad placement and measured the success of the ads across media platforms. The project, she says, has been a learning process.<\/p>\n \u201cWe kind of got thrown into this,\u201d Knapp. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to see how we started out having to figure everything out, and then implementing what we\u2019ve learned throughout these four years, and now what we can show for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Jessica Swirson \u201919, of Rockaway, New Jersey,<\/strong> led the team that implemented RPM\u2019s April 18 event, during which hundreds of students stopped by to experience the Acura ILX. Swirson and her team promoted the event on campus, secured availability of the quad, and coordinated with the dealership to have the car on campus.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done a bunch of events on campus and off,\u201d says Swirson, whose internships have included putting on one of Hasbro Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s largest annual fundraising events, The Heroes Ball. \u201cThe hardest part was getting the car and making sure it was allowed on the quad.\u201d<\/p>\n After doing post-campaign research, the 溏心vlog免费B站 team will submit a final report to EdVenture Partners by May 1. Then, the top three teams will be invited to Torrance, California, to present their campaigns to Acura senior executives and leadership on May 29.<\/p>\n Other institutions participating in the Acura ILX Marketing Challenge are Boston University; California State, Fullerton; Clark Atlanta University; Florida International University; Indiana Institute of Technology; Johns Hopkins University; Michigan State University; Middle Tennessee University; New York Institute of Technology; North Carolina A&T; San Jose State; University of Central Oklahoma; University of Cincinnati; University of Houston; University of Massachusetts-Amherst; University of Nebraska at Lincoln; University of Pittsburgh; University of South Carolina, and University of Southern California.<\/p>\n