Objective: Develop an advertising proposal for a client companys product or service. The development of this plan will provide an opportunity to: Employ an analysis of the companys position in the marketplace Identify brand identity, customer value information, and determine segmentation strategy for an advertising campaign Establish communication objectives, strategies, and tactics Identify and select a set of communication tools to successfully incorporate an IMC strategy Plan media usage based on budget constraints Demonstrate creativity in the development of advertisements for various media Company Selection: The concepts covered in this course are applicable for a variety of clients such as retailers, manufacturers, service providers, B2B enterprises, and direct-to-consumer businesses. For consistency, all proposals are to be geared towards consumer markets. You are able to select your client from the list provided (the professor will ensure that each brand is represented for variety). These companies/brands were chosen to provide a mix of retailers, service providers, and consumer products. Hopefully youll find something that ignites your creative spark! You may choose from the following options: Whole Foods Mens Wearhouse Best Buy Planet Fitness Panera Slim Fast (choose a specific product line) Silk (choose a specific product line) Provide the professor with your top three choices in preferential order by Wednesday, January 24th. Course Project Information: This is a semester long project in a senior-level course; the quality of work submitted should reflect this. The project consists of a written component (project report) and an oral component (the advertising pitch). Project Report Structure: To provide you with an opportunity to do your best on this project, parts of the proposal will be submitted at various points during the semester. The professor will provide thorough feedback on these sections. 1

Submission 1 Situation Analysis The purpose of the situation analysis is to provide an understanding of the companys current situation, the industry it operates in, and the companys standing relative to competitors. This is vital information that will help determine the direction of your advertising campaign. You are expected to utilize information from at least 3 different sources. Specific tasks/questions that youll need to address in this section are: 1) Provide a brief history of the company, highlighting important changes or milestones. 2) What is the companys current financial situation? Are sales trending upward, downward, or stagnant? Have there been any dramatic changes made in recent years? (provide information for at least the five previous years). What is the primary challenge the company needs to overcome, or advantage they can promote? 3) What is the state of the industry in which the company operates? Are overall sales increasing/decreasing (provide information for at least the five previous years)? 4) Who are the direct competitors for your company? How is this company doing in comparison to other companies in its industry? Prior Ad Campaigns In order to develop a unique, but effective campaign, you must be familiar with past advertising and slogans that have been used by your client and how other IMC elements have been utilized. This section will summarize those findings. Specifically, you should address the following: 1. Describe advertising campaigns developed in the recent past (10 years or so). This information should include the name of the advertising agency that developed the campaign, the name of the campaign, media utilized. Visual examples from these campaigns must be included in the appendix. Include the following information: a. Have celebrity spokespersons been used (If so who?) b. What slogans have been used in the past? c. Was the campaign successful? How was success or failure determined? 2. Has the company utilized sales promotions or sponsorships in the recent past? If so, describe these efforts. 3. Has the companys positioning changed in recent years? If so, how? What is the brands current positioning? This information will help you determine what direction youll pursue for the proposed campaign. Submission 2: Identification of Target Audience The demographic target group you will pursue for this campaign will be assigned to you. You will need to provide an in-depth discussion on why this target market is an appropriate selection for your brand to pursue at this time. At a minimum, the following should be addressed. 2

Who is the current target audience for your product? (CLEARLY indicate what information you used to determine the current target market! Should not be based on your opinion but on research.) Does the target market for the campaign represent a departure, extension, or refinement of the current market? What type of segmentation approach does your target market represent? What unique characteristics do they possess? Are there unique challenges that this market presents? Are there sub-segments that comprise the larger group? Why should this brand pursue this target market at this time? What types of appeals or messages are likely to resonate with this target audience and why? What are they likely to value from your product/brand? Provide examples of other brands that appear to be successful at reaching this group. Choose 3 markets from the cities below to execute your advertising campaign. These cities will serve as test markets for your campaign and should include a fairly large number of people in your target market. Provide an estimate of the size of your target market in each area using internet resources, such as uscensus.gov or state web pages with demographic data. o Birmingham, Alabama o Phoenix, Arizona o San Francisco, California o San Jose, California o Atlanta, Georgia o Tampa, Florida o Chicago, Illinois o Indianapolis, Indiana o Charlotte, North Carolina o Knoxville, Tennessee o Austin, Texas o Houston, Texas o San Antonio, Texas o Seattle, Washington Submission 3: Identification of Creative Strategy and Campaign Objectives (1-2 pages) At this stage of the process youll determine what the essence of your campaign will be. Based on your analysis of the company and the target market youre pursuing, what is it that you want to achieve during the campaign and what message(s) do you want to convey? The campaign should cover one year, beginning and ending with the 2017 calendar year. The following questions will need to be addressed: What are your objectives for this campaign? At a minimum, 3 objectives must be identified. Keep in mind the characteristics of SMART objectives discussed in class. At the end of the campaign, it should be clear to see if your objectives were achieved. What is the main message you want to convey? What is it you are seeking to communicate in all your marketing efforts? What is the name of the campaign? What positioning statements (slogans or taglines) will be communicated? Will you be using a spokesperson (people) in the campaign? What types of message appeals will be used (eg. Slice of life, fear, humor)? What will integrate your campaign across elements and media? 3

This is your opportunity to display your creativity. These ideas are the driving force of the campaign... the main ideas that will be delivered in each advertisement. Keep in mind that at this point you are describing the campaign overall. These must be original ideas and cannot simply mirror or extend what the client is currently doing. Mock-ups of all advertisements will be provided in the final paper and are not expected at this point. Final Advertising Proposal The final paper should consist of the previous sections as organized below with the additional required information. I. Executive Summary The proposal should open with a one page synopsis that describes the target market for the campaign, states the objectives of the campaign and provides recommendations in actionable terms. Assume that this page is all that some people will read; thus, they should have enough information to implement your recommendations. Detail the methods you used without using jargon. Remember that specifics sell. This is the most important page. Every word should count. Though this is the first page of the proposal, it will necessarily be the last part that you complete. II. Situation Analysis III. Prior Ad Campaigns (visuals included in appendix) IV. Target Audience V. Creative Strategy & Campaign Objectives VI. Media Mix Strategy This is the meat of the advertising proposal. In this section you will outline the proposed media and specific vehicles chosen for this campaign. You must provide justification for your selections (media and vehicles). The media and vehicles should clearly be appropriate given the objectives you are pursuing and the target audiences chosen. Keep in mind the following: You must utilize television and one form of print media (magazines or newspapers). At least 3 different forms of media must be utilized in the campaign (the third media choice may be radio or out of home media; internet advertising is excluded from use for this proposal). For each media, identify specific vehicles that will be used, and provide rationale for the chosen media and vehicles. This justification will be dependent upon the type of media you have chosen. For example, if you choose to advertise in National Geographic magazine, at a minimum you would need a media kit or magazine profile sheet with circulation figures and target audience information. This information should be summarized in the body of the paper and the media profile or demographic information used provided in the appendix of the paper. A total of 3 advertising examples must be provided for your clients consideration. The ads must contain substantially different executions (a billboard ad cannot be the same image and verbiage seen in a magazine ad). Provide appropriate examples for each medium chosen: Television storyboard, Mobile advertising storyboard or display ad, Magazine display advertisement, Newspaper display 4

advertisement, Radio script w/sound cues, Billboard display advertisement. All ads should be included in the appendix of the paper and should closely mirror what would actually be seen in an advertisement. Geographic selection (Include the three geographic markets that you selected for your target market). Make sure that each of your three markets has adequate coverage during the campaign. Each of these areas includes a large variety of print and broadcast media options. VII. Budget Allocation The total budget for this campaign is $2,500,000. Project evaluation will consider how well you have utilized these funds. Plan your program length/timing/schedule. When will ads appear and where? Use an IMC schedule to visually depict this information. Seasonality - Does your client have a seasonality challenge? Do you need to hit harder and deploy more resources during certain seasons/months/festivals? Will you alter the campaign to adjust for holidays, seasons, or other reasons through the year? Cost analysis provide a breakdown of each medium option and total costs. The information used to estimate costs should be clearly indicated. VIII. Conclusions Your campaign is one of several that are being considered by the client. The final paragraphs should tie your proposal together. This is your last chance to sell your ideas succinctly to the client. Why is your campaign the best choice? Why the selected target audience? How will you measure success? This proposal is a professional document. It should be written from the perspective of an advertising agency preparing it for a client (not a student submitting it to a professor). Your opinion doesnt matter. The proposal recommendations and strategy should be driven by facts for which you provide sufficient justification. For consistency, format as follows: title page; 12-point font; single-spacing within paragraphs; consistent headings throughout the paper; label any tables, figures. An appendix and reference page must be included and in-text citations provided. APA format is required. Most of the areas of evaluation are based on successful and thorough completion of specific tasks. The creativity and execution elements are subjective components. Creativity will be recognized for ads that are truly different and meet the requirements of resonance and relevance. Creativity also refers to the mix of media and vehicles utilized. Execution refers to how well the ideas are carried out. The closer the ad comes to mirroring an actual ad, the higher the execution score. Each ad must be clearly labeled on a separate sheet of paper and included in the appendix. Remember, this is a semester long project in a senior-level course; the quality of work submitted should reflect this and the project will be graded accordingly. It is very difficult to earn an A on this project if you wait until the night before a section or the final paper is due to get started on it. The professor is available to answer questions you may have throughout the semester. 5