SDSU American Marketing Association’s Consulting Committee Reflects on their Successful Fall 2023 Semester and Expands on The Future
SDSU American Marketing Association’s Consulting Committee Reflects on their Successful Fall 2023 Semester and Expands on The Future
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Diego State American Marketing Association Consulting Committee Reflect On Their Growth And Expand On Their Plans For Future Growth Members of SDSU’s American Marketing Association (AMA) have grown significantly within the last year. Utilizing their gained knowledge via classes and personal life experiences, they plan to continue future growth by consistent brand and company collaborations, social media marketing, and strategic networking opportunities.
SAN DIEGO, CA — The American Marketing Association’s Consulting Team, a student run marketing agency, provided heightened marketing services to valued clients across San Diego by increasing brand awareness and visibility of their products and services while simultaneously improving conversion rates.
Below are their analytic results highlighting their successes.
1st semester Fall 2022
During the Fall 2022 semester, the Consulting Team helped Capitle Fitness, a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified powerlifting fitness gym. After a deep SWOT analysis of their brand, the Consulting Team pitched recommendations for improved marketing strategies and personal branding and business identity updates. The business was rebranded with a purple and white color that was cohesive and seen throughout their social platforms. After assisting in creating business cards, flier designs, and TikTok consultation, their Instagram follower count increased by 24.14%!
2nd semester Spring 2023
The Consulting Team consists of 1 VP, 1 Director, and 4 consulting members. In the Spring of 2023, the consulting team worked with Cloutr, a company that helps consumers find other consumers that are looking to buy the same thing. Utilizing their skills in social media marketing, web design, and content creation, they were able to increase Cloutr’s Instagram metrics significantly. Notable increases include a follower increase of 222%, accounts engaged at 249,600%, and accounts reached by 436,325%. They also saw similar increases on Cloutr’s Facebook page, reaching percentages of 96,000 to almost 300,000 percent! In addition to their quality work with Cloutr, the Consulting Team also assisted the San Diego Dream Team.
Semester Overview:
- 2 companies
- Cloutr
- San Diego Dream Team
Members: 1 VP, 1 Director, 4 consulting members
Services:
- SMM (Social Media Marketing)
- Web design
- Content creation
3rd semester Fall 2023
In the Fall of 2023, the Consulting Team took their talents to 619 Spirits North Park, 619 IT, and Unincorporated. Three fantastic companies based locally here in San Diego.
Within 10 weeks, 619 Spirits North Park had the goal of increasing their brand awareness and driving more foot traffic to the restaurant during non-peak hours. The Consulting Team leveraged the power of social media paired with hashtags and trending audio to organically grow 619 Spirits social following and highlight new menu items, seasonal drinks, and weekly events such as trivia night, comedy shows, and happy hour. The Consulting Team also utilized email and text marketing to nurture current subscribers and maintain customer relationships. Within one month, 619 Spirit’s followers increased by 1.2%, impressions increased by 175%, accounts reached increased by 278%, and accounts engaged increased by 185%.
The second company, 619 IT, wanted to build a social presence and update their website. All of their clients have been from word of mouth (WOM) and wanted to change that. 619 IT partnered with AMA’s Consulting Team to revamp their website, grow their presence on social media and generate brand awareness. AMA leveraged the power of social media paired with hashtags to organically grow 619 IT on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. AMA also utilized email marketing to nurture current subscribers to build and maintain customer relationships. Within a few weeks, the Consulting Team was able to increase their engagement rate by over 12% from 7.89% to 20%.
The third company, Unincorporated, a Google ad company offering grants to grow non-profit organizations, was looking to generate clients for their marketing agency. Unincorporated partnered with AMA to generate awareness of their marketing service to set up nonprofits with $10k of free Google Ads credits per month. AMA prioritized creating advertisements and email campaigns to help drive awareness and increase booked calls. Across these three companies, 28 consulting members were involved in the assist, followed by 4 Directors and 1 VP.
Semester Overview:
- 3 companies
- 619 Spirits North Park
- 619 IT
- Unincorporated
Members: 1 VP, 4 Directors, 28 consulting members
Services:
- SMM
- Content creation
- Website mockups
- Email marketing
AMA appreciates the opportunity to work with valued clients in helping them improve their brand awareness for their products/services and their conversion rates. Our Consulting Team are talented individuals, and when working together, they can create significant improvements utilizing their skills like social media management, content creation, content photo/video sessions, brand evaluation, website consultation, email/text marketing, and paid ads. They look forward to the exciting opportunities that 2024 has in store for us!
The American Marketing Association is a nationally known organization and the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world. We are trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what is coming next in the industry. AMA strives to be the most relevant force and voice shaping marketing around the world, an essential community for marketers. Stay tuned for the success that lies ahead for this chapter of the American Marketing Association at San Diego State University.
To see what’s up next here is their website
AMAzing Fall 2023 Semester
The Fall 2023 semester was a whirlwind of excitement and achievement, marked by a series of outstanding events that brought our chapter together and developed stronger bonds between each member. Here, we would like to recap all of the events and special times we’ve shared in the past couple of months.
AMAzing Fall 2023 Semester
The Fall 2023 semester was a whirlwind of excitement and achievement, marked by a series of outstanding events that brought our chapter together and developed stronger bonds between each member. Below, we would like to recap all of the events and special times we’ve shared in the past couple of months.
GMB Meetings with Various Guest Speakers:
Every week, we invited special guest speakers from around the country to open up conversations about their journey’s into their current business roles as well as offering advice to our members on how to best navigate the world outside of our studies. Guest speakers like Sean Adler from Nana Hats and the marketing team from Tiffany & Co. were among the most attended GBM meetings this semester. These speakers discussed their journey’s and different life obstacles which really resonated with our chapter, especially those who intend to begin their own business ventures or strive to work for the many big name companies that they know and love. Honorable mentions of other GBM meetings include speakers from the sports brand Wilson, our own SDSU professor panel with Professor Osinski and Professor Grimes, a Content & Creative Director from Pinterest, and our own in-house Resume and LinkedIn workshops.
Professional Networking Night (PNN):
Professional Networking Night (PNN) is where prospective and eager students take the time to connect with several local and nationwide companies for available internships or part time jobs. PNN was a huge success attracting more than hundreds of students looking to pitch themselves to several companies including Amazon and a local winery. We would like to send a special thank you to our Special Events Director Anna Chen for planning and directing the entire event which was a success for her and the entire AMA chapter as a whole here at SDSU.
AMA San Diego Regional Conference:
On November 10th, we held our AMA San Diego Regional Conference, an in-person networking event with various keynote and leadership speakers like Claudia Chow, the President of the San Diego AMA. She shared an exciting presentation about learning, unlearning, and relearning which was riveting from beginning to end. During Claudia Chow’s presentation, she also brought up the Sandie Awards (formerly the AMY Awards), which is the first AMA SD hosted marketing awards in 9 years. In these awards, students were encouraged to send in submissions in 18 categories covering all aspects of marketing and celebrating the best in San Diego marketing. This garnered over 130 total submissions! In addition, we opened the event to all AMA chapters across San Diego county like the USD and Point Loma chapters who also provided their own presentations.
San Diego Google Office Tour:
We were grateful for the opportunity to connect with the Google office located here in San Diego to tour their facility and learn about the many day to day operations that occur. Along with the site tour, we were able to listen in on presentations by the Google Speaker’s panel, a live Q&A session, and networking opportunities. More than 30 students attended and explored the office! We would like to thank all the wonderful Googlers we met, especially Jessica Cespedes, for hosting such a fun event!
Volunteer Clean Up Events:
San Diego is home to hundreds of beautiful coastal beaches and parks which everyone from around the world visit year round. It was a pleasure to do our part in keeping the beaches and parks clean by volunteering with local non-profit organizations to clean trash found laying around. This was an important experience showing us what can happen when working together as a team towards a common goal can benefit so much to ourselves and our community. We would like to thank our Director of Social and Community Impact Enya Castaneda for organizing these events!
AMA SDSU March Monthly Newsletter
Last week, SDSU AMA launched a newsletter for general body members that attended the last general body meeting. It was a huge success, so we’re bringing it to the blog! Thank you for everyone’s feedback and look for April’s newsletter next month!
Digital Advertising, Twitter and How Elon is Shaking it Up By: Beau Crawford
Since Elon’s takeover of Twitter back in October of last year, users of the platform have gotten used to frequent and quickly implemented changes to the Twitter UI.
How Billionaire Elon Musk Is Changing Social Media
Since Elon’s takeover of Twitter back in October of last year, users of the platform have gotten used to frequent and quickly implemented changes to the Twitter UI. This includes the addition of view counts to tweets, the ability to pay for a Twitter verification and retroactively overturning permabans for high profile figures that were previously excised from the website. After fallout from Twitter’s top paying advertisers due to hate speech and conspiracy theories spreading on the platform, revenue for the social media company is seemingly taking another plunge post-Musk takeover. Continuing in this advertiser-free direction, Elon expressed that the advertisements on the website’s feed are too large and frequent, something he is looking to change within the upcoming weeks.
Elon is seemingly digging a deeper hole for himself in terms of generating revenue for the company by admitting to future clients that their ads on Twitter will be smaller and less frequent. In addition, Elon explains that he will further expand Twitter Blue subscription service to add an additional “higher priced subscription” that would make Twitter an ad-free experience. This decision is coming after previous changes to Twitter Blue made by Elon in November of last year, removing the ad-free article feature of Twitter Blue and allowing Twitter Blue subscribers to see 50% less ads.
If you recognize a pattern in Elon’s actions as CEO thus far, it is clear he’s trying to make Twitter less dependent on the traditional social media advertisement model as its main source of revenue. Rather, he is heavily emphasizing a subscription based model like Netflix, Amazon or Spotify. In theory, creating a strong and lucrative subscription base allows the company to not have to rely on big advertisers to pay the bills. But, more importantly for Elon, this change would release the hold advertisers have on content moderation preferences. Twitter is now a private company after the Musk acquisition, so retail investors are not at Elon’s throat. The only people truly losing are the former Twitter employees who lost their job and Elon’s private investment group.
Now, why does it matter? During the pre-Musk Twitter era, monetization of the platform was already an issue that kept Twitter from being truly profitable. So telling potential customers of Twitter ad space that their ads are going to be smaller, less frequent and in some cases not viewable at all, seems like a bad idea all together. Twitter itself is already an insular bubble, with an active user base that dwarfs Facebook. So when companies and agencies are looking to spend their ad dollars for a campaign, it seems as if Twitter is becoming a losing proposition for digital marketers. Unless future changes are made to the UI to allow advertisements to be delivered in a new, effective way, Twitter does not seem to be the most viable tool to get advertisements in front of as many eyes as possible. However, when it comes to organic marketing strategies, generating exposure naturally without using paid platform integrated ads is beneficial. Twitter still has an amazing ability to impact audiences due to the culture of memes and virality on the website.
The Power & Influence of Guerilla Marketing By: Lucas Theaker December 2022
Last week on the SDSU campus, Levi’s set up a booth giving out free merchandise to students. Hundreds of students flowed through their pop-up event listening to the live DJ set and enjoying the games and prizes the various booths had to offer.
Last week on the SDSU campus, Levi’s set up a booth giving out free merchandise to students. Hundreds of students flowed through their pop-up event listening to the live DJ set and enjoying the games and prizes the various booths had to offer. Thousands chatted about Levi’s booth over social media to their friends, inadvertently giving them free word-of-mouth advertising. This is guerilla marketing.
What Is Guerilla Marketing?
Guerilla marketing is an advertising strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service. Whether giving out free samples of your product or hosting unorthodox publicity stunts, it all achieves the same goal: brand awareness.
More and more companies are catching onto this trend, especially smaller brands that do not have enormous marketing budgets to work with. Companies implementing guerilla marketing pride themselves on creative thinking and ingenuity in order to capture as much market share as they can.
How Does Guerilla Marketing Work?
One of the most famous and successful examples of guerilla marketing was executed by every college student's favorite brand: Red Bull. Knowing that it would be practically impossible to go up against the soft-drink companies that dominated the market in the 80s, Red Bull decided to employ a different approach. They understood that there was relatively no “energy drink” category that existed and decided to capitalize on this untapped market.
Instead of using mass-marketing similar to brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Red Bull targeted men ages 18-35 offering free samples at college parties and bars. Through specific product placement in trendy shops, clubs, and bars, people talked about Red Bull to their friends and the brand quickly became viral.
Today, Red Bull is viewed as one of the best marketing companies in the world. With a strategy centered around extreme sports, they utilize professional athletes from around the world to build their brand identity and awareness while still embodying their target audience. Red Bull is a shining example of how guerilla marketing tactics can evolve over time and increase in scale.
Key Takeaways from Guerilla Marketing
Anyone who is looking to create their own brand, but is concerned about the competition, that exists can take away an important lesson from companies like Red Bull and Levi’s. With creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, you can create a marketing campaign to entice customers and make them want to try your brand.
As smaller brands continue to use guerilla marketing tactics, there is no doubt that consumers will bear witness to thought-provoking and stunning product advertisements and interactions that capture their attention. Guerilla marketing is not completely free, but it is still one of the most cost-effective ways to increase brand recognition. With creativity on the rise, guerilla marketing focus’ on capturing customers' attention in new and exciting ways.
Sources:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/guerilla-marketing-examples
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Hz2F_S3Tl0Y/maxresdefault.jpg
YouTube Shorts Receives Monetization Through Partner Program By: Beau Crawford - November 2022
Earlier this month, it was announced that YouTube Shorts will now receive increased monetization on creators’ videos with support of the YouTube Partner Program.
Earlier this month, it was announced that YouTube Shorts will now receive increased monetization on creators’ videos with support of the YouTube Partner Program. With Shorts video views rising and the growing community of short form content creators on the platform, advertisers were eager to get their brands on the feed as soon as possible. This change will end the YouTube Shorts Fund, which temporarily provided small amounts of monetization during the inception of YouTube Shorts, but the new 45% revenue split will be leagues more lucrative for creators compared to other platforms hosting short-form videos like TikTok, Instagram and in some cases Snapchat. The YouTube Partner Program features 10 ways of monetization for channels including Super Thanks (which is newly implemented into Shorts), Super Chats, YouTube BrandConnect and integrated merchandise shops.
This will certainly light a fire under other tech companies to support their creators that are racking up way more views with ads already implemented successfully. YouTube had already established itself as the home for long-form video creators to build a stable income through the partner program. Google is pulling out all of the stops to ensure that YouTube is the premiere destination for creators of short-form and livestream content.
From a marketing perspective, there are many takeaways. First, I think it should be acknowledged that the creator economy is very real and getting ads in front of viewers will be the future for brands finding audiences that will make them money. The partner program gives proof that these viewers are invested in their favorite creators and are willing to spend money in the form of donations and purchasing items from the online shop. In other words, the influencer marketing stock is steadily rising as cult fanbases of these YouTube channels generate revenue for Google and get brands seen by millions of people in a very short amount of time and at a low cost compared to other advertising options. Short form video will be a part of marketing strategies globally but we’ve yet to see the long term viability of these campaigns simply due to the infancy of this medium.
Channels making videos on YouTube will now receive more kickback for their viewership than ever before, so videos will now be more budget friendly for individuals and businesses who are investing resources into their content (which could inadvertently create more jobs). With Google opening up the monetization program as much as they have, it is contributing to the general trend of consumers getting their entertainment online and previous mediums of entertainment that were plastered with ads (TV shows, movies, radio etc.) are dying.
Sources:
https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/supporting-the-next-wave-of-creative-entrepreneurs/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/youtube-monetizing-shorts/465139/#close
Learn how to market yourself through TikTok Academy, TikTok’s newest educational platform - By: Kaitlyn Chiang November 2022
TikTok: the video sharing platform that has undoubtedly taken the world by storm. We all know it. We love to use it as a pastime for mindless scrolling. We hate that we spend so much time mindlessly scrolling on it.
TikTok: the video sharing platform that has undoubtedly taken the world by storm. We all know it. We love to use it as a pastime for mindless scrolling. We hate that we spend so much time mindlessly scrolling on it. If you have ever wondered how “just 5 minutes” on TikTok can so easily turn into 30 minutes of your day spent engrossed within these short videos, look no further. TikTok has officially launched an educational platform titled “TikTok Academy” for creators who are looking to grow their brands and enhance their marketing skills, such as audience engagement or customer retention. According to TikTok, “individuals who enroll in TikTok Academy will find courses designed to develop digital marketers into TikTok Pros through a gamified education adventure filled with interactive experiences, quizzes, tokens and badges. TikTok Academy badges are awarded for each successful course completion and are easily shareable on social media.“ For the purposes of this article, as well as out of a personal curiosity, I decided to enroll in the program myself. After registering and verifying one’s email, one is taken to a learning dashboard. Within the dashboard, a user can see courses that have not yet been started and courses that are currently in progress.
As of now, there are only two courses in the catalog that are available for creators to enroll in: “TikTok 101” under the TikTok Essentials category, and “Small Business” under the SMB Course category. Each course has a set number of modules that must be completed in order to gain module tokens, and ultimately the badge for completion of the entire course. Before diving into the modules, a user is shown an overview of topics and concepts that will be covered within that specific course. As one makes their way through the modules, lesson activities are scattered throughout as a means of quizzing the user on knowledge that is being retained- I personally found these questions relatively easy to answer, so as long as one is paying attention during the video lessons, they should have no problem answering these questions. When one incorrectly answers a question, they are given an explanation as to why that answer is wrong as well as the correct answer and its reasoning. Lastly, upon completion of a course a user is shown a summary screen that lists the key takeaways, if one wishes to revisit information or test their overall comprehension of the content learned.
I personally think this educational platform has the potential to be monumental for up-and-coming creators as well as for established creators who wish to touch up on their marketing skills. Through the “Small Business” course alone, I was able to learn more about thelogistics behind TikTok creator accounts, how to identify a key audience, as well as how tomaintain an engaging presence with said audience. As an individual who is easily consumed by the content on TikTok, learning how to efficiently market oneself and one’s business on the platform would be highly beneficial for creators in today’s day and age.
Source: tiktok.com/business/en-US/blog/introducing-tiktok-academy
SDSU AMA’s Professional Networking Night Is Back - MARION VESPREY | OCTOBER 2022
Every semester, the San Diego State University American Marketing Association hosts its annual award-winning Professional Networking Night (PNN).
Every semester, the San Diego State University American Marketing Association hosts its annual award-winning Professional Networking Night (PNN). It is the organization’s largest and most highly anticipated event of the year, consistently drawing in over 150 interested students. This year, PNN will be held on Tuesday, November 8th from 4-6 pm at Montezuma Hall
What Is PNN - And Why Should I Attend?
PNN is a marketing-focused career fair that provides students with the perfect opportunity to gain networking experience and find job and internship opportunities. The event is open to all SDSU students and majors.
In previous years, PNN has welcomed many local San Diego agencies and businesses such as Power Digital Marketing, Red Door Interactive, and Maya’s Cookies. Large companies also make appearances, including Gallo Wine Company and Amazon Advertising.
Beyond the list of notable companies that attend, the Professional Networking Night has made a huge name for itself. In Spring of 2022, PNN received an award for “Outstanding Event of the Year” from the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University.
What Can I Expect At PNN?!
On the day of the event, there will be representatives from each company at different tables. Attendees will be free to discuss the opportunities available at each company. It is best to come prepared with questions and update your resume beforehand! The dress code for the event is business professional attire.
There will be complimentary headshots, free merch, appetizers, and the chance to win 1 of 5 prizes through an opportunity drawing.
What Do Others Have to Say About PNN?
If the above was not enough to convince you of just how great PNN is, read what other students have to say about their experiences.
Spring 2022 member, Jessica Dau, shared a tip for all those planning to go to this year's event that helped her in the last PNN event. “It was my first career fair and knowing AMA members made it feel less intimidating!”
Another long-standing member, Lauren Berry, also had nothing but good things to say about PNN. “PNN allowed me to network with professionals in the industry, as well as network with my own peers! I enjoyed the companies that came and the career advice and opportunities that they offered.”
Sriya Reddy, a member who discovered an internship through PNN, spoke highly of the event as a self-development opportunity. “PNN has given me the opportunity to dispel the fears that I had around meeting companies and gave me the space to learn how to mess up and learn how to show up for myself and talk about what I can bring to the role.” She joked, “And also get to get dressed up like a real professional!”
Where Can I Get Updates About PNN?
You can find more information about the event on the website and expect to see more posts detailing the event on Instagram in the upcoming days. Reach out on Instagram or leave any questions you may have regarding PNN below!