Date of Defense

4-12-2021

Date of Graduation

5-2021

Department

Marketing

First Advisor

Karen Lancendorfer

Second Advisor

Greg Gerfen

Abstract

Tinder asked teams of advertising majors across the nation to research, strategize, and design a new integrated marketing campaign for the NSAC American Advertising Federation Case Competition held in April of 2021. Each team was provided with the policies and procedures of the competition as well as the Campaign Brief, Branding Book, and Brand Guidelines from Tinder to create the campaign. In the Campaign Brief, we received the target audience they wanted to reach as well as their primary and secondary key performance indicators to ensure a successful campaign. Our budget that we were able to work with consisted of $10 million. My team consisted of my classmates in MKTG 4810: Integrated Marketing Campaigns, a class taught by Dr. Karen Lancendorfer, a professor of Marketing and Director of the Advertising and Promotion Program at Western Michigan University.

The first step in the creation of the campaign was the collection of an abundance of primary and secondary research to understand how people in our target audience of 18–19-year-olds, Males and Females, overall felt about their relationship with the brand Tinder and perceptions towards the online dating market. Through our research, we found what makes our target audience of Gen Z unique and what they would want from a brand, as building Brand Love was the main objective of this campaign along with growing activations. Gen Z is open-minded and does not stray away from challenging the status quo. They crave adventure and writing their own life stories. Thus, developing the slogan “Why Don’t We?” To add to our slogan, we provided multiple “fill in the blank” options to empower Gen Z to “choose” what to do next and create their own story.

After developing the big idea of “Why Don’t We?” the team put together a national media strategy and schedule that consisted of multiple uses of owned, earned, and paid media. The variety of strategic media placements included the use of authentic micro-influencers, powerful brand partnerships, electrifying lifestyle events, and thoughtful cause marketing. The team even provided future recommendations to keep the Brand Love and activations growing even after the campaign period was over. Once all this information was gathered and produced, the Production Team created the Plans Book, a 21-page document to feature our insights and creative executions for the “Why Don’t We?” campaign. As the Plans Book was finished, team members developed scripts and a slide deck that aligned with the tone of the campaign in preparation for the 20-minute presentation to be given on the day of the competition.

My role as a Creative Associate on the Creative Team started with brainstorming with the team to produce the big idea of “Why Don’t We?” With the creation of the slogan, I collaborated with a few other team members to produce the creative manifesto. With the manifesto created, we began to create the assets that the Media Team researched and strategized. I managed the creation of the Google Search Ads and was a part of the design process of the Programmatic Display Ads and the Tik Tok In-Feed Video Ads. I was the voice actor for the Tik Tok In-Feed Video Ads. For the presentation, I scripted the Introduction, Big Idea, and Conclusion portions.

On April 9th, 2021, our team of Advertising and Promotion students competed in the NSAC American Advertising Federation Case Competition virtually. We placed third in our district.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Restricted

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