NYC

I had the opportunity of going to New York City with the Marketing Management and Interactive Media classes. The biggest city I had ever been to before New York was Cleveland, and when we first arrived they dropped us off in the middle of Times Square. It was the most overwhelming feeling I had ever had. There was tons of people, huge buildings, lights everywhere, stores for as far as you could see, and that was just the beginning.
I had planned walking a lot but I never imagined walking as much as we did. Thankfully the weather was beautiful so the walking was enjoyable. Walking also made me notice how clean the city is. The streets were pretty much spotless. Central Park was beautiful and so calm in the middle of a huge city. We took horse drawn carriage rides and just got to enjoy the scenery.
New York is very diverse and has many different people from all over the world. We met a women named Sue who owned her own stores which carried apparel and shoes. She is a women is a very masculine industry, and rocks at what she does. I was very impressed with her business and I loved what she carried in store.
We were able to see Spiderman on Broadway. It was incredible. I never knew the stunts were possible and the set was very impressive. Our seats were perfect and we could see everything. the cast fit the parts and had amazing voices.
The shopping was like nothing I have experienced before. In China Town and Little Italy it is easy to bargain to get what you want, and you can get expensive things for very cheap. After that every store I went to I wanted to try and bargain, but once we went to fifth avenue I knew that wouldn't be a good idea. Fifth Ave was every girls dream; Juicy Couture, Tiffany's, Nike Town in Trump Tower, Coach, and so much more. Although, you can't afford everything it's fun to still look and dream.
I had an amazing experience and couldn't thank my teachers enough for taking on the challenge of taking juniors and seniors to one of the biggest cities. If i learned anything from this trip it is that New York City is an awesome place to visit but I am definitely not a city girl.

CD's

In Interactive Media and Digital Design we had the opportunity to design a cd cover and choose songs for it. It had to have some kind of theme to it. Being a senior with graduation coming up very soon I chose the title Time Flies. I chose songs that had to do with happy endings, new beginnings, and ones that talked about how fast times really does go by. It was fun choosing songs but when it came to designing a cd cover that took me more time than i thought it would have. With a little help from a friend I had the idea of using a clock, and when I typed time into google Time magazine came up. I put the two together and came up with my cd design which I am very happy with.

The Big Day!

After months of hard work our project finally went into play this past Sunday. Both marketing classes and Interactive Media have worked on this project since December and seeing everything come together Sunday and run as smoothly as it did was a huge relief. If it wasn't for all of the teamwork and collaboration between the three classes the show would not have been possible. One of our main goals was for it to be a great experience for us students, attendees, and vendors. I believe this goal was accomplished because all of the positive feedback we had. Us students enjoyed ourselves because the show ran smoothly and we even got to visit vendors ourselves. Attendees were impressed by the raffle items, and giveaways at booths also. Vendors said that it was a great fun experience and they hope to get more business from this. A lot of people were impressed that it was executed by high school students. In the end the One Stop Prom Shop was a success for everyone and we hope it was a great experience and people enjoyed themselves.
One Stop Prom Shop website - www.1stoppromshop.com
Follow us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/1stoppromshop
Twitter and Instagram @ 1stoppromshop
YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/OneStopPromShop?feature=watch

Click on the links below for media coverage of The One Stop Prom Shop
Cuyahoga Falls News Press - Sunday February 24, 2013 http://www.fallsnewspress.com/education/2013/02/24/one-stop-prom-shop-planned-for-march-3#.UTYGQItCZ04.email

Akron Beacon Journal Article - Tuesday March 3, 2013
http://www.ohio.com/news/local/jewell-cardwell-students-partner-with-businesses-to-do-the-prom-hustle-1.378160

Fox 8 News - Sunday March 3 2013 (this also appeared on the 3/3/13 at 10:00 pm
http://fox8.com/2013/03/03/students-create-one-stop-prom-shop/

Cuyahoga Falls Patch
http://cuyahogafalls.patch.com/events/one-stop-prom-shop-f19d351d

Harlem Shake

To Promote the One Stop Prom Shop, a student came to the class with an idea on Tuesday to create a Harlem Shake video. Most of the class didn't even know what it was or even what to expect. In class we watched videos on it, then we realized it was a lot more popular than we had thought. The Harlem Shake had been done by an army, college students, pets, and a lot more. We researched even more to make sure it was school appropriate, and began to plan. On wednesday we went to the two other marketing classes to get as many students as we could to participate. On thursday the plans went into action and we created the video within a half an hour. Within twenty four hours the video had about 900 youtube videos, 200 Facebook views, 48 Twitter retweets, and 28 favorites. It also helped us gain 15 twitter followers. We will continue to track our progress to see how many views we can get.

OSPS

Last year the senior marketing class held a prom trade show called the One Stop Prom Shop. This year the junior class decided to take on the task of  holding another One Stop Prom Shop. Knowing it had to be bigger and better they have asked the senior marketing and interactive media classes to help. Each class had different aspects of the Prom Shop to work on. To market we're using social media and an assembly. For social media the senior class have used Twitter and Instagram, and asked all classes to participate and spread the word. The assembly is one of the most important parts and what we've worked very hard on. The assembly involves all the classes. Everyone was needed in order for the assembly to be organized and run smoothly. Their is a dance, video, game show, and an informational slide show. The dance was organized by interactive media and same with the video with help from the juniors. The juniors needed prospects for people to be at the show with help from the seniors who helped find prospects and raffle items. The assembly has brought all of the classes together and allowed to work as a huge team. Every part is very important and when it all comes together it will create a perfect show.

OSPS

Our Junior Marketing class is organizing a One Stop Prom Shop and has asked my class, Interactive Media and Digital Design for some help. My class will be in charge of the assembly at our school to promote it to our classmates. We have broke the assembly down into four parts; an intro dance, a video, an informational section, and a game show. We also split into four teams, I am part of audience involvement. We are in charge of getting the audience excited, and giving away a ton of free stuff in creative ways. This is a huge project that will involve help from every class.

Businesses

In Interactive Media and Digital Design the time has come to work with businesses to create a business card, logo, brochure, letterhead, or whatever they may need. I am working with the Band department of our school. Their holiday concert is coming up and they need brochures made to hand out with students names and the song list. I have to get the necessary information before I can start, but i will make a simple brochure and add holiday pictures to make it decorative and seasonal. This will be a simple task that can help out the band department.

Black Friday

I will be participating in black friday shopping chaos! I don't have any particular products I am interested in and I don't know of any great deals. I participate because the deals may not be huge, but I do receive a discount for the things I would normally buy.

A lot of people, including myself, wonder why the famous shopping day is called Black Friday. The name Black Friday was not considered a good thing at first. It was originally called this because so many went out to shop and it caused many accidents and violence.

I did not see any retailers offering mobile payment methods on Black Friday. Although, many offered online retail sites. Many using websites were able to get offers even before Black Friday and did not have to worry about the product they wanted running out of stock as soon as stores do. I have never seen as many people out on Black Friday as I did this year. It also wasn't quite as brutal. Other shoppers were more pleasant and I think it was because stores were running smoothly. Lines were long but went by quickly and employees were very helpful. This Black Friday was a good experience and went by smoothly.

Yearbook Design

Designing the yearbook cover was not an easy task. We had to follow a few requirements, and keep the design pretty simple. It was difficult to keep it simple, but be creative at the same time. Out of 40 designs one will be chosen by the yearbook staff. This makes it difficult because your designs will be judged by other classmates, and you want to be picked so it was hard to come up with good, creative ideas that are better than any of the others. If picked your design has the potential of being seen by the entire school, which puts a lot of pressure on you to be the best. I followed requirements by using the the title "The Cuyahogan" and this years title "Every Ending Is a New Beginning". I used the school colors and the mascot, a Tiger. I kept it simple, but tried to be as creative as I could. 

Business Letter & Letterhead

Our most recent project was to create a letterhead and business letter. We created a letterhead using logos we created when branding ourselves. Next, the business letters were created so we could send them to local prospects in our community hoping they would buy our designing services. We had to include what we do in class, what we can offer to the business, our different designing services, and how they can contact us. Hopefully, some of our prospects will contact us with interest in our services.

Branding Project

As a project we had to brand ourselves. We had to create a logo, find a headline text, supporting text, and supporting graphics. I created mine to look like a business card I had already created, so I used the same colors and supporting graphics. I wanted my things to go together and look somewhat similar. I had trouble creating a logo because it was difficult to come up with a design to represent myself, that is why I used my business card's graphics and colors to help come up with the logo. it made it a little easier and gave me something to work off of.

Carrots, carrots, carrots!

A local grower, named Mike Yurosek, who worked for Bolthouse carrot company, was growing frustrated with the fact that if carrots were not a particular size, shape, and color, they would be wasted. He got the idea to peel and cut them into one inch balls then peel and cut into 2 inches. The second ones are commonly known as baby carrots and were  a huge hit. They seemed to get people to eat more carrots. After a few years sales went flat, nobody knew why, and it was a huge problem. Jeff Dunn became CEO of this company 3 years ago and immediately wanted things to change. He started surveys and focus groups and found out when recession hit people were more likely to buy regular carrots to save money. He also realized that baby carrots have never been marketed.

He talked to 20 different agencies about different marketing strategies. After hearing all the different ideas, he imagined attractive individually wrapped bags of carrots that resembled potato chip bags, but the bags would cost 25% more. Crispin Porter, specializes in campaigns, started a campaign called "Eat Em' Like Junk Food" It was aired on three television shows and well as web series. Bolthouse company installed vending machines with carrots in high schools. These machines were selling 80-90 snacks per week, and Bolthouse test markets were up 10-12%. Schools have approached Bolthouse asking for the vending machines and in April they will experience their first movie tie in, with snacks promoting the movie, Hop. Also, in a lab and kitchen staff has been experiencing with different flavors. No flavors have been released but it will be healthy and all natural.

Branding and packaging has contributed the carrot success. After Bolthouse had realized they hadn't done anything to promote baby carrots and make them stand out, it created a lot of excitement for the company. They are hoping by changing their way of branding it will appeal to consumers more.

The newfound niche may create a whole new world for carrots. If their new packaging creates success and the flavoring idea works it will create competition for other brands to step it up and meet the new standards. Other companies will fall behind if they don't meet the new needs.

Thank you cards.

One of the main things in IMDD is that we create many different designs using photoshop. For example, I had to create a thank you card that represented what I liked and had a creative design. I kept my design simple by just  choosing a patterned background. I had the opportunity to choose a quote, but like I said I kept things simple by choosing to write thank you on the card. I had never used photoshop before this class and everything I had to learn was new. I learned how to add a background, words, edit the background, and much more.

Sponsorships & Businesses at the Olympics

I recently read a very interesting article on prdaily.com titled Brands winning big at London Olympics. It discussed social media and sponsorships during the Olympics this summer. Sponsorships are a big businesses, that bring in a lot of money.

 Although, these are being threatened due to social media. Each company has their own set of sponsorship rights protections in addition to a "brand exclusion zone" which extend for kilometers around venders preventing brands that aren't sponsors from displaying any ads or logos.

Online restrictions make things even more complicated by punishing fans for uploading pictures or videos onto public sites. Athletes may not comment on any competitors performance using twitter, facebook, or other social media. Also, they cannot promote any brand, product, or service, unless they are a sponsor.

The halo effect is said to have a positive effect on brands during the olympics. Many brands will get more business and attention to their brands. Consumers recognize brands from the olympics and USA team and will purchase them because the fact that they support them. So it makes them more favorable over similar products.

In addition to sponsor- event fit brand equity is one of the most important factors when measuring long term financial success of brand sponsors. Brand equity is the value a brand has over a generic competitor. Companies create this by making their brands memorable, recognizable.

Olympic sponsors should continue to be protected by the same laws. If they weren't it could jeopardize a companies success. Sponsors work very hard to support the Olympics and deserve the respect the earn for doing so.

Where it all begins...

I am currently a high school student in an interactive media and digital design class. I have created a blog to follow blogs i am interested in, and to create my own for classmates and others interested in what we are doing to read and follow along with what we do. We are only about five weeks into the school year, but that doesn't mean anything to us. From day one we took off. Working on projects, with clients(other students), and learning a bit about the business, and marketing world. Photoshop was one of the first things we tackled, with me never using photoshop before this was a little difficult, but with a little help from other students and teachers I got the hang of things pretty quickly. Next, we worked with prezi and started to learned the basics of marketing. We were given terms such as goods, public relations, co-branding, cooperative promotions, and many more. We had to find out the meaning of these terms. Then, we found pictures to describe the terms and put them in a prezi. It was a good project that helped us learn marketing basics. The things we have done so far have given us some expectations for the year and have started to help us learn to balance doing a couple different projects at once, and help with time management. I'm excited to see the outcome of this class and where i end up at the end of the year and I am hoping it will help me make a better decision for what i would like to do in college.