– an Independence Day Celebration
Summary of Project Goals
What are the first few things that come to mind when you think about the Fourth of July? It’s likely that you think about fireworks, parades, and barbeques. For my project with the Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce, I wanted to draw from those memories and create a fun, but also nostalgia-invoking, media campaign for Rexburg’s Independence Day celebrations. This lead to me creating all the print, digital, and social media pertaining to the Fourth of July in Rexburg.
Because the parade will happen after my given deadline, I drew on photographs from the year before and businesses that planned to participate. I also helped the current interns with any tasks related to the Fourth of July celebrations.
My main goal was to provide the Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce with not just a high quantity of media content, but make them high quality as well. During my internship at the Chamber of Commerce, I noticed that we threw many events, but there was never enough time to fully launch a social media or ad campaign that would actually be effective. My goal was to create a sustainable social media and ad campaign for the Fourth of July festivities that will promote the event in an effective and fun way. I wanted to create different kinds of media that target the demographics that live in Rexburg, focusing on families and university students. I wanted to create weekly content for the event and increase the frequency of posting as the event draws nearer. I also wanted to promote the event to businesses to sign up for the parade and park celebration.
In years past, the Chamber did not have adequate resources to launch an effective media campaign to promote the Independence Day Celebrations. For example, last year the chamber only had 3 posts on their Instagram for the Fourth of July:
As of June 23, 2023, I have posted 17 pieces of content related to the Independence Day celebrations, and there are still more scheduled up until the day of the parade. That is more than four times as many posts than the year before.
At the end of my project, my goal was to provide the Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce with:
- 1 Style guide
- 2 flyer designs, marketing to businesses and event attendees
- 1 Newspaper ad
- 2 eNews graphics and text
- 1 parade banner
- 35 social media posts on Instagram and Facebook
- 2 Facebook Events and Banners
- 1 promotional chamber flyer to hand out at the parade and in the park
- 1 t-shirt design
- 1 Marquee design
- 3 blog posts (800-1200 words), along with web content
- 1 information brochure
I also wanted to help with event management and coordinating the parade and Party in the Park.
Strategy
To create continuity between the social, printed, and digital media, I made a style guide. Obviously, I had to keep it patriotic with red, white, and blue. Still, I wanted to add freshness to an already saturated market.
In order to have a Fourth of July celebration to market, the Chamber first needed businesses and organizations to sign up for the parade and Party in the Party. This meant that the first half of my project was spent on recruitment and gearing my content towards businesses as my target audience.
To accomplish the Chamber’s goal of 80 groups signed up for the parade and 10 for the Party in the Park, I created the following content:
The client also wanted countdown posts for the last day to sign up for the parade and Party in the Park.
With the aid of these posts, the Chamber was able to exceed their goal of 80 parade participants with a current total of around 90.
With Party in the Park, we found that many businesses did not understand the purpose of the event, so I made an explanation post before I started posting the countdown.
Lastly, to help all the parade participants be on the same page, the Chamber held a mandatory information meeting at the Romance Theater. Although the participants already received emails about the meeting, I wanted to make sure they knew and get a hold of those who did not attend. Here are those posts:
From there, I started posting content where the general public was my main focus. This meant that I needed to create two Facebook events and share them in popular Rexburg Facebook groups.
https://www.facebook.com/events/621776456675602/
https://www.facebook.com/events/785863776219095/
So far, I posted 2 parts of a 4 video series where two members of the Chamber Executive Board talk about the Independence Day Celebrations. The last two parts are scheduled for the following days and are linked later in this report.
To target the students, I used a photograph from my friends and I at the parade last year. I wanted to promote the parade, as well as my report. This post performed well and was shared on the BYUI Scroll Instagram story.
However, the majority of Rexburg Residence do not follow the Chamber of Commerce on Instagram or Facebook (do you?). Keeping this in mind, I also created print media to reach that audience. The brochures were printed and distributed to local businesses, gas stations, and city hall.
Along with the Chamber of Commerce intern, I attended the Carousel Opening Kick-off on June 2nd to promote the Independence Day celebrations. We handed out the brochures and spoke with local businesses to encourage them to sign up for either the parade or Party in the Park. This proved to be one of our most effective marketing opportunities, even in the rain. Below is a story post we made while at the event:
Up Next
For the next week and a half, there are a handful of static posts going up on Instagram and Facebook. To clarify, all of these posts are targeted towards the event attendees and not the participating businesses. I wanted to create savable content that people can use as a reference on the Fourth of July.
Many of the Instagram followers do not understand the effort that goes into planning a parade on a day to day basis. These next two videos are behind-the-scene glimpses into the planning the chamber has to do.
Originally, I had planned to write 3 blog posts. However, as the project went on, my client no longer needed them. Here is a link to one I wrote before we cut them from the project.
For fun, I created a t-shirt design using the Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce’s logo and turned it into a firework.
Time Accounting
Approval from Project Advisor and Chamber of Commerce CEO: 1 hr
Plan revision: 1 hr
Meeting with Chamber Intern to plan out goals: 1 hr
Weekly Planning meeting for parade committee: 5 hrs
Promoting at Carousel Kick-off : 4 hrs
Style Guide: 3 hrs
Blog Post: 2 hrs
Designing: 20 hrs
Editing: 12 hrs
Posting & Copywriting: 4 hrs
Total: 52 hours
Achievements
At the end of the project, I created:
- 1 Style guide
- 2 flyer designs, marketing to businesses and event attendees
- 1 Newspaper ad
- 2 eNews graphics and text
- 2 parade banners
- 40 social media posts on Instagram and Facebook
- 2 Facebook Events and Banners
- 1 promotional chamber flyer to hand out at the parade and in the park
- 1 t-shirt design
- 1 Marquee design
- 1 blog post (800-1200 words)
- 1 information brochure
Future Opportunities
If I could do this project over again, I would focus less on graphics and add in more video and personal elements from local businesses. Putting a face or even a voice behind the media promotion would help the Rexburg audience feel more excited and connected to the events.
Resources
All content was made using Canva