Purpose
Labor Day is the biggest event in Meeteetse and also serves as the town’s celebration day. There are events that happen all day, and it is a big deal. People from all over the state come to it! I love Meeteetse, and know that it runs off tourism, so I want to help it grow. For this project, I created promotional materials for next year’s Labor Day celebrations. Included were physical fliers and social media content. I wanted to connect with citizens of Meeteetse in order to find great pictures, stories, and facts about Labor Day in Meeteetse, because it truly is the community that makes Labor Day great!
Project Samples- Flyers
Project Samples- Reels and Posts
Calling all car fanaticsDownload
Community shout out- ducksDownload
Rodeo thrills and spillsDownload
Challenges
One of my biggest struggles during this project was getting going and letting my creativity flow. I had a hard time knowing what I should work on in order to produce the final product. However, once I got going, it was as if I couldn’t stop because I found the creating aspect of the project to be fun and my brain wouldn’t stop thinking about the next thing I could try making.
Another challenge was finding the best ways to connect with the community for research, pictures, and interviews. Since the age range is vast, the means of communication also needed to be vast. I ended up using emails, phone calls, word of mouth, and social media to connect with each of these groups. It was such an amazing opportunity to learn how to use each of these tools to connect with a different audience but certainly was challenging at first.
Project Processes
I began this project with an idea of what I would be doing the remainder of the time frame. However, I was shocked by how much I really had not thought about and had to figure out in the moment. I began by learning how to better use Adobe to create social media posts. I researched the best methods for increasing viewership and engagement through social media. I put together a color palette that I then used throughout the whole project to create cohesion. While creating the posts, I made a mixture of carousel style and single page posts to appeal to various audiences. Additionally, I started creating the physical flyers, which used the same color palette but needed different information. I used examples of other flyers to determine what information was needed. For the reels, I learned how to use CapCut, a video editor. I reached out to high school students and talked to them about recording videos of different aspects of Labor Day. They were more than willing, and their insights were perfect and seemed pretty universal. The reels took quite a bit of new skill development, but became my favorite parts created. After every step, I would check in with my mentor, Piper Singer, to make the content even more engaging and relevant for my target audience.
Experience Overview
This project has given me so much insight into the communications world. I came into this, knowing very little about design and marketing, but have finished knowing that I am able to complete work that I am proud of! I loved learning how to utilize Adobe and CapCut to unleash innovation and create pieces of work to be shared with an entire community. Overall, it was a positive learning experience that pushed me to learn how to learn myself and receive feedback openly.
Takeaways
As I mentioned earlier, I did not have very much experience or knowledge about creating promotional materials prior to this project. Everything I did and created was the result of learning new skills, researching how to be better, and implementing the advice I received from my mentor. One of my biggest takeaways, was the importance of connecting with an audience. This means explicitly asking them to take an action, such as commenting, sharing, tagging someone, or reposting.
Additionally, I learned that relationships and connections with others is a huge part of marketing and communications. People want to share their stories, especially about topics that excite them just as much as they excite others. I loved hearing people’s favorite parts of Labor Day and how they can see the difference it makes in their own community. I know that it is important that these stories and experiences are shared, so I was so grateful and honored to be a part of retelling these stories so that generations can connect with a valuable part of Meeteetse’s history and current culture.