Digital Commons Network^™

Researching Campaign Materials For Ellie Mia Boutique, Mariann Yip

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Before you spend thousands of dollars on a public relations campaign, it is important to test the campaign materials to a sample population to see what their thoughts and opinions are. Using their feedback, you are then able to tailor the information in a more effective way, thus, creating and launching a successful campaign that accomplishes all of your goals and objectives.

Ellie Mia is a fashion boutique located on Marshall Street in Syracuse, N.Y. This capstone project explores the PR branding methods of the store to increase awareness of its existence, to augment store traffic and business and to …

Advertising In The Super Bowl: Worth The Cost?, Avi Steinbach

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The Super Bowl has long been considered an unofficial American holiday. Advertisers look at this day as their Christmas – a day when the audience looks forward to commercials. Because of the immense value that a Super Bowl spot holds, there is an equally high price tag to pay for a spot.

The original question posed in this thesis was: Is a Super Bowl advertisement worth the cost? After diving into countless articles arguing both sides and looking at companies’ successes and failures, it became clear that the wrong question was being asked. Rather than thinking about all companies, the …

Headlines: A Multimedia Approach To Getting 18 To 21 Year Olds Involved In News, Caitlin Landers

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Headlines is a capstone project that attempts to test how to get the 18 to 21 year old demographic interested in news by showing the target audience that news around the world directly affects them in some way. My belief, based on personal experience and observation, is that many young adults do not pay attention to the news because they do not believe it plays a role in how their life plays out. The goal of Headlines is to show the target demographic that the opposite is true; world events do affect what happens in their daily lives.

This capstone …

Capstoned: Advertising Research, Account Planning, And The Development Of A Marketing Plan For Recreational Marijuana In Denver, Co, Erica Clapp

Honors Capstone Projects - All

One of the hottest current issues in the United States among politicians and many other groups of citizens is the legalization of recreational marijuana. This issue has a long history, and it has constantly resurfaced in the media for years. However, the recent attention being given to recreational marijuana legalization is not going to die down anytime soon, for landmark progress has been made in this area. On November 6, 2012, Colorado Amendment 64 was passed, implementing a statewide drug policy for cannabis. Consequently, Colorado has taken a revolutionary step that marks the first electoral decision to legalize marijuana in …

Forward, Together, Yuki Mizuma

Honors Capstone Projects - All

With 12,000 refugees and former refugees currently living in Syracuse, N.Y., there is so much more to the city than being just a college or basketball city. Refugees from Burma, Bhutan, Somalia and nearly 40 more countries have come to Syracuse because of the low cost of living, job opportunities and the strong relationship that refugee organizations have with the Syracuse City School District. Nearly 800 new individuals arrive each year and, yet, many people are unaware of the diverse population living in Syracuse, N.Y. “Forward, Together” uses photographs, informational text and captions to depict the lives of two refugees …

Grace Magazine, Emmie Martin

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Grace is an online web magazine aimed at girls ages 13 through 18. This website

features material divided into four distinct categories that each cater to important aspects of a modern teenage girl’s life: Your Life, which covers lifestyle topics; Your Self, which covers health-related subjects including food, exercise, and nutrition; Your Style, which features fashion and beauty advice and news; and Your World, which delves into all aspects of modern culture.

This website publishes all original content, and strives to serve as an intellectual and entertaining resource in young girls’ lives. Grace provides girls with relevant articles that use …

Talking Hands: Does Gesture Production Help Bilingual Preschoolers Learn Words?, Bailey Bell Marks

Honors Capstone Projects - All

As multilingualism grows throughout the world, so does the need to develop appropriate teaching methods for the multilingual population, especially during the crucial stages of language acquisition that occur during childhood. Bilingual children must develop two vocabularies concurrently; this is a difficult task for many, but non-speech expression of language such as gestures may aid the process of acquiring new words in one’s vocabulary. The mirror neuron system provides a physiological basis for the connection between language centers in the brain and the execution and observation of hand movements. To examine how using gestures affects children’s word learning, the researcher …

Find It In Football: An International Marketing Plan For Young Women, Melanie Michelle Holohan

Honors Capstone Projects - All

What follows are multiple components of a creative advertising project. While this work relies heavily on research, it was a very creative process. The premise of this work is an integrated marketing campaign that utilizes my two majors: international relations and advertising, combined with my love for sports. Using primary and secondary research, I found that the benefits that sports have on child development are huge (Humphrey, 2003). I narrowed my sport choice down to soccer and my target down to young women. I wanted to focus on Islamic states because, at least by American standards, Muslim women are often …

Syracuse University Trust Barometer: A Study Of Su Students’ Media Consumption Habits And Trust In News, Jessica Hajjar

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In order to communicate effectively with a target audience, public relations professionals must understand the news media their intended public consumes and trusts. In recent years, media polls and surveys have shown the trust Americans place in the news media is declining. The purpose of this study is to examine the news media habits of Syracuse University students and the trust students place in news information.

This study is based off responses from 254 Syracuse University students who agreed to participate in a voluntary response survey. The seventeen question survey was designed to examine students’ daily news consumption patterns and …

Over The Line: Ethical Issues In The Media Coverage Of The Bernie Fine Scandal, Giuseppe S. Diglio

Honors Capstone Projects - All

On Nov. 17, 2011, sports media conglomerate ESPN aired a story in which Bobby Davis and Mike Lang, stepbrothers and former ball boys for the Syracuse University men’s basketball program, accused Bernie Fine, then an assistant coach for the Syracuse men’s basketball team, of sexually abusing them as children. As the story developed, the reporting methods used by ESPN and The Post-Standard, the daily newspaper in Syracuse, were put into question. This report looks at what these news organizations did in their investigative reporting of the allegations against Fine and analyzes whether or not it was morally acceptable. To do …

Public Relations And Promotion In Film: How It’S Done And Why It’S Important, Timothy Cheng

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Films have been huge revenue drivers in the entertainment industry. However, not all films succeed with high profit margins. Success can be contributed to aspects such as the writing, the production quality, or the acting within a film. These aspects contribute to how audiences, critics and media receive a movie. Unfortunately, these aspects typically overshadow one of the most important functions contributing to a film’s success: promotion and public relations.

For my capstone, I researched how films are promoted, branded, and distributed through public relations functions. Research largely relied on secondary research, with primary research added for deeper concepts. After …

What’S Gender Got To Do With It? How Client Gender Influences Public Relations Practices And Crisis Management Strategies, Tiana Rojas

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Media leads gender stereotyping. Consumers of media internalize messages of gender put forth by the media, thus shaping their attitudes and expectations of gender. This paper focuses on gender and how it influences public relations (PR) practices and crisis management strategies, specifically in entertainment PR. This is a subject that has yet to be explored. Utilizing primary, secondary and quantitative research methods, I hope to answer my research question: how does client gender influence PR strategy? To test my research question, I designed an online survey composed of four common PR crises seen in the entertainment industry among celebrities. The …

Beaver Professional Public Relations Research Case Study, Francheska Munoz

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This research study combines public relations and marketing to examine how women think about buying hair products. Using Beaver Professional, a hair care company, as the client, this study incorporates different methods of research to understand what factors affect which products women buy and where they go to buy them. This study also examines how salons think about selling hair products to their customers and where they go to shop or find the products for their salons.

A Sinking Ship: An Extensive Crisis Communications Case Study Of Carnival Cruise Lines, Amanda Ryann Michelson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper examines the problem that Carnival Cruise Lines (Carnival), a famous cruise ship line for vacationing, continues to endure crisis situations yet fails to take the appropriate actions for rectification.

It is common knowledge within the public relations field that a crisis can make or break the sustainability of a successful organization. It is for this reason that it is necessary for professionals to analyze past events within a company’s history in order to improve its relationships with its stakeholders to keep the business afloat.

This study focuses on three major incidents. The first one involves a fire in …

The Next Zuck: The Rise Of Entrepreneurship On America’S College Campuses, Amanda L. Quick

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The Next Zuck is a website featuring student-run startups, college semester programs, business competitions and other startup events. While there are a number of technology and startup websites, The Next Zuck is unique because it is one of the only media outlets strictly dedicated to highlighting college founders and entrepreneurship at universities nationwide. The Next Zuck website includes video, blog posts and articles, while also serving as a resource to college students who want to learn more about entrepreneurial activity at other universities. Bringing together content from various college ecosystems, The Next Zuck has built a community of college CEOs, …