Business Commons^™

Total Immersion: Virtual Reality's Path To Mass Adoption, Joshua Daghir

Honors Capstone Projects - All

With the release of devices such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Google Daydream in 2016, virtual reality seems poised to take over the tech and media landscape. Professional estimates of the projected popularity of these devices span extremely wide ranges, and many of these predictions fall victim to a self-serving bias. The purpose of this research is to identify the variables that affect the spread of the use of virtual reality, and to analyze how the characteristics of modern virtual reality relate to these variables. The framework used to identify and assess these variables comes from Everett Rogers’s …

Rebranding Hillel At Syracuse University, Marisa Bunis

Honors Capstone Projects - All

My rebranding of Hillel at Syracuse University was a multi-step process. First, I had to understand what rebranding truly meant – what made a successful rebranding, what to avoid during a rebranding, etc. I gained this critical knowledge by reflecting on my education as an advertising major and consulting credible online sources on the topic. The next step was to gain a deeper understanding of my client, Hillel at Syracuse University. I again drew insights from my own experience as a student highly involved in the organization, and I also learned critical information from resources provided to me by Brian …

Instagram: Builiding A Following In Niche Audiences And Captivating Strangers Utilizing Visual Social Media, Maia Henderson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, are used by advertisers to create brand identity and connect with consumers on a personal level. With the invention of Instagram however, fashion enthusiasts have been able to create their own visual accounts and build a following within a niche community. They don’t have to represent a specific brand or be sponsored, yet they are followed by many because of the quality of their content and by utilizing certain Instagram conventions. There is no known formula about how these accounts become so popular. These “Instafamous” accounts resonate deeply with their followers and …

Viewability: An Exaggerated Crisis, Jared Rosen

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis addresses the ongoing debate surrounding Viewability within the digital advertising industry. Since advertising is the lifeblood of many publishers and sites across the web, it is vital that brands and marketers derive value from this relationship. The Media Rating Council and Making Measurement Make Sense Movement both over exaggerate the value of Viewability in the digital advertising marketplace. By examining a plethora of articles and regulatory standards, I have been able to conclude that Viewability is a soft metric that does not provide media insights into the success of a given campaign. By conducting interviews and reviewing articles …

Race And Gender In Public Relations: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Experiences Of Women And Women Of Color In Pr, Emelia Armstead

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The purpose of this research project was to better understand the state of diversity in the PR industry by examining the unique experience of women and women of color working in PR. Using qualitative coding methods, five blogs by both women of color and White women were coded to determine emergent themes. While some themes were consistent among all authors, other trends emerged only among White women or women of color, respectively. From the personal and professional experiences of these women, these themes offered insights into the effects of both race and gender on the experience of female PR professionals.

More Than Just A Game: From Regional Sports Rivalry To Separatist Politics, Ruitong Zhou

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In the Capstone, I will explore one of the most intense football clashes in history: El Clásico (The Classic), which refers to a match-up between Real Madrid C.F. and FC Barcelona. When these most successful football clubs meet on the field for 90 minutes of intense action, it soon becomes very clear that this is much more than just a game or just sports. The field can be seen as a battleground, and the game could be a substitute for war between two ideologies, cultures, and social classes. This rivalry has a real and profound political tone, which goes back …

The Role Of Investor Relations In Crisis Communications, Rebecca Leigh Warren

Honors Capstone Projects - All

By the end of the 2000s, Domino’s Pizza Inc. was facing decreasing sales and a dwindling stock price, as consumers were frequently disappointed in the quality of the chain’s food. In April 2009, the pizza giant was faced with a sudden crisis when a YouTube video surfaced showing employees contaminating food with bodily functions.

This study will focus on the events following the crisis. Specifically, the study will examine Dominos’ unique pivot towards a transparent communications strategy in hopes of revitalizing its business model and its share price.

The methodology used to explore Domino’s new communications approach includes an in-depth …

Penn State Football: An Analysis Of Crisis Communication Best Practices And How Psu Overcame The Ultimate Pr Crisis, Meaghan Grace Lane

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis paper is an analysis of the crisis communication response to the 2011 Pennsylvania State University child sex abuse scandal. The reputation of this iconic university and its football program was changed forever by this horrific event, which involved years of administrative cover-ups of the sexual assault of children by an assistant football coach. However, despite widespread public backlash, administrative upheaval and heavy NCAA sanctions in the months after the scandal broke, Penn State has since made major strides in image improvement.

This project delves into what defines best crisis communication practices, using Penn State as a case study. …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

Gender, Politics, And The Media: An Analysis Of Media Coverage During The 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination, Janelle Bridson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis examines media coverage of female politicians. Through conducting background research, a personal interview with a nationally acclaimed political strategist, and a content analysis of 640 online articles published by The New York Times, the thesis presents a thorough review of media coverage. Results revealed that the media did not provide a consistent standard of coverage between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination. The New York Times depicted Obama in a more favorable light than Hillary Clinton. Additionally, Clinton was significantly more likely to be described in terms of her family life, physical appearance …

The Perfect Balance: Combining Global And Local Strategies For Effective International Public Relations, Anne Frances Krengel

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper discusses the benefits of using a combination of global and local public relations tactics to optimize global marketing activities and reach target publics. It also compares various cultures and public relations practices around the world, and offers examples of international public relations campaigns that have successfully reached their target markets by incorporating global strategies with cultural twists that are specifically tailored to local communities. In today’s progressively more globalized world, where people are connecting more quickly than ever before, it is vital that organizations know how to communicate correctly. While many theorists prefer either global strategies or local …

Clearview Church: An Online Brand Management Model For Nonprofits, Lindsey Nicole Colegrove

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project aims to provide specific recommendations to ClearView Church, and by extension nonprofits in similar situations, on how to strengthen their online presence. The recommendations are formed through in depth research into ClearView’s resources, goals and requirements as well as calling upon my expertise and experience in the technical and communications sides of the nonprofit field.

Through multiple interviews with church staff and members, I determined an overarching goal of sharing the warm, welcoming personality of the church with young families in the surrounding community. However, this goal was not guiding their online outreach efforts and therefore needed to …

Healthy Monday: A Mobile Web Application, Megan E. Snyder

Honors Capstone Projects - All

For my capstone project I created a mobile web application to help promote the Healthy Monday initiative. This is a program on campus that is run by the Learner Center for Public Health Promotion that encourages student and people in the community to start the week with healthy lifestyle choices. Healthy Monday’s website states: “Healthy Monday is a national initiative to help end chronic preventable diseases by offering weekly prompts and programs to support people and participating organizations in starting and sustaining healthy behaviors. Healthy Monday is a public health initative founded in 2005 in association with the Johns Hopkins …

The Heteronormative Objectification Of Women In The Disney Princess Films: A Study Of Brand Advertising And Parents’ Perceptions, Melanie Greenblatt

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Although the Disney Princess franchise portrays its ten princess movies as tales of “happily ever after,” they are filled with negative stereotypes of all kinds; this study in particular focuses on those addressed towards females. Each of these princesses lives in a patriarchal society and her sole desire is to find a man who guides her to happiness. The Princess brand has immense popularity even with these unconstructive stigmatizations of women. This study explores these movies while investigating, through qualitative research, the potency of these stereotypes and whether the parents of the target audience (defined by Disney as ages three …

Major League Soccer Case Study An Examination Into The Future Of The League, Matt Samost

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Major League Soccer has grown tremendously since its inception in 1996. The league, however, still is a work in progress. The overarching question of this case study deals with an examination into the future of the league. Will it continue to be a niche sport on the American sports landscape or will it challenge the big four leagues in the years to come? Broken into five subtopics, the case study looks to address this question by examining the league through multiple lenses in order to be able to take both an in-depth and wide look at the current condition of …

A Changing Dynamic: The Business-To-Individual Relationship, Robert Bloomberg

Honors Capstone Projects - All

As the Digital Revolution sweeps the world over, modern marketing strategies have had to adapt and change. Power has shifted from brands into the hands of consumers. This paper explores how this relationship is changing, and offers a glimpse of how this new relationship manifests itself in two forms of digital marketing strategy: the digitization of the in-store experience and the gamification of the modern day loyalty program. These strategies are intended to enhance the consumer experience and ensure that any interaction they have with the brand is a fulfilling one. This paper also discusses how digital technology has broken …

Wired Women: Understanding And Reaching The 18-24 Year Old Women Of Today, Jessica David

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Wired Women represent a segment of the larger millennial generation that has not previously been looked at as a singular target. Previous generational spans of 15-20 have until now successfully identified people of similar tastes, behavior and experience. The increased rate of technological discovery and innovation that has taken place over the past 25 years has caused a generational divide within millennials. It is necessary that this group of 18-24 year old women be examined separately from older millennial women as well as their same-aged male cohorts.

18-24 year old women represent an opportunity for advertisers to reach a group …

Israel’S Travel And Tourism Public Relations, Jillian Marom

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Israel’s geopolitical location and conflict with its surrounding neighbors has resulted in constant negative media coverage and poor public perception of the country. As a result of the ongoing turmoil and biased media reports, the country’s tourism industry has failed to live up to its dreams and expectations. In an attempt to fully understand Israel’s travel and tourism industry, the researcher wrote a case study analysis that analyzes Israel’s PR efforts and media campaigns that are created to brand the country and change its negative image in the media. Through online research, news articles, scholarly journals and in-person interviews, the …

The Significance Of Color In Food Marketing, Faith Elizabeth Zaki

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The effect of color on the perception and expectation of flavor and taste was researched. Psychological and scientific studies were used to demonstrate the benefits of using the right colors in advertising and marketing. Color, in these studies, was proven to affect consumers’ behavior when purchasing food. Color is interpreted by different genders, races, and ages were also studied. Color is a significant marketing tool that can help attract the right target markets. Also, examples of how color has help and hindered marketing campaigns in the past were examined.

Jcpenney Priced For Life Campaign, Michael Dolan

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The JCPenney “Priced for Life” campaign was designed as Syracuse University’s entry for the National Student Advertising Competition, an event held by the American Advertising Federation. As a member of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications team for the competition, I helped to make this integrated advertising campaign a reality.

The goal of this campaign is to retain women aged 25-34 who currently shop at JCPenney and also capture new customers who fall within that demographic. It is also designed to increase frequency and grow share of wallet among members of this target audience. The proposed campaign runs from …

Integrating Werw Into Syracuse University, Marina Zarya

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Title: Integrating WERW into Syracuse University

WERW was a free form student-run radio station at Syracuse University that was failing after losing its transmitter, members, and audience. This Honors Capstone project has three main components. First, it explores the history and significance of college radio at Syracuse University through interviews with alumni. Next, it describes my recreation of a sustainable student organization that fills a creative need at the University through management, promotions, and strategic partnerships. The final part of the project is a future campaign designed for WERW, which explores low budget branding and advertising strategies that will be …

Skilladdiction Business Plan, Taylor Louie

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Skill gaming is a type of online gaming in which people play fun, easy to learn, casual games, in a tournament setup - sometimes backed by small wagers, in attempt to win cash prizes. Launched in April, 2009, SkillAddiction (SA), now host to over 54,000 customers across more than 150 countries, brings people together to compete in any of their favorite casual games, in which the outcome is predominantly based on the player's skill. SA has incorporated innovative features to set itself apart from competitors, such as a virtual scavenger hunt, and interactive community features, and continues to develop the …

Renée Crown University Honors Program Advertising Campaign, Samantha Yanow

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The advertising campaign that I created for the Renée Crown University Honors Program is intended to raise awareness for the program across Syracuse University’s campus. This campaign is also intended to alter the common stereotype of the program as “pretentious” and “overrated.” The ideas behind each of these advertisements and their intended meaning were adapted from research that I conducted in the fall of 2010 with current Renée Crown University Honors Program students and faculty. Though these advertisements will most likely not be used for the Renée Crown University Honors Program due to budget constraints it is possible that core …

Zipped Magazine: The Public Relations Campaign, Naomi Ratner

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Zipped Magazine: The Public Relations Campaign is a compilation of public relations efforts created and executed in order to raise awareness about Zipped, the only fashion-focused print magazine at Syracuse University. The campaign involves four components, including the following: first, a media kit in order to provide informational materials to the press and the public; second, social media efforts to create an online presence for Zipped; third, news releases to notify media of happenings and events at Zipped; and fourth, news coverage of Zipped in local Syracuse media.

Cusemycampus Business Plan, Brian Weinreich

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Many students who arrive at Syracuse wish they knew more of the “inside scoop” in all aspects of the university. With the advent of Web 2.0, the Internet is now mainly dominated by social networking services. The formation and success of companies like Facebook, CollegeHumor, and Twitter show the extent to which students are connected constantly via the Internet throughout the day. One of the key problems with these large websites, such as Facebook and CollegeHumor, is the disconnect between the user and his community. These websites are successful on a large scale, but the niche small scale must be …

Planning Portfolio: The Process Of Strategic Thinking In Advertising, Emily Hicks

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The purpose of account planning is to develop a strategy that guides the creative executions in an advertising campaign. The development of a strategy includes; in-depth secondary research, primary qualitative and quantitative research, discovery of key findings, and the formation of the creative brief. This thesis explores both the creativity and academic rigor necessary to this account planning process.

The thesis is in the form of a creative portfolio. Each campaign included in the book (State Farm Insurance, Burton snowboards, and Libby’s pumpkin) have been reduced to the most visually and verbally concise form. Every campaign tells a cohesive narrative …