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if you’ve made it this far, congratulations. 

at this point the material I've covered in these blogs have basically been over things such as marketing strategy, advertising placement, or things similar in that nature. 

at this point, why end that streak? one this course of time in this class I've come to realize the things that work and the things that don’t. 

watching the patterns of large companies is cool for sure, but being able to work hand in hand with a smaller timed client here in Saint Joseph sure showed the real analytical data of it all. 

it showed the difference between what happens when you throw a marketing plan into the abyss of the internet, vs throwing a targeted and sponsored ad with well placed timing to a targeted demographic. 

seeing these things side by side with a small scale client helped me use these skills to expand on my own side business, expand my knowledge of marketing which in turn landed me a digital marketing internship, and I know will help do nothing but further my career. 

numbers don’t lie, and neither do results. 

shocker, I'm making another post about the sport of baseball. while this shouldn’t surprise you, at least I'm trying to attack the from a different angle. 

when it comes to baseball equipment, you can find a plethora of companies doing the exact same thing. and by that, I mean literally, the exact same thing. 

if you’ve seen one wooden baseball bat, by god you’ve practically seen them all. if you think of this in terms of just competition in general, it kind of breaks down the entire ideology of competition. whether that be Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Adidas, etc. 

what makes consumers or any normal person from choosing one brand over the other? when it comes to terms of baseball equipment at least, (or shoot any product now that I think of it) it’s strictly all about PR and marketing. 

what celebrity can endorse this product on the biggest stage that will create some buzz and help us sell more product? when it comes to baseball gear, it’s basically all about the star power using it on the field that helps build that trust relationship with consumers. 

any other product (such as a consumable like coke), will grab just about anybody to throw into an infomercial or on a cereal box and hope for sales. 

meanwhile a baseball bat company for instance wants a star swinging their product, and for them to succeed with it as well. 

when most people think of a gym, they probably already have a really solid idea set in mind for what to think of. 

they picture either a bunch of very large, very rude, meathead dudes standing around pumping iron and grunting uncontrollably, or they picture a bunch of soccer esque moms attending a Zumba class all with yoga pants on talking about how good their kale salad will be later on for dinner that evening. 

One thing I've come to notice over the years, is that the whole idea of “fitness and wellness” has become increasingly more inclusive and family friendly. it used to cater only to the nitty gritty diehards of the “dieting and exercise” life style, but we’re slowly starting to see a shift in how the PR and marketing of gyms and fitness are becoming less “aggressive” you could say. 

it’s no shock that the mention of physical activity can either really get some people excited and ready to go, or absolutely terrify some others. and that’s completely ok. having just recently gotten hired at a gym, it’s wild to see the different types of people that come in and out of the place for different purposes. 

the pet industry is a wild one (no pun intended), and when it comes to marketing products and services towards pets, the owners can get just as wild as these pets. 

Not many people dislike a furry friend in their lives, and companies have been making billions of dollars over just the past few years just in sales of pet products alone. 

according to statistia.com, the pet industry generated an approximate 99.9 billion dollars just in the year 2020 alone. some of the marketing strategies used to generate the revenue are pushing of food, online private brands, and treats.

I read an article just recently by Forbes magazine stating ideas and thoughts of PR. I thought it was quite interesting and shared a lot of ideologies that I believe myself, and a lot of ideas I though were very cool. 

the article starts out with the basic overview as to what Public Relations is as a whole field. Basically, attempting to send a message out to an audience and hoping that it is reciprocated and interpreted the same way you are sending it out. This can be a good or bad thing, and can sometimes even be a disastrous thing. There’s nothing quite like cracking a bad joke a nobody laughing, so I can only imagine what it would be like to launch a massive PR campaign for a product only to have nobody buying. (insert money hungry cat)

the article drops one of the most interesting quotes I have ever heard about PR as well. the article states, “PR is not advertising. PR is all about storytelling. PR is an image-shaper. But with technological advancements reshaping almost every aspect of communications and interaction, leaving nothing untouched.”

I thought this was an amazing peak into what PR truly is all about these days, and in an unknown future where there is always a new editor, a new director, a new product, and a new target market. I believe the article nails the idea when it says, “With technology coming into perspective, making change more volatile, this question is a little bit too ambitious to answer. But with current trends, I believe it is safe to predict that PR will remain steadfast in the many years to come. Inevitably, there will be a strong focus on online content and less on print.”

it’s kind of hard to imagine the ability to market medicine. I mean not really if you break it down. for instance, if you’re trying to market Tylenol or a pain reliever of the sort, you might mention how it’ll make your day easier, makes your simple headaches go away, or possibly even make a hangover a bit better after a long night. but how in the world do you even begin to market a vaccine? a once in a lifetime treatment that may not fix the problem to a rather large solution.

After receiving my first round of the COVID-19 vaccine, I realized how little marketing was done between actual brands and companies creating these vaccines. there were no commercials or billboards all over the place advertising for them, and no radio ads mentioning anything about them. so how in the world do you even begin to market a product like this to the public?

an ABC news article explains how one company dumped around $52 million into an ad campaign to help build trust for the amount of vaccine shots that were going out. “Although vaccines have been available — in limited supplies — in the U.S. since mid-December, the timing of the ad campaign is actually good, said Jay Winsten, a Harvard University public health communications expert.” 

Why Millenials Are So Easy To Purchase Off Of Ads-

Let’s be real, we all have been scrolling endlessly on our preferred social media sites only to be bombarded with endless ads. Now mind you some of these ads are completely useless to most of us, but some of these ads really hit the nail on the head when it comes to pointing us in the right direction of things we’re extremely interested in. For instance, I play baseball. Which means a lot of my searches around this time of year are for new baseball equipment, or possible baseball related items since spring training is right around the corner. 

With this in mind, my entire Facebook and instagram feed are flooded with baseball related advertisements for new bats, gloves, and everything in between. the worst part is, for me, it works every time. 

Spring Training has just began for all 30 Major League Baseball teams, and thus begins the social media escapades for each major league ball club. 

I follow practically every single baseball team on instagram, and so far my feed has been absolutely flooded with marketing campaigns for all major clubs. These marketing campaigns include everything from videos and images from star players, to different themed nights at their respective home ballparks. 

with baseball being my favorite sport, it’s very cool to see how each club takes their approach to marketing in a sense of what they do well. teams with very specific well known players will push these players extra hard on social media, while other lesser known teams who aren’t as competitive in a sense will mainly post a lot of team related stuff, and market the entire team. 

if you think about it, Valentines Day is a perfect example of a perfect marketing and PR dream. What other day could possibly exist that could easily make people be swayed into thinking about one certain type of emotion?

Maybe it’s the endless sea of chocolate, the cards insisting that maybe your crush likes you back, or the idea of receiving a sweet bouquet of flowers from your significant other that makes you feel so sprung and in love on this special day, or perhaps.. it’s possibly all the marketing every single company has thrown your way since you were a young child. 

I’m not here to be that person and tell you that “Love doesn’t exist” or anything of that matter, but rather tell you how much of an impact positive PR and Marketing can effect such a special day. 

To everything from restaurants pushing their valentines day specials in order to boost sales for the week, to Hallmark having an entire line of valentines day cards specifically for that time of year, it’s easy to see companies capitalize on these moments in order to boost growth. 

Visual marketing and PR is a huge thing part of valentines day, as you'll see endless pictures of couple based photos and bright red hearts scattered across the screens as well. You’ll see visual marketing paired hand in hand in order to create this feeling of love in the air. 

-Public Relations and The Covid Ad Campaign-

With the ever changing world around us relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s interesting to look at how companies around us are adapting to the new wave of COVID friendly advertisements. 

As most companies take the approach of “Pro” social distancing and “Pro” mask, they also have used the pandemic to create the sense of urgency and need to offer services such as curbside pickup and at home delivery to hopefully combat the need for some people to feel like a visit to these establishments is needed.  

So far these companies have really taken advantage of the fact that consumers have a growing fear of COVID-19 and because of that, some companies are even having their highest grossing and highest and most profitable quarters in history.