Amy Sheldon, Bridget Doherty, Connor Gorman, Jana Putzig, Nicole Collado, Patrice Grande, Alexandria

McCalla, Tatyanna Antoski & Wendy Nguyen Truong.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary 2

Research 2

Target Audience 3

Key Messages 4

Goal, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics and Outcomes 4

Challenges and Opportunities 7

Results 8

Research Suggestions 9

Conclusion 9

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Executive Summary
Every year, SUNY Plattsburghs Office of Alumni Relations holds a Homecoming Weekend to say
Welcome Home to alumni of all ages. There are social events, hall of fame inductions and an
unveiling of new features on campus. In recent years, the office has struggled with one key element
of the weekend: getting current students to attend.

Looking for a way to increase student attendance, the office asked a PRE 314 class in spring 2015 to
create a plan to engage students. The class quickly noted that the creation of a signature event that
would attract student interest would be the best way to increase attendance and raise school spirit.
After hashing through many ideas, and working closely with the Office of Alumni Relations, the
Homecoming Bonfire and Banner Competition was born. Using student groups as opinion leaders,
the class was able to get 37 groups on campus to complete a banner showing their organization and
school spirit and got an estimated 1,000 individuals to attend a Homecoming Bonfire on Friday,
Oct. 16.

Research

Situation Analysis
For students on many campuses, Homecoming is the biggest school-related event of the year. It is a
time where current and past students come together to participate in an array of activities to
celebrate the place they spent (or are spending) the best four years of their lives.

With only 439 people attending Homecoming in 2013, SUNY Plattsburghs event is not as big as
most would expect it to be. In fact, only 100 students attended Homecoming last year.

Hayden Daughtrey, who was a SUNY Plattsburgh senior in 2014, has never attended Homecoming
because she never knew about the event. The May graduate is now an alumna and would like to stay
connected to the SUNY Plattsburgh community. She would be interested in attending an upbeat
event with friends that includes barbecue, music and prizes.

Stephen Larson, a junior at SUNY Plattsburgh, has also never attended Homecoming because he
has never seen any advertisements and didnt know if his friends were going.

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Isabella, a sophomore at SUNY Plattsburgh, attended Homecoming her freshman year and hasnt
attended since. Isabella was convinced to go her freshman year because her friends went, but, since
none of her friends went this year, she decided not to go. She would go to Homecoming in the
future if her friends went along with her.

A survey administered to the student body in spring 2015 showed that Hayden, Stephen and Isabella
were not alone. The majority of students said they would like to attend Homecoming but were just
unaware of the events. They also said they would go if their friends were going.

We believed that the creation of a signature event one that brands Homecoming as something
truly special and one that is well publicized, using the power of friendship will bring a much larger
percentage of students to attend events and may even result in an increased alumni attendance as
alumni friends attend with the students.

Primary Research
We surveyed 71 students from SUNY Plattsburgh. In the survey we asked various questions about
Homecoming activities, awareness of activities, participation in Homecoming, benefits of
Homecoming for students, enjoyment and motivation.

SUNY Plattsburgh Students

Fifty-four percent of students were unaware of last years Homecoming activities.
Majority of students heard about activities through word of mouth.
Fifty-four percent of students wanted to take part in last years activities.
Sixty-nine percent of students believed Homecoming is beneficial for students.
Thirty-five percent of students enjoyed last years Homecoming.
Sixty-one percent of students stated that they wanted to attend Homecoming after
they graduate.

Target Audience
Primary
Twelve athletic teams: Roughly 6 percent of students on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus are
athletes.
Twenty one Greek organizations:
Ten sororities: 18 percent of sorority members make up the student body at SUNY
Plattsburgh (statistics from Spring 2015).
Eleven fraternities: 15 percent of fraternity members make up the student body at SUNY
Plattsburgh (statistics from Spring 2015).

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 Sixty nine clubs (listed on student association website).

Secondary
Faculty and staff.

Key Messages

Primary Message
Come to the Bonfire

Secondary Message
1. Start a new tradition here at SUNY Plattsburgh
2. Help make history by attending the first ever Bonfire

Primary Message
Participate in the Banner Competition

Secondary Message
1. Show school spirit with your club/ organizations or team members
2. Bond with your peers and alumni at our Bonfire #Bondfire

Goal, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics and Outcomes

Goal:
The goal of our Public Relations Campaigns class was to increase attendance at Homecoming
events.

Objective
Our objective was to increase student attendance by 150 percent from what it was 2014 by having
250 students attend the Homecoming bonfire.

Strategies
We used the two-step flow of communication model and utilized ourselves as opinion leaders
(anti-authorities) to get members of clubs, teams, and organizations to attend. We also encouraged
other influential students to become opinion leaders. This helped increase the number of students at
the bonfire and Homecoming.

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We utilized interaction theory which says the more an individual interacts with the medium, the
more influencing the medium is on the individual. Based on the Interaction Theory, by involving
student leaders they were more inclined to attend the event themselves.

We also applied Cialdinis Commitment Theory, which states that smaller commitments will lead to
larger ones. By having student groups create banners that would be shown at the Homecoming
bonfire, they were more likely to attend the event. Creating the banner made them want to attend
the event for three major reasons: to see how their banner looked. to see if they won the contest and
to have fun.

Tactics:
1. The creation of a signature event that students will find exciting.

Tactic 1: Bonfire behind Memorial Hall, Fri., Oct. 16 at 8:30 p.m.

Result: Estimated 1,000 people showed up to the bonfire event.

Tactic 2: DJ to play student-friendly music. A DJ will bring a better atmosphere and vibe to the
bonfire.
Result: DJ Gary Peacock did trivia games to entertain the crowd. Based on observation, the
students seemed happy at the bonfire so the music he played was successful.

Tactic 3: Popcorn/cotton candy machine. Smores from Chartwells. Snacks attract people.
Result: The snacks were gone quickly so from observation we can assume everyone enjoyed the
food. We also had students coming up to us saying how great the chocolate covered pretzels and
smores bars were.

Tactic 4: Encourage people to bring blankets/chairs to set up campsite. The campsite

environment will make people be creative and get comfortable, rather than just standing around.
Result: Based on observation, there were so many people around the bonfire it was hard to set up a
campsite. People did bring blankets, but we saw more people standing around the fire and talking.

Tactic 5: Banner creating event a few days in advance. Banners displayed at bonfire. Result:. 48
banners were handed out and 37 banner were decorated. Athletic teams, clubs, and Greek Life
organizations got to promote themselves with a banner.

2. The promotion of the event.

Tactic 1: Use word of mouth via tabling at the ACC.

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Result: Our class promoted the bonfire by tabling. Flyers and pamphlets were handed out. We
spoke face to face with students and saw their excitement about the bonfire.

Tactic 2: Communicate with clubs/teams/organizations leaders, so they can be opinion leaders for
their members.
Result: Connor spoke with the athletic teams, Amy, Wendy and Alex spoke with the clubs and
Patrice, Nicole and Tatyana spoke with members of Greek Life. Based on a survey all groups said
they attended the bonfire.

Tactic 3: Communicate with other departments.

Result: Connor spoke with the twitter managers of Cardinal Athletics and SUNY Plattsburgh
News. Both accounts tweeted multiple times during the week of the bonfire reminding people to
attend.

Tactic 4: Social media campaign. Almost everyone has a form of social media.
Result: The creation of a Facebook page allowed students to check off whether they were attending
or not. Around 500 people checked off that they were coming to the bonfire.

Tactic 5: Hang posters around campus with bonfire information.

Result: Posters were hung around campus (dining halls, fitness center, academic buildings, residence
halls) so students would see the displayed information on a daily basis.

Tactic 6: Attend and table at the involvement fair.

Result: Members of our group attended the involvement fair and passed out around 200 quarter
sheets with all the information about the bonfire on them.

Tactic 7: Contact coaches for all sports teams.

Result: Every coach got back to Connor via email or face to face communication saying they would
tell their team about the bonfire and the banner decorating.

Tactic 8: Contact SAAC representatives and team captains.

Result: Connor is the President of SAAC and got to speak with all the members and keep them
informed about the bonfire.

Tactic 9: Contact residence hall directors to encourage students to attend.

Result: Alex contacted all of the residence and explained to them about the idea of the bonfire.
Based on the data from the survey, many students from the residence halls attended the bonfire.

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Challenges and Opportunities:
Challenge: Students are unaware of Homecoming.

Opportunity: Most students have a clean-slate opinion of Homecoming. According to the

clean-slate theory, it is easier to persuade someone who doesnt already have a preconceived opinion
of your organization/event. We were able to advertise an event without many students having any
preconceived notions of Homecoming events because they have not attended any. This allowed us
to make the event anything we wanted.

Challenge: There was a very short amount of time to build and implement a campaign plan.

Opportunity: Our campaigns class didnt begin until the first week of September, and Homecoming
was October 16. The campaign team gained time management skills and learn how to make quick
decisions with a client and each other, as well as, learned how to efficiently utilize a Gantt Chart.

Challenge: There was a large number of individuals who were a part of our campaign team, and
this made decision making, meeting times and occasionally agreement, somewhat difficult.

Opportunity: The variety of minds and thought processes in our group made it easy to come up
with ideas. The individuals who were a part of our campaign team were involved in varying
extracurricular activities, and made reaching out to the entire student body through group or
organizational affiliation, so much easier.

Challenge: Students are reluctant to attend new events. They are set in their ways.

Opportunity: We were able to create an event that used the power of friendship to get students to
attend. We encouraged groups to attend together and to create a homecoming banner to represent
their group.

Challenge: College students can be lazy.

Opportunity: We created incentives for the students to participate in the banner decorating and
bonfire. The top three banners won prize money, and the first place winner was placed in the Angell
College Center. The first 200 students to arrive at the event were given a free T-shirt, which resulted
in a large group arriving at 8 p.m.

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Challenge: There was a long line for registration.

Opportunity: This created a buzz for students as they arrived. They felt like many other students
were also attending and it reassured their decision to attend the event. The T-shirts and bracelets
were incentives for people to stay in line and made their wait worth it.

Results

From our experiences, reflections and a survey that was sent to one out of every four students at
SUNY Plattsburgh, some key factors to such breakthrough results are:

Sixty-five percent of the student body was aware of this years homecoming and the same
percentage went to at least one homecoming event on campus.
Last year, only 38 percent of students were aware of SUNY Plattsburghs homecoming
activities.
Fifty-two percent of students said that they enjoyed this years homecoming.
Last year, just 35 percent of students said that they enjoyed homecoming.
Fifty-six percent of students said that they would like to come back to SUNY Plattsburgh
for homecoming as alumni.
However, last year, 61 percent of students said they wanted to come back to SUNY
Plattsburgh for homecoming as alumni.
Only 20 percent of students who attended the bonfire made a banner.
Thirty-four percent of the students surveyed said that they heard about the events through
word of mouth and only 6 percent of the students said that they learned about the bonfire
via tabling in the Angell College Center, which we thought would be the most successful way
to reach other students.
Last year, word of mouth was also the most popular way to reach students, with Thirty-three
percent of students saying that they heard about homecoming via word of mouth.
The majority of students would improve homecoming by offering more free food (several
students left comments in their surveys saying that the food was great, there just wasnt
enough of it), having more advertisements for events on campus or hosting a concert on
campus.
Last year, most students said that they wanted either a concert or a signature event, which
this year became the homecoming bonfire.

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Research suggestions

These are the few questions of which answers are essential to further understand the audiences and
segment them accordingly:
What percent of students who attended Homecoming live off-campus?
What motivates off-campus students to attend on-campus activities?
What motivates faculty and staff members?
Are there any other resources that we could have used?
Is there a possibility of sponsorship for a concert?

Conclusion

The Bonfire 2015 has successfully started off the signature Homecoming tradition, bringing about
1,000 SUNY Plattsburgh students and alumni together. In the crisp North Country air, they enjoyed
the conversation, the music and the hot chocolate- apple cider- smore trio. Lit by the warm fire and
glow sticks, 37 creative and unique banners were displayed and appreciated by groups of old and
new friends. The short, yet lively two hours reflected the spirit of friendships and connections.

After studying the campaign closely, to increase efficiency in promoting and planning the next
Homecoming bonfires, the Public Relations Campaign class would like to recommend to increase
buzzes via word of mouth by including more opinion leaders on campus and to incorporating a live
concert. Some resources for free or affordable concerts are local bands, students bands and student
clubs.

In addition, as facebook is the second most popular mean to learn about our event, a
well-established social media plan that could generate more mentions and reaches is also
recommended. The next organizing committee could do this by preparing and implementing the
plan earlier, as well as using more social media opinion leaders.

Though only 6 percent of students learned about the bonfire via tabling, and 7 percent via of
students learned via classroom whiteboard, the percentage is still significant enough to keep these
two tactics as a promoting option.

With these suggestions and with the same efforts used in this campaign, future bonfires are
guaranteed to reach the same triumphant outcomes, if not greater.