Museum of Advertising Characters Plans Book

Information

Course Integrated Campaign (JOUR517)

Submission Date 12/6/2021
Tsun-Ming Wang D76862654
Yi-Yu Ke Q26217148
Teammates
Yu-Chun Liu V81588156
Sydney Pendrick S95244452
Company University of South Carolina
Brand School of Journalism & Mass Communications (SJMC)
Product Museum of Advertising Characters (MAC)

Introduction
The Museum of Advertising Characters (MAC) is a collection of brand icons that is
located at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) at the University of South
Carolina (UofSC). The collection was assembled by Professor Bonnie Drewniany and
bequeathed to the school after her 2019 retirement. Prior to Drewniany’s retirement in 2019, the
advertising characters were incorporated in her class curriculum to engage her students with her
collection. A majority of the collection is on display on the second floor of the SJMC and has
become a museum for anyone interested in visiting.

The Problem
The MAC is currently in the process of becoming a museum, therefore it is also still
trying to receive recognition. The MAC is filled with advertising icons, with the majority of
popular and loved brands. This can help the MAC build a big brand name if it is advertised with
the beloved icons that people can see there such as Coca-Cola polar bears, Ronald McDonald,
and the Jolly Green Giant. There are more than 90 brand icons displayed in the MAC which
allows everyone to find something they enjoy viewing and learn more about. With this
campaign, we are trying to inform people that the museum exists and why they should take time

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out of their day and visit. The. SJMC has an opportunity to create a brand exclusive to itself.
Currently, the MAC is not well-known and does not have constant foot traffic due to its location.
Through advertising and correct marketing with this campaign, the museum could receive a
positive reputation of not only a likeable museum at UofSC, but also a great advertising
character museum in the country.

Primary consumer
Our target audience for this campaign are individuals in the Columbia metro area looking
for a fun, educational experience to bring their children to see. The primary consumers will most
likely be parents or grandparents with children ages 6-11. With this age group, the children are
knowledgeable enough to know these popular advertising characters from television
commercials, cereal boxes, etc., and would be excited to see and learn more about. Our ads will
be geared towards this audience with our social media posts, billboards, website, outside signage,
and more.

The Ultimate Campaign Objective

The ultimate campaign objective is to inform people, especially parents, of how cost-
effective and educational the Museum of Advertising Characters is for them to bring their
children over to learn without knowing it. The fact that there is so much to learn about in the
MAC, aside from just admiring the characters on display, is the main highlight of our campaign.
By paying a visit to the museum, the kids could get to know more about the mascots/ brands and
absorb knowledge imperceptibly. We aim to promote the MAC as a to-go place for parents
residing in South Carolina to enjoy family time with their little ones while providing educational
resources to them.

Business & Communications Objective

We set our goals by using the SMART framework. In terms of business objectives, the
campaign plans to increase the number of monthly visitors of the MAC by 500 within the first
quarter of 2022. This will be accomplished by both traditional and new media, which will begin
running in January 2022: the former refers to advertising on billboards, newspapers, and
magazines; the latter refers to optimizing the MAC official website and creating targeted social

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media posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Since social media and official website are the
campaign’s two primary points of conversion for potential visitor engagement, growing our
owned media will ultimately boost the number of visits. Regarding communications objectives,
we hope to achieve 20% increase in social media followers among the three SNS platforms and
30% increase in website traffic driven by QR code over a four-month period.

Brand Identity
MAC's backing supporter is SJMC, which is an academic institution. SJMC is famous for
its professional communication education. Compared with independent museums, it is more
meaningful to display advertising characters by a professional advertising academic institution,
and it is easier to attract visitors with educational elements. In addition, when SJMC organizes
MAC related events, education can be used as a selling point to reduce the sense of business.
Therefore, the brand identity is a museum with advertising as its core and located in an academic
institution (SJMC, UofSC), and the desired brand identity to be achieved by this campaign is to
have people think of MAC as a playful, educational, and affordable place to enjoy family time.

The Big Idea

The Big Idea behind this campaign is “Learn without Knowing it.” The purpose is to
provide the idea of “being curious about things around you” to kids. Kids see the characters very
often but now, they start to be curious about their background and history, ant it is not as serious
as studying in class. In other words, when they come to MAC, they can learn in happiness.

Positioning Statement
There were few museums or showcases in the United States that exhibited the advertising
characters. The Museum in Columbia city has yet to display the advertising characters. Since there
is no similar type of theme (advertising characters) in Columbia city, it will be very special and
significant for MAC to be exhibited in Columbia City. Furthermore, it is located in an academic
institution, so there is the best education place for kid to have fun and learn at the same time.

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Media Plan
• Tone
The tone of the campaign will be approachability. No matter any campaign content,
including text, film, sound, video, and so on, is based on the content that children will be
interested in. Our target audience is mainly parents with children in primary schools, so our
campaign content will be based on the content that parents think their children will be interested
in. “Learn Without Knowing it” is our slogan. The main tonality of this slogan is to emphasize
study. We mainly attract elementary school children to come here to learn about the tiny
advertising figures in life. Therefore, our tonality will be based on children's favorite
environment, mainly to create a warm, comfortable, stress-free, happy learning environment. The
ads in this campaign are also in a tone of approachability. For example, the ads ask a lot of
questions about the advertising characters. We construct a conversation by asking questions.
Thus, we can engage with our target audiences and build approachability.

• Features
One of the features of the brand is that people can go to see the MAC without paying for
the ticket. Moreover, the biggest feature of our brand is the free guided tour service, as well as
the gifts provided by the brand. The tour message is placed on the website, and each ad (except
for the billboard and TV ads) provides a link to the web page. Visitors can book free guided
Tours at the link or by scanning the QR code. All advertising questions will be explained during
the tour, and prizes will be offered to participants who answer the questions.

• Types
We will put our ads on paid, shared, and own media. We also created a physical guided
tour event to deliver the message to target audiences. In terms of paid media, we created print,
billboards, outdoor signage, and TV commercial ads. As to shared media, we generated fourteen
social media posts that will be shared on social media. People can follow our official social
media accounts to receive the newest information about MAC. We also build our own website as
our own media. People can sign up for a guided tour on the website. The guided tour is our
physical event. Participants can win the prizes by answering the question asked by the guide.

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• Placement
Regarding print media, we will put our print ads in the following newspapers: The State
(daily general news), Free Times (weekly general news). The State is chosen because it has the
largest circulation in Columbia, SC. The reason for advertising in Free Times is that its readers
are usually young couples who like to join physical events. As to the billboard ad, we decide to
put the ad on Gervais Street near Riverfront Park, Bull Street near Segra Park, and Blossom
Street near Granby Park. Thus, the billboard ad can show to the people from Augusta, Charlotte,
and Charleston to Columbia. Moreover, the ad will also be put beside the park to attract parents
with children in the park. As to the outdoor signage ad, we choose to put the yard sign ads just
near the UofSC campus. Due to MAC being a startup museum, it’s better to boost the publicity
to the people near the campus. In the phase of the TV commercial, we will broadcast our
commercial on the SCETV PBS KIDS channel because the channel is created for children. We
are still targeting the parents because the parents usually watch TV with their children.
Speaking of shared media, we will upload our posts on Facebook and Instagram every
day. We even create interactive stories on Facebook and Instagram that people can vote for the
answer to the questions. Our TA can reply to the post or story to engage with us.
In terms of our own media, we create our own domain website. There will be two
websites. One of the websites is the interior website embedded in the SJMC official web page.
The other one is the home page of MAC that introduces our TA and what specific the MAC
provides to the public.

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• Timeline
The campaign will begin on January 3 and will end on January 30. We will take this
month as a test to see if the campaign works or not. January 3 was chosen because it was UofSC
back-to-school week and residents returning to Columbia after their trips. Thus, the reach rate is
higher. The campaign will be tested in January and can be continued if the results are up to
standard. The study period of this campaign will be February, April and June. During these three
months, we will analyze whether the previous month's campaign achieved the preset goals. And
will change and make new advertising theme according to different month or festival.

• KPI