Mason Robertson

COMM 430

PR Campaign

Professor Berry

10 May 2023
Introduction: What Do We Know Right Now?

Arizona State University (ASU) is one of the largest public four-year universities in the

United States located in Tempe, Arizona, apart of the Division I Pac-12 Conference. ASU

currently has a total enrollment of over 135,000, with a mix of on-campus and online students

(Facts and figures). With that, after researching, it is clear that ASU’s social media presence on

various accounts has little engagement, which could lead to further issues, such as not being able

to reach their audience. I have found that Instagram is one of the main ways that ASU

communicates information with their audience, however there is little traction on their posts,

only getting a small amount of likes and comments. With Arizona State University being one of

the largest and most sought-after universities, it is important that their social media presence is

increased to not only inform their current audience such as students, staff, alumni, etc., but also

to inform future audiences such as prospective students, possible donors, etc. Having an

increased social media presence is important to the current generation when it comes to picking a

university to attend as many individuals look through social media and see many universities

daily. Another detrimental aspect to Arizona State University, is that they have many protesters

that come onto campus that support issues such as white supremacy, antisemitism, among other

issues (Anonymous, personal communication, May 9, 2023). This is also brought onto their

social media with many comments talking about these issues and the university not doing

anything about it. One user wrote in the comment section of an Instagram post “Stop

antisemitism racism on your campus” (@chadgarber, Arizona State University, 2022). This is not

a good look for ASU when it comes sponsors, current and prospective students, faculty, alumni,

and staff may give the impression that the university is unable to control the activity on campus.
With that, the university will need to address these issues and take action to improve their

reputation online and around campus.

What Can We Do?

Objectives:

Objective #1: Increase Social Media Presence by 35% within 12 Months

I will need to work with the communication team at ASU, especially with the individuals

who oversee or work for their social media. To help increase ASU’s social media presence, I will

propose to add more content and mix in various types of posts. Since Gen Z is the typical

audience when it comes to social media, we will focus on Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok,

which are a few of the highest used media platforms among the generation. To help increase

awareness on Instagram, I am proposing that there is an incorporation of interactive posts, such

as polls, challenges, giveaways, story takeovers, etc. This will give the audience an incentive to

pay attention to the Instagram account and interact with the content that the university is putting

out. This will also increase the number of individuals who pay attention to and interact with the

other content that ASU puts on Instagram. For the media like TikTok and Snapchat, I am

proposing that they post videos from around campus and photos to their Snapchat from different

places around ASU. For the TikTok account, it could also be used to collaborate with other

students to post what they do in a day and what they like about campus. This will also increase

media engagement as people are more inclined to learn what a day in life of a current student is,

whether it be prospective students, parents, donors, alumni, etc.

Objective #2: Gain Trust with Audience by 15% within 9 Months

 Gaining trust with Arizona State Universities audience is going to be one of the crucial

parts of this campaign. ASU has been under the eyes of many individuals and has broken some

of the trust that they have built with their audience. To combat this and to help rebuild that trust, I

am proposing that ASU releases press releases, releases a video explanation, and increases their

openness and willingness with their audience through events. ASU is currently under fire for not

acting against some of the protests that are happening on campus, with many audience members

do not know the stance of ASU and see ASU as a university that is doing nothing about the

issues that they are facing. I would recommend that the university does press releases that

directly addresses the issues that they are facing and explains the stance of ASU, explaining the

values that the university holds. For the videos, they can be simple videos on any media,

explaining the values that the university holds and how they are implementing those values into

campus and throughout the culture at ASU. The greater recommendation is to hold events, where

audience members can go and express their concerns in a safe space and get a direct reaction and

response from the university, such as their stance and how they are going to try to accommodate

the concern that the member is expressing. By doing press releases and videos, they can consult

with their departments and find which ways to respond to certain issues surrounding campus,

which will also increase the trust that the audience members have with the university since they

are directly responding to it and giving their plan for how they are going to go about addressing

the issues. The events will be able to increase the trust the audience has with the university as

they are able to directly talk to the representatives from the university, instead of reading a press

release or listening to a video. This will also allow them to hear from the representatives about

how they plan to act or if they plan to act and give a sincere reasoning for what they decide on

doing.
SWOT:

Strengths

A strength that Arizona State University has is that they are a highly sought-after

university in the United States and has been ranked as one the best universities in the United

States. ASU is known to be one of the most innovate universities in the US and continues to

grow their student population each year. ASU is also located in Tempe, AZ, which is near

Phoenix, which has an abundant number of opportunities for their audience to succeed not only

on campus, but also out of campus as well.

Weaknesses

A weakness that ASU faces is that many audience members are unaware of the values

and beliefs that the university holds. Many know the university as a party school in a big city,

with many students, which runs the risk of not being able to clearly get across the important

issues that ASU may address. One of the competitors of ASU, is the University of Arizona, has a

unique way of reaching their audience members through different medias and has a less difficult

time reaching their audience, which is something that ASU lacks.

Opportunities

An opportunity that Arizona State University has is the fact that it is such a well known

and highly ranked university. This creates a field where even their competitors have a hard time

competing with the university since it is such a sought-after university. Another would be that

there is no other university like ASU in the Phoenix area, however Grand Canyon University and

the University of Arizona are close behind ASU in terms of individuals choosing schools in the

state of Arizona that are near Phoenix.

Threats

One of the biggest threats that ASU faces is the criticism that their tuition is very

expensive, so individuals considering the university will want to know that is a place worth the

money. Which leads into the other threat that they have received some bad press regarding not

taking on the variety of issues that the university faces. This will be detrimental and important to

acknowledge throughout the campaign as we want the audience to know that ASU is a safe place

that is worth the expensive tuition.

How Much Will It Cost?.

Events:

The events will be time consuming and will take some money to put the event all

together. For the event, we want to get instant feedback from individuals, to do so we will use a

conference event app. At the event we will also want to have food and beverages, additional

staffing, signage, banners, advertising, and decorations. The conference app will cost around

$1,500, the food and beverages will cost around $6,400 ($8/person, for snack and beverage), the

additional staffing, such as student representatives, will be around $1,440 ($16/hr for 10

individuals per hour for three hours), signage and banners will be around $1,300 ($130/banner or

signage), to hire an event decorator it will be roughly $1,000 (Social Tables, 2021). The

estimated total for the events will be around $11,640.

Media Giveaways:

The media giveaways will be relatively inexpensive. The giveaways could be ASU

merchandise that could be found in the campus store. These items could be T-shirts, ASU Sun

Devil Plush, and ASU caps among other items such as a set of headphones. These items will be
around $30/Shirt, $20/Plush, $34/Cap, and $129/Apple Airpods (Sun Devil Campus Store). The

total cost for each giveaway would be around $300, roughly the price of two T-shirts, two

plushes, two caps, and one set of Apple Airpods.

Media Posts/Takeovers:

To create and edit media posts, there will be an individual that will need to be editing and

creating the Instagram posts, TikTok posts, and Snapchat posts. The average salary for a Web

Content Editor at Arizona State University is $54,750 (Arizona State University Web Content

Editor Salaries, 2019). For the takeovers, we will also need to have student representatives. The

wage for a student representative is around $16.38/hr, with that we will provide a $100/takeover

incentive (about $16.38/hr for six hours) which will increase the number of students who are

willing to do the takeover (Indeed). For the Instagram sponsored posts it will be about $5/post, so

it will be around $150/month at $5/post for 30 posts (Tribe, 2022). These prices may fluctuate

depending on increases in the price to sponsor a post, miscellaneous fees, possible production

costs, etc.

Timeline

Every month, we will put out 30 sponsored posts, which will not include the takeovers. We will

then do a takeover twice a month, for the entirety of the campaign, and we will do an event every

3 months throughout the campaign. For the press releases, we will put one out every month

addressing different concerns and also give the university an opportunity to share their beliefs

and values.

Goals, Expectations, and Evaluation

 The goal of this campaign is to increase the engagement throughout different medias that

Arizona State University uses as well as to increase the trust between the university and the

audience. By doing the media posts, press releases, and events, we should be able to hit the

objectives of increasing engagement across social media by 35% within 12 months and increase

trust by 15% in 9 months. The social media engagement we will pull reports every 3 months for

the full 12 months to see if there is an increase in engagement by looking at likes, comments,

views, followers attracted, etc. If there is no change, we will have to readdress what is working

and what is not. To evaluate whether the trust has increased, there will be a survey sent out at the

beginning of the campaign to see where the audiences trust currently is, this will be our pretest.

Our midtest which will be at the fifth month, will be a similar survey, and the end test will be at

the end of the nine months. We will be able to use that data to see if the campaign is working in

our favor if our efforts need to be adjusted. This campaign will allow us to address and work

towards improving the current issues that Arizona State University is currently facing.
 References

Arizona State University Web Content Editor Salaries. Glassdoor. (2019).

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Arizona-State-University-Web-Content-Editor-Salaries-

E29302_D_KO25,43.htm

Facts and figures. Facts and figures | Arizona State University. (n.d.).

https://www.asu.edu/about/facts-and-figures

Indeed. (n.d.). Arizona State University Student Representative Salaries in Tempe. Indeed.

https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Arizona-State-University/salaries/Student-

Representative/Tempe-AZ

Social Tables. (2021, May 5). The conference cost estimator for budgeting. Social Tables.

https://www.socialtables.com/blog/event-planning/conference-cost-estimator/

Sun Devil Campus Store. Efollett. (n.d.). https://www.bkstr.com/arizonastatestore/home

Tribe. (2022, June 7). How to promote on Instagram: Costs, Tips and Tricks. TRIBE.

https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/promote-instagram

@chadgarber, Arizona State University [@arizonastateuniversity]. (2022). Stop antisemitism

racism on your campuses. Instagram, Comments