Portfolio

Creative Media Strategy

COMSTRAT562: Creative Media Strategies teaches the strategies, processes, procedures and steps involved in creating marketing communications materials for a variety of different media. This course is considered an advanced writing course for graduate students interested in honing and advancing their expertise in writing for promotional materials including public relations, advertising, digital media (blogs, web content, email, social media), print publications, company messaging and business papers.

As part of the course, students were asked to develop an awareness campaign for the final project. I chose to create a national campaign for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest, Neglect Network), an organization I am passionate about. Campaign elements included an overview of the organization, stating the problem - why an awareness campaign is recommend and why it is important, a summary of the current state of the organization with a SWOT analysis, target audience research, campaign objectives including call to action and messaging, media recommendations, creative concepts, campaign timeline and metrics.

The goal of this campaign was to educate the public about sexual assault violence and encourage victims and their loved ones to seek resources available with RAINN. Recommended tactics included social media, on-campus events, and RAINN resource one-sheets.

It is essential to exhibit proficiencies in writing skills and creativity to produce a communication product that is attractive and unique to the public. This course provided me the skills to write for multiple mediums, using best practices and industry standards for promotional communications, storytelling, and campaigns.

RAINN Awareness Campaign: https://issuu.com/klambert-wsu/docs/comstrat562.final_awareness_project.lambert

Digital Content Promotion

COMSTRAT563: Professional Digital Content Promotion focuses on the application of writing, critical thinking, and persuasion skills to the practice and promotion of PR and advertising in both digital and social media outlets. In this course, students learned how to use different tools to improve writing and design skills in digital platforms. For our semester project, each student was required to create a website and develop a digital strategy to create awareness about a personal or external business idea. I chose to create a communication plan for a fictional brand, 750 ml wine bar, a Seattle-based wine bar and bottle shop located in the Eastlake neighborhood.

Prior to developing a website and promotional materials, I needed to address the problem, vision and goals, "who we are and what we do", and identify the target audience. In addition to these steps, I worked through a naming exercise for my business. This included identifying keywords, definitions, imagery, and attributes of the business idea to come up with a company name. One the name was decided upon students were asked to create a visual identity, which included a brand logo. By developing an audience persona and customer decision process, I was able to further understand the company's objective and messaging strategy.

I developed a digital marketing campaign strategy for my business, which primarily focused on raising awareness for the brand new location in the Seattle market. Ultimately, the long-term goal for the company was to increase traffic to the wine bar. Promotional materials were distributed through 750 ml wine bar's social channels (Facebook and Instagram), blog posts, and email. Each channel was chosen based on the strategy and goals of 750 ml wine bar, focusing on the target audience - professional millennials A25-34, wine drinkers.

A two-week digital campaign was implemented during the semester. To track campaign success, I implemented a plan with specific quantitative metrics that align with the company’s goals. I utilized Google Analytics to track activity on social pages, website and blog.

From an in-depth market study and brand personas development, these efforts demonstrate my research abilities and strategic vision to create a product and add value to the customer experience. This course strengthened my ability to create cohesive branding across multiple platforms including website, social media, and email marketing.

Visit 750 ml wine bar Website: http://www.750mlwinebar.net/

Campaign Recap: https://issuu.com/klambert-wsu/docs/comstrat563.proj_part_6_lambert

Persuasive Communication

COMSTRAT 561: Persuasion for Professional Communicators introduces theories, concepts, strategies, and processes of persuasion and social influence. This course is designed to familiarize students with key theories, concepts, strategies, and processes of persuasion and social influence.

The art of persuasion can be challenging, especially when today's consumers are overexposed with content. In this course, we learned a variety of persuasion techniques and theories to create awareness and engage with the public. For the course project, students had to develop a campaign to persuade the audience about a social cause of our preference.

For my semester project, I created a Facebook group called “Pricey in Pink." The purpose of the site was to generate awareness about the Pink Tax. While not a literal tax, the Pink Tax is a broad tendency for products marketed specifically toward women to be more expensive than those marketed for men. This includes everyday items such as razors, shampoo, haircuts, clothes, dry cleaning, and more. The social group was designed to inform the audience about this gender-based price discrimination and persuade them about the importance of both short-term and long-term solutions as consumers.

On the group page, I curated news with advocacy articles, facts, imagery, and news stories about the Pink Tax. I applied principles of strategic persuasion to advocate for this social issue, writing opinion pieces to synthesize the evidence for the issue for my intended audience.

This project demonstrates my learnings of strategic and persuasive communication, as well as my experience creating and designing content for a persuasive campaign.

Visit Pricey in Pink Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/333837350518612/

Campaign Recap: https://issuu.com/klambert-wsu/docs/comstrat561.final_project.lambert

Brand Development

COMSTRAT564: Consumer Behavior & Brand Development teaches the tactics and strategies for consumer analysis and brand development. The ultimate goal for this course is to develop skills necessary for uncovering consumer insights and applying them to brand development, customer engagement, account management, creative development, and media planning.

Students were asked at the beginning of the semester to select a company or organization based on professional experience and knowledge. The first assignment included a brand audit, in which students were required to do extensive research on the organization, customer information, competitor information, current brand communication strategies, and provide insights and recommendations. I chose to center my semester project around the University of Idaho, a public academic institution and client of mine. The second assignment focused on customer persona and brand concept. Research was conducted with University of Idaho alumni to better identify current opinions, wants, needs, and problems. From one-on-one interviews, I was able to identify two customer personas. Further understanding the audiences' perceptions of the brand, I developed an engagement plan to increase engagement through three objectives: awareness, sales, and advocacy. This three-pronged approach is modeled after Greg Satell's customer engagement framework model, ensuring sustainable long-term growth for the academic institution.

All research and findings throughout the semester were applied to create a customer brand relationship strategy. This final project allowed students the opportunity to apply all aspects of brand development, creating a new brand. Based on my research findings I chose to develop a new brand for the university, the University of Idaho Mentorship Program, a unique opportunity for alumni to connect with current students. Requirements included defining a value proposition and brand identity, develop a customer-brand relationship plan, and develop with a solution.

This course taught me how to truly understand and practice the skills required for effective consumer research and identifying customer insights. I learned how to apply the principles of branding and communication theories to develop effective communication strategies, media plans and content for multiple media.

University of Idaho Final IMC Plan: https://issuu.com/klambert-wsu/docs/comstrat564.assignment_4-_customer_brand_strategy.

Ethical Communication

COM 563: Ethics for Professionals taught the understanding, discussion, and application of key theories of individual and institutional ethics; the articulation and defense of ethical reasoning. This class challenged me to understand key theories of ethics and apply them to personal and professional situations. For our final project, students were tasked to apply ethical principles to a real-life professional situation, by critiquing the choices of an organization. The project consisted of a summary of the situation, an explanation of the ethical principles and theories relevant to the situation, and an analysis of the various choices available and the choice that was made.

For the final project I chose to analyze Theranos, a health technology company subsequently infamous for its false claims to have devised automated blood tests requiring only a small amount of blood. After doing research, I found this case study to be a perfect example of an ethical dilemma within the past 10 years. The application of ethical principles, such as utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and exploration of choices validated this choice.

As a communicator, it is important to hold the knowledge of ethical theories and have the ability to propose solutions in challenging scenarios. I found this to be especially true when examining case studies throughout the semester. This course taught me how important ethical responsibility is not only for individuals, but for organizations. By exploring ethical frameworks, I understand how my own personal ethical system can affect my choices in the workplace.

Theranos Case Study: https://issuu.com/klambert-wsu/docs/com563.final_presentation