GONZAGA UNIVERSITY SUBMISSION FOR BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS OR MARKETING MANAGER To the evaluation committee for CNBAM, I am writing to nominate John Connor Gall for the award of Best Marketing Manager. Connor has worked as a marketing manager for the Gonzaga Student Publications Advertising Department since the fall of 2012 and was recently promoted to the position of Senior Marketing Manager. I have worked with Connor since he started at Student Publications as a fellow manager. Each and every day Connor inspires me with his commitment to the office, his drive to continually grow and develop, and his leadership abilities. Every week, Connor works at least ten hours creating and executing marketing plans for our four literary journals, weekly newspaper, dining guide, yearbook, and online newspaper and blog. He meets weekly with each publication editor/manager to evaluate their marketing efforts and revise as needed. In addition, he coordinates our social media efforts. As Senior Marketing Manager, Connor also is responsible supervising and coaching the marketing team. Connor also volunteers his time to coordinate with the other managers when we are working on special projects such as creating more efficient processes or new products. During the fall our office develops a dining guide. Our account executives sell listings to local restaurants and Connor is charged with creating each listing. Our clients fill out a questionnaire and from their answers Connor builds a unique listing for each client. This October he wrote 27 listings. This is Connor’s second year being a part of the dining guide process and knowing how intense and busy the project get he took initiative and starting writing the listings for clients we pre-signed over the summer so we were ahead of the game by the time school started. In addition, he also volunteers his time to assist in the proofing process. Over the course of this project Connor put in over 100 hundred hours with some of that time being volunteered. Connor recognized how much effort and time goes into the project and stepped up to the plate for the sake of the team. This past year, due to Connor’s marketing efforts into building our social media the Gonzaga Bulletin’s Facebook Page has increased by over 900 “likes” and the newspaper has gained over 600 “followers” on Twitter. When starting in this position Connor made increasing the Bulletin’s social media presence a priority. Starting in January 2013 he put in place social media contests to increase likes and make a commitment to posting engaging content daily to drive traffic. His efforts have been very successful and have paved the way for our advertising staff to start monetizing our social media. This fall, Connor made revitalizing the “Bulldog Blog” another priority. He put together a project team made up of marketing and editorial staff to brainstorm new goals and ideas for the blog. After they had completed a mission for the blog, Connor recognized that the maintenance of the blog would require a new staff position. So in the fall, he created a new job description, hired and training a new online media coordinator to be in charge of the blog. Outside of the office, Connor enrolls in specialty marketing classes such as digital marketing and integrated marketing communications to hone his marketing skills. His drive for self-growth, his enthusiasm for marketing, and his ability to demonstrate creative problem solving has made all
GONZAGA UNIVERSITY SUBMISSION FOR BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS OR MARKETING MANAGER the difference in the level of quality and efficiency of our marketing efforts. In addition, his positive attitude and commitment to the office creates an upbeat office atmosphere. I enthusiastically recommend him for the award of Best Marketing Manager. Thank you for your time and consideration, McKenzie DonTigny Advertising Manager Gonzaga University Student Publications
GONZAGA UNIVERSITY SUBMISSION FOR BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS OR MARKETING MANAGER To Whom This May Concern, As the first Senior Marketing Coordinator for Student Publications, John Connor has truly made the position his own. After a year of working within Student Publications, as a part of the marketing team, Connor saw a deficiency and through his strong leadership he moved into the role. Connor made a seamless transition from staff member into his new managerial role, overseeing the Marketing Coordinator and the Online Marketing Coordinator while still tackling projects himself. The passion and professionalism Connor allocates to his work is obvious when you see his elaborate marketing plans. During his two years, Connor has launched promotions for all of the publications within the department. The most successful of those are Snow Cone Day, The Bulletin Street Team, The Savor Dining Guide, Spires Yearbook memes and the re-launch of The Bulldog Blog. He is also responsible for the 192% increase in The Gonzaga Bulletin Facebook page which surpassed the department goals. Connor participates in Brain Trust which analyses systems and policies and procedures as well as the Think Tank which is a creative seminar. In addition to this, Connor plans the end of the semester and end of the year luncheons for the 70+ person department. Aside from the vital role Connor holds within Student Publications, Connor is a Resident Assistant for an upper-classmen apartment complex. This requires upholding the mission and values of Gonzaga while creating programs to enrich the students’ lives. He took his experience from past volunteer work with The Artisans of Spokane, The Knights of Gonzaga University and his work as a Gonzaga University Prospective Student Host. As someone who works closely with Connor on many marketing and promotions plans, I can truly say he always goes above and beyond. He is able to apply his strengths as a relator and futuristic thinker to a variety of situations, elevating the level of marketing and promotions. Thank you for your time, Kayla Cartelli Editor-in-Chief Spires 2014 kcartelli@zagmail.gonzaga.edu
GONZAGA UNIVERSITY SUBMISSION FOR BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS OR MARKETING MANAGER SUMMARY OF MARKETING PLANS In my time as Gonzaga University Student Publication’s Senior Marketing Coordinator, I have tried my best to help grow this department with the upward trends in readership, advertising revenue, and online presence. When I arrived at Gonzaga University Student Publications as a Junior in the 2012-2013 school year, The Gonzaga Bulletin Facebook page had 343 likes, and the twitter account had 413 followers. In my first year, I made it my mission to grow those accounts across the 1,000 likes and 800 followers respectively. By adding consistent content, holding promotional events such as monthly giveaways, as well as a yearend grand prize giveaway for all of our followers on Facebook as well as Twitter, I ended up meeting both goals and provided content that created an engaging and loyal following. In my second year working in Gonzaga University Student Publications, I was promoted to Senior Marketing Coordinator. This meant that my role in the office would change from that of an implementer to one utilizing my management skills in addition to my experience creating creative strategies to boost our brand image. I began the year overseeing the work of Emily, our Marketing Coordinator, the job I held in the previous year. Through my time supervising Emily, we’ve been able to help with the production and promotion of one of Gonzaga’s literary journals, Reflection, as well as promoting submissions into the other four journals. We’ve developed plans for boosting social media growth for these publications and have seen steady increase in their Facebook page likes since the beginning of the year. Our strategic aim for this year in Student Publications truly comes down to awareness for all of our publications. We are continuing the success we’ve had marketing the Gonzaga Bulletin on social media and are seeing similar growth in this school year as we did in 20122013. We have aimed to help our other publications meet their goals of gaining submissions for the literary journals and helping the Spires Yearbook entice students to get their portrait photos taken. As you can see, our main audience is the Gonzaga student body. However, with the implementation of our social media advertising program, we also are able to reach out to members of the Spokane community. I oversee the implementation of these posts and promotions for the Gonzaga Bulletin Facebook page. The biggest marketing project we’ve taken on this year has been the acquisition of the GU Bulldog Blog, a Gonzaga lifestyle and culture blog. I created a position titled “Online Media Coordinator” which deals with the implementation and analysis of the blog and social media promotion. Taking on this responsibility meant an entire revamp of the blog including new web design, content generation plan, as well as managing guest bloggers and members of the Gonzaga community who wish to submit content. Throughout the marketing and promotional efforts for Gonzaga University Student Publications, we’ve incorporated messaging that exemplifies our unique Jesuit traditions as well as a sense of conscientiousness to what the student body wants from our department.
GONZAGA UNIVERSITY SUBMISSION FOR BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS OR MARKETING MANAGER APPENDIX FOR GONZAGA UNIVERSITY SUBMISSION FOR BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS OR MARKETING MANAGER Job Description Major Job Responsibilities Create, implement, oversee, and evaluate creative strategies to bolster readership and web traffic of all publications and attract engagement and interactions from students and staff (i.e. encouraging content submissions, engagement on social media and the blog, Morning Mail, etc.) Track and analyze the success of marketing campaigns Create channels of communication and work closely with publications Editors-in-Chief to integrate editorial, promotional, and marketing efforts Coordinate with Editor-In-Chief and Online Editor about cross promoting the Online Bulletin, Bulldog Blog, and social media Collaborate with editors and graphic designers to generate marketing and promotions materials Oversee promotional efforts (i.e. Caught Reading, Social Media Drawing) Manage social media efforts across the publications and facilitate engaging content (Facebook, Twitter, Bulldog Blog, etc.) Supervise, create, and promote content for the Bulldog Blog Manage social media advertising requests Create and implement creative strategies for non-content promotions Plan and execute marketing events including: Orientation Weekend, the Student Publications Fall Social, Fall Family Weekend distribution, etc. Regularly meet with the Marketing department and publications editors to develop and synchronize the marketing efforts of the department Regularly meet with Assistant Student Publications Manager to overview marketing and promotional efforts and generate outline for the year Plan, delegate, and supervise Marketing department with duties and responsibilities Assist advertising staff with advertising campaign generation and client relations (Customer satisfaction, crisis communications, etc.) Oversee Marketing Coordinator and Online Media Coordinator
GONZAGA UNIVERSITY SUBMISSION FOR BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS OR MARKETING MANAGER MARKETING MATERIALS
GONZAGA UNIVERSITY SUBMISSION FOR BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS OR MARKETING MANAGER