Marketing students show their love for Ottawa-Gatineau #OttGatLove
Students in Marketing: New Tools and Approaches (BUSI 3204) are taking part in a local social media campaign that is promoting the Ottawa-Gatineau region while raising funds for those in need in our community.
Ottawa’s local celebrities will be using their photography skills to participate in the “Why I Love Ottawa/Gatineau” photo contest and raise funds for the Ottawa Food Bank. There is also a similar contest for the general public running in parallel. Contestants are required to take beautiful pictures of their favourite aspects of Ottawa and Gatineau and what makes this their favourite city. The celebrities participating include: Mayor Jim Watson and City Councillor David Chernushenko; radio personalities such as Sandy Sharkey (co-host, Cub & Company, 93.9 BOB FM) and Alan Neal (host of All in a Day, CBC Radio One); newspaper and magazine editors who include Peter Simpson (Arts editor-at-large, Ottawa Citizen) and Sarah Brown (Ottawa Magazine editor); well known bloggers Andrea Tomkins and Danigirl; and also the Sprott School of Business Marketing New Tools and Approaches class!
Contest Details: Celebrities and the Public
One photo from each celebrity (or in the case of our course, one photo from our group) will be selected to be printed and displayed in the Ottawa Studio Works gallery. There will be an auction of their artworks on February 23 at the Ottawa Studio Works, with the proceeds going to the Ottawa Food Bank. This event is being put on by Harry Nowell, a photographer and teacher with over 20 years of experience.
There is also on online portion to this event which is open to the general public. Individuals will be given the opportunity to submit photos to the online contest from January 20th to February 16th. The details on how to participate can be found on the “Why I Love Ottawa/Gatineau” photo contest facebook page. The photo with the most votes at the end will be included in the art show & silent auction.
Supporting a great cause: Ottawa Food Bank
While increasing awareness on the beauty of Ottawa and Gatineau, this event is also helping a great cause. All proceeds from the activity will go to the Ottawa Food Bank. The Ottawa Food Bank’s mission is to “collect and distribute food to Member Agencies serving people in need in the Ottawa area.” They make it their goal that no one goes hungry in the Ottawa area and events like this one make it possible for their goals to succeed.
Sprott students gain real-world experience with new marketing tools
From this activity, the BUSI3204 class will gain hands on experience in marketing an actual event through modern marketing approaches such as social media. Instructor Allison Burnett hopes that this project will help students gain knowledge on the various social media tools they will be learning and using throughout our class, while also giving back to the community. The campaign also allows for the students to see how all of the channels come together in an integrated campaign. Class involvement in this project consists of using several networking tools and social media tools. Some of the tools we used are as follows:
- Facebook – one group created the Facebook page for the contest, while another worked on the third party app that is used to submit entries and capture votes
- Twitter – students set up a Twitter account for the contest, developed a content schedule, and came up with the campaign hashtag #OttGatLove that is used across channels
- Tumblr – students created a Tumblr blog to provide an overview of the campaign, and will continue to include highlights as the contest progresses
- Pinterest – one group created Pinterest boards to provide the class and other contest participants with some inspirational photo ideas
- Prezi – two groups of students created presentations using Prezi – one was to provide the groups with some social media best practices, while the other Prezi provided a campaign overview
- YouTube – one group managed to pull together a video depicting how students could get involved in the contest in record time!
- Blogs – students also wrote blog entries related to the contest, including this post!
We hope that Sprott students, staff and faculty will share the #OttGatLove by tweeting, pinning, and uploading their favourite photos of Ottawa & Gatineau to our contest Facebook page!
This post was written by: Lucas Blanc, Ahmet Denizman, Sean McArthur, Cailin Sadler (students in BUSI 3204)