The Chair Recognizes The Honorable Gentleman

Hello, governor!

There’s a lot going on in the production process for our short film, but this post isn’t about that, it’s about the census. More specifically, it’s about my experience building a marketing campaign to promote the 2020 Census for the City of Weston. I recently finished the campaign and sent it off to the city for review by the Director and Assitant Director of Communications. So yeah! I basically, technically, kind off, worked for the government... well volunteered for the government... sort of...I think. Anyways, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my campaign and the lessons I learned along the way. 

Don’t procrastinate 

Who likes to be stuck with stress and work over winter break? The answer is no one. As Tstok would say, “when I go home, I GO HOME.” Last year while working on my portfolio project I trimmed myself based on some unrealistic expectations of what I could do with my time and without accounting for surprise interruptions; this delayed my project a week or two past the original deadline I’d given myself. So the very first thing I did when I received the details of the campaign was jump right in and start. I made a timeline for the campaign and prioritized sticking to it, whenever I had some time off I hopped on my computer and

worked. Through the course of a week or two, I completed my research and was almost done with my content. With the extra time I saved by working fast, meticulously, and effectively, I decided to add extra materials to my campaigns such as more media content and a 12-page proposal. I didn’t once feel stressed and I was always one step ahead. I’ve taken what I learned from my time management from this campaign and have applied it to the project and I plan on continuing to do so. Jake and I started talking about ideas for the project a while before it was assigned in class and once winter break came around we jumped right in. We’re going to make a calendar and a timeline for our production and post-production goals and prioritize sticking to it. 

Research like there’s no tomorrow

Another thing I took away from my Census campaign is the importance of research in order to deliver a quality piece. For my campaign, I researched my target audience meticulously, everything from their average financial status to their physical address. This research allowed me to develop content that effectively targets my audience. In my foundation portfolio, most of my research was about storytelling and genre, this helped me because it facilitated my application of the technique to a rare genre. This year, however,  I’ll focus on heavily researching the audience and the representation aspects of our production; to ensure our content will be as entertaining to our audience as it will be rich in technique and inaccurate representation.

Client Feedback is everything 

Lastly, one of the most beneficial lessons from this campaign was the importance of constant communication with clients in order to gain feedback that is helpful in decision-making, branding, and tailoring the campaign to the client’s needs. In the context of the campaign, my “client” was the City of Weston, so I communicated extensively with the City’s communication Director and Assistant Director to get some general feedback on ideas for the campaign and certain campaign branding sessions I had taken to make sure they lined up with the City of Weston’s public image. For the advanced portfolio project, we don’t have a client; however, we can still get feedback from people in our target audience (since we have daily interactions with them). We can get feedback from our fellow media students and/or set up a focus group that can provide us with feedback on our products from an entertainment point of view. 

I'm certain that this project is going to be a great help when planning the technical aspects of my portfolio project and I'm excited to see what the City Of Weston uses from my campaign!