Marshal Fries PR Consultant 518 River Road Winnipeg, MB R2M 5J8 April 2, 2013 Kenton Larsen PR Instructor Creative

Communications Red River College Winnipeg, MB R3B 1K9 Dear Mr. Larsen Please find enclosed the proposal for STIR magazine launch, a three month project undertaken by first-year Creative Communications students at Red River College. This proposal gives a summary of STIR magazine, its personality, brand identity, target market, and most importantly, its launch plans for the Magazine Trade Fair, which will take place on March 28, 2013. The document outlines strengths and weakness of the magazine, target publics, communications strategies, rationale, a preliminary budget, and a project evaluation. STIR is a beautiful, well-crafted magazine that takes influences from the likes of Anna. It is all about womens food, fashion, fitness, and fun on the weekend. Our slogan is, wake up, happy. Content includes health tips, food fun, and inspirational stories. The magazine launch will be promoted predominantly through social media, as well as traditional media forms, and word-of-mouth. Thanks you for taking the time to consider our proposal. I will call you on Monday, March 18 to discuss the project in greater detail, and arrange a meeting if necessary. Feel free to contact me at marshalrfries@ gmail,com, @marsh_rf on Twitter, or 899-5180. Sincerely Marshal Fries

MAGAZINE TRADE FAIR 2013

PR Propsal
April 2, 2013 Submitted to Kenton Larsen, PR Instructor Submitted by Marshal Fries, PR Student

Table of Contents
Executive Summary Purpose Statement Situation Analysis Target Audiences and Analysis Desired Outcomes Strategy and Rationale Preliminary Budget Evaluation i 1 2-3 4 5 6-7 8 9-10

Executive Summary Personality STIR is all about good mornings. Our philosophy is that busy, working women, deserve the most out of their weekend, and to feel their best. Our priorities are fun, fitness, fashion, and food. Take a yoga class on Saturday morning, meet some friends for Sunday brunch. STIR wants to help career-oriented women have the healthiest, happiest mornings possible, by providing nutritional and fitness tips, delicious recipes, and inspirational stories. Most importantly, readers will be reminded that they have the right to feel good, to wake up, happy. Challenges This magazine launch seeks to attract the attention of casual readers, sponsors, local businesses and subscribers. It also seeks to plant the seeds of what will be a long and productive social media growth plan. By the trade fair, STIR needs to have already started attracting attention through various channels of social media, and reaching out to its readership. This proposal will outline the main challenges that we will have to face, in order to make this a successful magazine launch. Trade Fair The magazine trade fair signifies the release of our magazine, as well as the fruit of our preparatory labours. It will be a chance to turn curious onlookers into fans, fans into readers, readers into buyers, and buyers into committed subscribers. The goal is to let people know that we have a high-profile magazine that people can pick up and enjoy. Our trade fair exhibit will include: fresh coffee delicious snacks live music a fitness demonstration a relaxed, healthy environment a chance to preview our debut issue We look forward to sharing STIR with the local community and beyond.

Purpose Statement The purpose of this social media/launch plan is to generate as much publicity, notoriety, and momentum for our magazine as possible, leading up to and including a successful Magazine Trade Fair on Thursday, March 28. The campaign: Puts the magazine at the forefront of my target publics minds and creates brand interest. Gets people talking about my magazine and encourages my target publics to buy it when it comes out. Includes a way to build a database of people who are interested in my magazine and a plan to convert hem into readers and buyers later. Harnesses new and traditional media, PR and publicity to reach potential readers. Gets people talking about the magazine by giving them a stated or implied invitation to participate online and at the Trade Fair.

Situation Analysis STIR is a magazine primarily targeted toward young professional women in their early thirties who love mornings. It has a focus on breakfast, fashion, fitness and weekend fun. This is an outline of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that we must consider in successfully planning a magazine launch. Strengths Very specific target or niche audience: women with careers, aged 30-35, no kids. Strong appeal to secondary audience: women of all ages who love cooking, fitness, breakfast, and share our earl-to-bed early-to-rise philosophy. Our magazine has the potential to develop a strong social media presence, as all of the members of our group are active tweeters and bloggers. Our access to Red River College gives us the resources we need to produce professional photography, design and layout. It also gives us a network of experienced mentors. Our magazine has a feel-good, optimisitic tone, which will keep readers happy and coming back for more. Our group has a diverse set of skills. Weaknesses We are a talented group, but this is our first magazine project, so it will be a learning process. Though we have a lot of time to work on this magazine, we also have lots of other homework to take care of in the meantime, so time management is essential. As students, we are on a limited budget. However, this just means we will have to be creative and do professional work ourselves. There are other breakfast and health magazine that are more narrowly focus, such as Winnipeg Women and Anna. Our niche market includes people who love every aspect of morning culture, as opposed to just cooking, or fitness. This may make it harder to market.

Opportunities The magazine trade fair attracts a lot of attention within the campus and the community. It is a large, hectic event, that has become an annual Red River College staple. Attendees from past years eagerly looking forward to this event. The Princess Street campus is conveniently located for people in Winnipeg who work or live in the downtown area. We have over two months to let friends, family, and industry professionals know about the trade fair. It is an established event so many people, including alumni and others who have participated in the past already know about it. We can use social media to promote our magazine launch and reach out to our target readership. Threats On the day of our magazine launch, there will be many other magazines being presented. Some of them may even have similar themes. So, we will have to come up with a way to generate interest for our launch. Many people feel it is a hassle to travel to the downtown area. We need to change this impression by providing people with accurate transit information, or offering to pick people up. Some people are nervous about downtown due to crime. Once again we need to ensure people that Red River College is a safe, secure campus, that offers services such as Safe Walk, for people who are uncomfortable walking alone to their vehicles. There is the potential for extreme winter weather, such as a snow storm, even in late March. We need to make sure arent doing anything that is in violation of Red River Colleges policies. This could generate negative attention and publicity for our magazine.

Target Audiences and Analysis Primary Target: Beautiful Professionals Beautiful professionals are women between 30-35 without children. They are career oriented, and often involved in serious or casual relationships. Beautiful professionals are nurses, teachers, and lab researchers; they own restaurants and work in offices and ad agencies. They usually live in upscale downtown apartments, or starter homes. They work long hours during the week, and enjoy their weekends. Name: Courtney Age: 33 Courtney, a grade 1 teacher at Samuel Burland School, lives in an apartment on Broadway with her boyfriend Terry, who owns a hair salon. She does yoga before work everyday and drives a Volkswagen Mini. After a hectic day at work, she likes to cook a nice supper and watch TV with Terry. On the weekend she enjoys going out for breakfast with her friends, going to the gym, and shopping. Likes: Cooking, eBay, working with kids Loves: Yoga, trying new restaurants, her boyfriend Music: Mumford & Sons Favorite TV show: 30 Rock Secondary Target: New-Age Moms New-Age Moms are women aged 30-40 with young children. They are either working full-time, or taking time off to focus on their kids. They are married, or in common-law relationships, live in starter and suburban homes, and are committed to the health and well being of their family. Name: Mel Age: 39 Mel is the owner of a small downtown caf. She spends the morning with her two-year-old Toby then drops him off at her moms house for the afternoon. Her husband Scott, a copywriter at a marketing agency, picks up their son after work each day. They spend the evening as a family, eating dinner, watching TV, and reading stories to Toby. Mel has little time for herself, except on the weekend. Likes: Yoga, loose tea, Virgin 103.1 Loves: Her Family, her restaurant, Sunday brunch with the ladies Drives: Honda Accord TV: Hells Kitchen, Big Bang Theory Lives: Fort Rouge Desired Outcomes

Beautiful Professionals Our goal is to create awareness and motivate our audience to buy our magazine. We want potential readers to have the attitude that this isnt just a food or health magazine, it is a magazine for morning lovers. We want our reader to have the knowledge that STIR is for them if they are interested in morning culture. Our ideal reader might enjoy yoga, breakfast, cooking, going out to eat, or going for a run on a Sunday morning. Ideally we want them to buy our magazine for themselves or a friend, to get a subscription, to engage with us on the Internet, through social media. New-Age Moms Our secondary audience is interested in our magazine, but lets face it, when you have kids, your weekend isnt always your own. Though New-Age moms would like to spend Saturday morning doing yoga, then meet the girls for a healthy breakfast burrito, the reality is they may be cooking breakfast for their kids, taking them shopping for school clothing, and keeping them busy with activates like swimming lesson and soccer. We would like to develop a readership among New-Age Moms and have them checking our website for recipes and restaurant tips. Getting them interested in our online content is the first step toward turning them into readers. After all, many New-Age Moms were Beautiful professionals not long ago. Trade Fair Outcomes Our goal is to have hundreds of potential readers visit our trade fair exhibit and leave with a good impression. We also hope to use the trade fair as a way of boosting our social media presence. We want people to being to buy our magazine following the trade fair.

Strategy and Rationale i. Strategy Action The theme for our launch is: food, fashion, fitness and fun. Guests will sit and relax at our table and enjoy freshroasted complimentary coffee and yummy breakfast hors doeuvres. There will also be a fitness demonstration from local expert Irene Chapski. Our display will feature lots of white space, with warm yellows, soft blues, and greens, to emphasis feelings of comfort and class. Our launch will take place in the atrium of the Red River College Princess Street campus, as part of the Creative Communications magazine trade fair. Ideally, our caf will be close to the entrance, so guests can start their trade fair experience in the same way that we want them to start their day; with a fresh cup of coffee and a smile on their face. Our launch will involve members of our magazine group, Marshal Fries, Rebecca Henderson, Stephanie Thiessan, and Zach Samborski. Body Breaks own Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod have been invited to make a special guest appearance, although confirmation of their attendance is yet to be determined. We have contact local restaurants 2 Kellys Caf and Corrientes regarding sponsorship. Our goal is to provide guests with a positive experience. In turn, we will attract potential readers and subscribers to our magazine and social media content. Prior to the launch, we will prepare the food and beverages that are going to be served. Once people begin to arrive, each member will have a different role. Stephanie will greet guests and invite them to have a seat. Zach will be in charge of food, beverages and recording attendance statistics. Rebecca will be standing by to answer questions about the magazine, and Marshal will provide relaxing folk guitar music. Following the event, we will clean up, make sure anything that we have borrowed has been returned, present our sponsors with gifts, and congratulate ourselves on a job will done. Communication We will use social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, to help promote our magazine and communicate our big idea. Features such as a photography contest and a free coffee promotion will help build our social media presence. We will invite friends and family members, students, local restaurant owners and employees, coffee-shop loungers, food bloggers, and select members of local media. We will run our caf independent of additional staff or volunteers, unless we find will participants who will help attract visitors, such as local celebrities, chefs etc.

Our budget will be about $180. With the help of sponsorship, this should cover the cost of coffee and food. Our display will not cost anything, as we will assemble it ourselves. We will generate positive publicity for our magazine through social media, as well as affiliating ourselves with sponsors who have a good reputation in the local food scene. Our sales promotions will include free coffee and snacks. We will promote our magazine and generate buzz through word-of-mouth, social media and posters. ii. Rationale The feel-good caf atmosphere is directly influenced by the sort of feel we want our magazine to have. Potential guests/readers will experience the tone of our magazine by spending time at our trade fair booth. It is important to get sponsors to help cut down on costs and create appeal. For example, if Parlour Coffee were to donate coffee for us to give away, it would save us from having to buy coffee, plus we could attract guests with the promise of free coffee from Tim Hortons. Social media is key in reaching out to our target publics. Through Twitter and Facebook we can give readers a sense of what our magazine is all about before they even see an issue. We can use social media to generate excitement about our magazine. Our target readers should be looking forward to the trade show, where they will have a chance to read our magazine. Our rationale behind serving coffee and food is simple: give people something that they like for free and they will give you their time. The age-old promotional tactic is sure to attract guest, creating a window of time for us to win them over with our magazine. The various jobs that our magazine group will have are based on our prior experience/expertise. For example, Stephanie is a seasoned server, so she will be excellent at greeting the guests; Marshal is a musician, who has provided background music for other events before such as weddings, so he will naturally be in charge of the music, and so on. The rationale behind our budget is such that we are all students who dont have tons of money to spend, yet we realize the important of providing incentive for trade fair attendants to spend time at our booth. Sponsors such as Hermanos Restaurant & Wine Bar, Carnaval Brazilian BBQ, and Tim Hortons, will be key in supplementing our budget.

Preliminary Budget Baking Supplies Coffee Art Supplies Printing Costs T-shirts Gas Total $20 $80 $20 $50 $80 $20 $270

Evaluation As we prepare for the magazine trade fair, we want to be evaluating our progress at all three stages. These stages include: Preparation, what we do to get ready for the fair, implementation, how we succeed during the fair, and impact, our continued success following the fair. Preparation The main way that we will determine whether or not we have gotten our readers interested in the magazine launch is social media buzz. We will be using Facebook and Twitter to promote our magazine. Our goal is to have 50 likes on our Facebook page, and 100 followers on Twitter. We will also keep track of particularly enthusiastic comments on Facebook, and likes and retweets on Twitter. We are going to be running a photography contest through our Facebook page. The number of entries in this contest will give us an idea how many people are engaging with our social media platform. In the case of the magazine assignment, our competition is other magazine groups. We can track their progress by following them on Twitter and Facebook, and keeping track of how many likes, followers, retweets, and favourites they are getting. We can also look and see if they are doing anything specific to increase reader engagement, such as contests and promotions. We want to make sure we are going beyond our competition in these aspects, so that we can get as much attention as possible at the trade fair. Other means of preparation will include contacting friends and family, the media, and sponsors. We will keep track of the number of confirmed guests and contributors, as a way of evaluating how well we have engaged our readers outside of social media. Implementation On the day of the trade fair, our evaluation process will include comparing our preparatory results with our results following the event. For example, if we have 50 Facebook likes prior to the trade fair, we will compare that number to the number we have afterward. We are hoping to have over 100 likes by the end of the day. We will also be encouraging people to following us on Twitter, as a great source of healthy recipes and nutritional news. We hope to have 150 Twitter followers by the end of the trade fair. We will be inviting Jeremy John of Breakfast Television to stop by our booth. Whether or not he shows up will be one way in which we will determine if we have been successful in engaging with local media. We will be doing a similar evaluation with friends, family members and colleagues who we invite. In both cases we are looking for a high ratio of RSVPs to actual attendees. Another public that is less important during the Preparation stage, but extremely important on the day of the trade fair, is anyone who attends the event who we didnt invite. This might include people who are there to support other groups magazines, or people who havent heard of our magazine yet. We want to make sure these walk-ups for lack of a better term, have a positive experience at our exhibit, and leave feeling positively about our magazine. 9

One way of evaluating how well we have gotten through to walk-ups, is to keep track of the number of people that visit our booth, then compare that number to the amount of people we were already expecting. We will attempt to gauge what sort of emotional experience, and level of interest people are having when interacting with us. Certain things such as social media, number of visitors and so on, will yield quantitative data that we can use to determine our level of success. We will have to use our best judgement to decide how we feel about more general aspects, such as peoples level of interest and fun. At the end of the trade fair, if we have hit our social media goals, and our guests, sponsors and expected media have shown up, and we will call the event a success. Impact The idea of the trade fair is to expose our brand to our desired publics, which include potential readers, sponsors, the media, and competition. However, it is important that we continue to evaluate our success in the time that follows. If we have 150 likes on Facebook by the trade fair, our goal is to double that number within six months. The same will go for Twitter, where if we have 100 followers the day of the trade fair, we will want 200 by September. Once our potential readers are interested in our magazine, the next step to turn them into buyers or better yet, subscribers. We will measure our magazines impact by keeping track of the number of sales we have made, six months after the trade fair. We will compare our social media presence, and our consumer success, to other magazines in Winnipeg that target similar demographics. In this way, we will confirm that we have a competitive product. Overall, by September 2013, we want to be an established magazine, with readers, subscribers, an active social media presence, and a competitive edge as far as advertising is concerned. Though we realize we may have a difficult time finding clients to advertise in our magazine prior to the trade fair, we hope that we are well on our way to building a strong client base by this time.

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