thebabyperks

Welcome to the final installment of my Campaigns blog post series. Scroll below for more content more directly related to my blog.

Measurement strategies are important in looking at the overall goal or big picture of a campaign. As the article posted on Moodle about measurement strategy talked about, having a strategy leads to effective content creation that reaches your target audience.

A business that utilizes this strategy is Goodreads. Goodreads is a website that "helps people find and share books they love." They have created a media kit that is downloadable so that potential advertisers get a better understanding of the kind of audience that Goodreads reaches. This is important for the advertisers' measurement strategy because they can plan and frame the content around this audience. 

Before an advertiser can decide whether or not Goodreads is a good platform to advertise they should understand what Goodreads is and the audience that uses it. According to the Goodreads media kit over 7 million people on the platform record the books they read and share book recommendations. Some of the demographics include: almost 70% of users are female, 11.4% of users are 13-17, 42.3% are 18-34, 18.9% are 35-44, and 26.9% are over 45. The audience generally views the site two times a day and spend around five minutes a visit on the site. Over 183,000 books are marked to-read and over 30,000 books are marked read, 287,000 books are rated/reviewed.

The best companies/advertisers to advertise on Goodreads would most likely be the publishing companies.

With this user information in mind Goodreads has created a few different packages designed for companies wanting to promote books. These book discovery packages were created to drive intentional purchasing and increase the ability of books to be discovered. These programs are go beyond traditional advertising seen on websites because, while there is side bar advertisements, they also give influential users books for free in exchange for a review and rate. Everyone who follows the user gets a notification in their newsfeed about the users' review and rating of the book. This is a way to increase a publishing company's reach.

Because Goodreads has created this media kit full of demographic information, research, and advertising packages they can easily send this out to interested companies. Companies are able to define their potential reach based off of the information Goodreads provides. Publishing companies can create advertising content that fits the users of Goodreads as well as create a cohesive advertising campaign.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

Thanksgiving can be very difficult for people with unhealthy relationships with food. I know that I personally have felt guilty for eating so much or felt like I needed to restrict my eating leading up to Thanksgiving. I participated in 5K turkey trots because I enjoyed them, but it was also nice to know I was "burning all of the calories I was going to eat".

What I've come to learn, though, is that one day (or even a few days) of eating what you want will not ruin your progress. You don't have to get a workout in before you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner. If you want to workout, go for it, but it is not a requirement in order to eat the foods you want to eat. And just because you may be eating a lot on Thanksgiving doesn't mean you don't need to eat leading up to turkey day, your body still needs energy.

These thoughts of mine got put to the test this week. I haven't worked out in 3 days and I almost forced myself to go to the gym with my parents this morning but I realized it wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in my pjs and enjoy my breakfast. As someone who regularly goes to the gym and ~tries~ to eat healthy, taking a few extra rest days is okay. The gym will still be there for me this weekend. I am going into tonight's Thanksgiving dinner with one side of my family and tomorrow's Thanksgiving with the other side in a much more aware mindset.
I've grown a lot over the past year with my relationship with food. I'm eating foods I enjoy and feeling a lot less guilty. I've learned that food isn't "good" or "bad" it's just energy. By eating more and eating what I enjoy I've actually been able to gain muscle and my physique is better than it has ever been. I know other people have much bigger struggles with food than I have experienced and my advice won't fix your problems, but I thought it would be helpful to share what helped me overcome some of those guilty feelings associated with food.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday, don't feel guilty for eating the foods you want to eat, and make memories with those you love.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

Fast forward to summer 2018. I had some time in between tasks at my internship and I was looking at the PDF file of course needs. I had more check marks of completed courses than Xs of what I needed. Then I pulled up my Google Doc entitled "My four year plan lololol" where I keep a master sheet of what semester I took classes and when I want to take others. I could fit all of my required classes in, it would just be a matter of getting in my 36 hours of 300+ level classes and 124 total credit hours in to qualify for a Bachelor's degree.

I talked with my family about it and thought long and hard. This semester I'm in 16 credit hours, I plan on being in 16-17 next semester, taking 9 over the summer (three of those credit hours will *hopefully* be an internship), and 14-15 credit hours next fall.

Trust me, I would love to stay in college forever (I mean who wouldn't it's basically adult daycare). But college is expensive and if I'm finished with my required courses I'd rather not rack up more debt just sitting around in the spring semester. I saw a lot of my friends who already graduated take 12 credit hours their senior year spring and they were bored in class, having to do pointless assignments, and stressed out by the job process. I talked to someone who graduated early and she said she'd never have gotten the job she currently has without graduating early. If I could cut out the thing that's costing me $15,000/semester and solely focus on my job hunt that would be cool.

The only other hesitancy I had about graduating early is that I didn't want to walk in December because I'd be sad without my friends. I reached out and got confirmation that I could walk in May with the rest of my class even if I technically graduated in December.

Finally, with the money I'm saving I plan to do a bit of traveling. The planning for that is still pretty open but I'm hoping to make it happen.

I'm thankful for my family and friends who have supported my decision. It's wild to think that in a little over a month I'll only have a year left at Drury. If the phrase "last one, best one" is true, I can't wait to see how the next year turns out.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

Hi everyone here is another blog post for my Comm 413 Campaigns class. Go read my latest post about starting your morning right.

You may have great ideas but before you can make a solid plan you need to look at your resources. How are you going to create, produce or provide your idea? Budgeting does not just consider total cost but labor and who is going to pay. In our reading on budgets it said to be aware of the organization's business plan, budget strategically and measure the return on investment (along with a few other things). 

Advertising can be an effective tool to get your product out into the public eye but it can also be costly. One example of an advertising campaign that was costly upfront and then very successful is Coca Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign.

According to the Wall Street Journal Coca-Cola saw sales rise over 2% after they had been falling for over a decade. While falling soda consumption could be linked to trends in healthier eating, more awareness towards the dangers of sugar (& artificial sugar) and obesity, Coca-Cola had to adapt in order for the company to survive. The WSJ reported that Coke increased their advertising budget by $1 billion in recent years.



When coming up with the idea of the "Share a Coke" campaign there was the risk of it failing. Would printing people's names onto bottles really make them buy more sodas? They obviously would have to consider the cost of redesigning the packaging to include names and phrases. The departments working on this campaign also needed to think about different indirect costs like employees time to gather data around different names in different geographical areas.

Ultimately this campaign saw success through user-generated content. People were talking about the soda cans and "sharing a Coke" online. This created interest among consumers to go hunting for their name on a soda can bottle. Maybe a consumer quit drinking soda but they found themselves in the soda aisle looking for their significant other's name on the bottle. They just spent an extra $2 that they usually didn't spend. Then maybe they see a friends name on a bottle and buy it for them to. The idea of connecting with people on a personal level is very successful. Investopedia also discussed that Coke was able to adapt their strategies from the initial campaign to remain relevant years down the line through creating a shop for people to personalize names onto the soda bottle wrapper, and the company even began including pop culture references/song lyrics on cans.

When an organization successfully budgets for a campaign and has the funds to support it they can create an interactive platform. It's even better when a company encourages their customers to keep the conversation going through sharing their stories on social media.

Coca-Cola took a leap with personalized soda bottles. Through successful budgeting and strategy they produced an innovation idea that lead to a global phenomenon. By preparing and sticking to a budget that was realistic, they were able to improve sales for the first time in a decade.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

I have to admit I'm a bit hypocritical. I was practicing what I was preaching up until this week and then I stopped. Guess what? What I was doing really did help and when I was trying to identify why I felt off this week I can almost guarantee this is why.

My Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule is a bit different from my Tuesday/Thursday schedule. On MWF I get up very early to open the gym. On Tuesday/Thursdays I don't have to do that so I have a slower start to my morning. On most Tuesdays and Thursdays I try to sleep in a bit but still get up early enough to workout, shower, eat breakfast and lay in bed. 

Part of what has helped me accomplish this is not grabbing my phone right when I wake up in the morning. I have a terrible habit of turning off my alarm and then scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and then Facebook again. I've listened to so many people talk about being on their phones less and the benefits so I decided to try it out. On the Tuesday/Thursdays I don't workout I go straight downstairs to make myself coffee and breakfast. I bring it back to my room and really just enjoy waking up. I noticed that when I did this I felt a lot more at peace and ready to start my day. Sure, I still end up scrolling through social media but I have an intentional block of time in my morning to let myself be. Even when I do go workout in the mornings I have been trying to just get up without scrolling on my phone until I get to the gym. Once I'm doing my warmup incline walking on the treadmill I begin to look at my phone.

Starting your morning right sets the framework for the rest of your day as well as your productivity. I am the most productive in the mornings and early afternoons. I love giving myself that 20-30 minute span to enjoy the process of making breakfast, journaling and drinking my coffee. Then I can hit the ground running by working on papers or reviewing assigned readings. This week, though, I threw that by the wayside and spent a lot more time scrolling on my phone than I did giving myself "me time." I noticed a shift in my attitude and productivity. Luckily, I recognized this shift and next week I'm going to focus on being mindful in the mornings again.

It can be hard to remain mindful especially in times of stress or busyness. I'm really working at reminding myself that it's okay to take time for myself beyond just working out, sometimes I need to rest and that's okay. The best way I can give myself that rest time is by starting my morning off slowly.

What do you do to start your morning off right? I'd love to hear about it!

Until next time,
Taylor xx