Disclaimer: This project was created as a class assignment for a Strategic Writing course at Elon University.
It is entirely fictional. All campaign materials, fictional contacts, and program details were developed by me for academic purposes only. This work is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to e.l.f. Beauty in any way.
Throughout the entire semester of strategic writing at Elon University, I worked on a fictional campaign for a client of my choosing. I decided to use e.l.f. Beauty as my "client" because they've been a staple in my life since I discovered my love for makeup and the beauty industry. (I have picture proof; ask me about it!). The entire semester was centered around our clients and writing a variety of pieces for them. THROUGHOUT THIS PAGE, YOU WILL FIND ALL THE DELIVERABLES I CREATED FOR THIS CAMPAIGN.
My vision for this campaign was to bring e.l.f. beauty on college campuses in a way that stuck with students, making it more than just makeup. I wanted to hone in on the confidence piece of makeup and develop that through workshops and professional development events. My approach to the content I developed centered on the one thing that made this campus program different from other programs on the market.
Through my research, I found that, first off, not many beauty brands have active and recurring campus partnerships. And secondly, those who DO HAVE ESTABLISHED PROGRAMS have a minimum FOLLOWER REQUIREMENT, NEED social media marketing experience, or a mix of other requirements that make their programs inaccessible to millions of students nationwide. I saw an opportunity to bring a brand that college students already resonate with to a particularly untapped market.
THIS SEMESTER-LONG PROJECT STARTED WITH A BRAND PLAN. THIS PLAN served AS THE ANCHOR FOR the rest of the materials. It includes a swot analysis, audience analysis, key messages, and other strategic objectives. I created the brand plan to better understand my client and set goals and objectives for the campaign I would later develop.
The first deliverable after creating the brand plan was a pitch to e.l.f. Headquarters to introduce the initiative and get them on board. it provides a clear outline of the program, how it reaches the target audience, and how it would benefit the company as a whole
The next piece of a longer story writing was a press release announcing the search for find your(s)e.l.f. campus ambassadors. The main goal of this release was to recruit ambassadors for the program's opening cohort and explain how it differed from other campus programs.
To complement the ambassador recruitment efforts, I created a script and visual storyboard for a 30-second OTT advertisement meant to encourage students to sign up for the program.
I also created an infographic flyer to place around campus and to share on social media to increase the program's visibility and reach.
The Next set of deliverables was a series of social media posts aimed at building up the program kickoff for participating campus locations in the fall. I shot some of the images myself, and used stock photography for others. I also added the campaign's signature to all of the images and created relevant hashtags. I followed e.l.f.'s current social media strategy by creating captions with short, broken-up text and 3 hashtags per post.
The first post in the series announced the program's launch and gave a direct follow-up for students to sign up. For the images, I wanted to capture E.L.F.'s products in a college dorm vanity setup.
The FOLLOWING post was all about recruiting ambassadors and bringing find your(s)e.l.f to their schools. For this caption, I WANTED TO EMPHASIZE HOW THIS PROGRAM IS DIFFERENT BY HIGHLIGHT THE IMPACTFUL EVENTS AND THE NO FOLLOWER MINIMUM, A KEY DIFFERENTIATOR FROM OTHER BEAUTY AMBASSADOR PROGRAMS.
The last post IN THE SERIES brought the POP-UP EVENTS to college campuses. I USED IMAGES OF PREVIOUS POP-UP EVENTS THEY HAD HOSTED TO VISUALIZE HOW THEY WOULD LOOK AS PART OF A CAMPUS COLLABORATION. tHE CAPTION GIVES A CLEAR DIRECTIVE AT THE END FOR STUDENTS TO SEE IF THEIR CAMPUS WILL BE HOSTING A POP-UP EVENT SOON.
The last deliverable was a feature story on an ambassador to help recruit the next cohort of ambassadors. The feature story is meant to be showcased on e.l.f. 's website and includes a link to the next application cycle.
