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Ashley Ahl • Maegan Bull • Lauren Muldoon • Kathryn O’ Hara • Marlowe Padilla • Irma Perez • Alane Schmelkin • Emily Wolfson Public Relations Proposal by “THE JOURNEY” H E A R T T H R E A D Y O G A O U S L media TM

Heart Thread Yoga - PR Campaign Proposal

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Ashley Ahl • Maegan Bull • Lauren Muldoon • Kathryn O’ Hara • Marlowe Padilla • Irma Perez • Alane Schmelkin • Emily Wolfson

Public Relations Proposal by“THE JOURNEY”

H E A R T T H R E A DY O G A

OUS LmediaTM

Public Relations ProposalSubmitted December 7, 2015

H E A R T T H R E A DY O G A

Heart Thread YogaRachel VerValin, Owner607-222-1726Heartthreadyoga@gmail.comwww.heartthreadyoga.com

Agency Contact Info:

Ashley Ahl [email protected] Bull [email protected] Muldoon [email protected] O’Hara [email protected] Padilla [email protected] Perez [email protected] Schmelkin [email protected] Wolfson [email protected]

Table of Contents4. About the Agency 5. Executive Summary 6. Situation Analysis 7. Competitor Analysis8. SWOT Analysis10. Secondary Research12. Objectives13. Target Audience16. Strategies 17. Tactics 26. Evaluation27. Timetable28. Budget32. Agency Biographies36. Appendix Table of Contents37. Appendix

About the Agency

SOUL MEDIA is an up and coming Public Relations agency looking to give our clients the best that they deserve. Based in Ithaca, NY, Soul Media strives to add “color” to the Public Relations industry. With careful research, strategic planning, and creative insight, our agency turns imagination into reality. We be-lieve that the best PR campaigns tell a story. Let SOUL MEDIA bring yours to life.

OUS LmediaTM

Executive SummarySOUL Media has been given the exciting opportunity to establish Heart Thread Yoga as the dominant yoga experience for pregnant woman in Ithaca, New York. As Heart Thread Yoga expands in the Ithaca community, our goals are to increase awareness of the benefits of prenatal yoga, establish Heart Thread as the premiere choice for prenatal yoga, and build a strong, enduring client base.

Heart Thread Yoga caters towards pregnant women who want to stay healthy during their pregnancy and beyond. Here at SOUL media we view the journey from prenatal to postnatal as an important part of life. Heart Thread Yoga offers yoga classes to women in each stage of the pregnancy journey, which is why we chose to focus our campaign efforts on The Journey that each pregnant woman goes through.

Within this proposal, we provide solutions to the challenges that Heart Thread Yoga currently faces. We have established our Journey campaign to meet the goals and objectives set to provide long term suc-cess for the company. We have also created many marketing initiatives that we believe will help further achieve Heart Thread’s goals and objectives.

We want to extend a huge thank you to Rachel VerValin, founder of Heart Thread Yoga, who has given us the opportunity to create a campaign for her amazing brand. We greatly appreciate the time and ef-fort she took to meet with us, answer our questions, and inspire us to create a campaign that we believe will further her mission.

Sincerely,

SOUL Media 5

Situation AnalysisHeart Thread Yoga is based in Ithaca, NY and is owned and operated by Rachel VerValin. As an athlete, Rachel turned to yoga as a method of working out during her undergraduate years. She began practicing a variety of different styles of yoga with many different teachers, yet Vinyasa is what she fell in love with. Rachel began teaching in January of 2011, after receiving her 200 hour certi-fication. A few years later, in May of 2013, she furthered her studies at Integral Yoga In-stitute where she successfully received her 85 hour Prenatal Yoga certification. One year lat-er in May 2014 Rachel created Heart Thread Yoga. She accomplished this dream with theinspiration and support from her communi-ty. Rachel strives to create a nurturing en-vironment where her students can learn and practice yoga. With classes that are filled with laughter, hard work, and great mu-sic, Rachel creates a comfortable space for everyone. Rachel has a strong belief that a balanced body equals a balanced life!

Heart Thread Yoga holds different classes every day of the week, including Relax & Flow Outdoor Yoga Saturday and Sunday mornings. The owner holds yoga class each with different styles that include Vinyasa Flow, Foundations/Slow Flow/Relax & Flow, Rockin’ Flow, Prena-tal Flow, and Mommy + Me that all focus on different aspects of the benefits that doing yoga provides. Also, Rachel will be holding a New Year’s Rockin’ Yoga Retreat in Costa Rica that will be held December 28th till January 3rd, 2016. This package costs anywhere between $1250 for a triple room to $1950 for a sin-gle room, all excluding airfare. Rachel holds private as well as public classes available de-pending on the day and time. Rachel would like to focus on her prenatal classes, and the positive effects that this type of yoga has on an expecting mother. She considers herself one of the prenatal yoga experts in the Ithaca area. All classes are taught by Rachel VerValin herself, and sometimes includes the help of other instructors.

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Competitor AnalysisInstructor: Diane FinePrice: $17/class, 4 class pack: $60Time: Tuesday eveningsLocation: Fall Creek NeighborhoodPositives: active on Facebook, introductory pass for new students, voted “Best Yoga Teacher” 2013 by the Ithaca Times annual “Best of Ithaca” survey, studio also offers birth prep workshops and yoga classes for mothersNegatives: not directly located in Downtown Ithaca

Instructor: Audra BartlettPrice: $16/class, 4 class pass: $60Time: Saturday afternoonsLocation: Ithaca CommonsPositives: active on Facebook, also offer “baby and me” classes, instructor is a mother, offered on the weekends for busy womenNegatives: outdated Twitter presence

Instructor: Mariellen BrownPrice: $15/class, 5 classes: $50Time: Monday evenings Location: Jillian Drawer’s, Ithaca CommonsPositives: Instructor is a mother, location offers other resources for mothersNegatives: does not have social media dedicated specifically to her yoga practice, not practiced in a studio

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SWOT AnalysisSoul Media conducted a SWOT analysis to identify the current internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportuni-ties and threats.

One of Heart Thread Yoga’s biggest strengths is its unique and diverse class offerings that cater to specific audiences, such as mothers, with classes like Prenatal Flow and Mommy + Me. There are outdoor classes as well as yoga retreats for those interested in more holistic experiences. Another strength is Rachel’s mobility; she teaches classes at both Mighty Yoga studio and Cornell University. Lastly, she offers private and group sessions along with group yoga for special clientele such as bachelorette parties and college sports teams.

Apart from its many strengths, one of Heart Thread Yoga’sweaknesses is its limited class schedule. Rachel is the primary instructor, only sometimes receiving help from other instructors. In the Prenatal Flow class, there are currently two consistent clients, which we attribute to limited awareness of the benefits of practicing prenatal yoga and its local availability. While Heart Thread Yoga is present on the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, they have relatively small followings and inconsistent posts.

Given these strengths and weaknesses, we have also determined many external opportunities for the company.

As mentioned, Heart Thread Yoga can gain better social media presence and appeal to a wider audience. Prenatal yoga is a growing trend and Heart Thread Yoga has the opportunity to establish itself as one of the primary places for customers to seek by offering rewards or providing incentives to retain customers. Heart Thread Yoga needs to find a way to differentiate itself from competitors, which can be done by adopting a philosophy or supporting a cause. It can also collaborate with competitors, such as Diane Fine who offers couples birth prep. Down the line, the brand can expand by appealing to a younger audience and reach out to college students in Ithaca.

External threats that Heart Thread Yoga faces are its lack of brand presence in comparison to other yoga competitors. There are a number of prenatal yoga competitors so differentiation is key. Many Heart Thread Yoga classes, especially Prenatal Flow, focus on middle age to older women, which alienates college students from taking classes with Rachel. Overall, competitors have better ratings and more well-established presences on the Internet, spe-cifically Yelp. In fact, in a single Google search, Heart Thread Yoga does not come up on the first search page or the top ten Yoga places in Ithaca.

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SWOT AnalysisSTRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

+ Variety of yoga classes + Unique offerings-Prenatal Flow, Mommy + Me+ Outdoor Yoga by Firelight+ Winter yoga retreat in Costa Rica+ Group yoga available for Bachelorette groups, College Sports Teams, and Sports Specific Classes+ Multiple locations (Mighty Yoga, Cornell)

+ Appeal to younger audience (Reach out to college students)+ Growing trend in Ithaca+ Offer rewards or discounts to provide incentive and retain customers+ Adopt philosophy or support a cause to differentiate + Collaborate with competitors, such as Diane Fine (offer couples birth prep workshop)

- Unpopular (does not come up in the google search) > establish strong company awareness- Lots of prenatal yoga competitors (need to differentiate)- Focus is on older women only, alienates college students- Competitors have better ratings on Yelp- Jillian’s Drawers-Mary Ellen Brown teaches prenatal yoga classes

- Limited class times- No Wednesday classes- Poor use of social media-Facebook, Instagram, Twitter - Two clients in Prenatal Flow classes- Limited local awareness of Prenatal Flow and the benefits

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Secondary Research

Conducting secondary research was critical in determining appropriate objectives, strategies and tac-tics to utilize in our public relations campaign for Heart Thread Yoga.

Heart Thread Yoga aims to provide women with opportunities to care for themselves during the pre-preg-nancy and post-pregnancy phases of life. Research has proven that staying active during pregnancy has many benefits for both the mother and baby. According to the founder of the company, Rachel VerValin, many women are unaware of the benefits of prenatal yoga. Many women think of exercising, but fail to associate yoga with a way to stay healthy during pregnancy. There is also a wide misconception among women as to the degree of safety of prenatal yoga for fear of injuring their baby.

The yoga industry overall has been growing. It is estimated that there are 15 million Americans who practice yoga, with an average annual increase of 20%. In the past year there has been an 87% in-crease in monetary spending on yoga products, which illustrates the increase in popularity of yoga in society. This popularity growth has been displayed locally as well, as there has been an increase in the number of yoga studios and instructors available for individuals to choose from that all offer a range of services in the Ithaca area.

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Secondary Research

Through our research we were able to identify yoga instructors in the Ithaca area that are in competition for Heart Thread Yoga’s key client base. Not all these instructors offer the same services, however there are key advantages and disadvantages with each. An analysis of each instructor helped us identify how Heart Thread Yoga can position itself in the market to stand out.

Many of the competitors’ websites and social media accounts reveal testimonials from women about their positive experiences. According to these women, prenatal yoga was “the most important part of the preparation for labor” and “an invaluable experience”. Women are surprised at the benefits and helpfulness of prenatal yoga after they attend a class, which provides key insight for our proposal.

Based on this information, Heart Thread Yoga has key opportunities to expand its prenatal yoga classes and opportunities for pregnant women. By educating women on the benefits and expanding its services, Heart Thread Yoga will be able to build and retain a loyal client base and continue to grow.

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ObjectivesTo increase awareness of Prenatal Yoga benefits to position it as an essential element of pregnancy with the target audience. Rachel VerValin offers unique Prenatal Yoga classes that offer numerous benefits to an expecting mother. We hope to generate awareness around the benefits of prenatal yoga and position the classes as the go-to exercise for mothers-to-be.

To increase awareness of client being “one of the prenatal experts” in the area.Rachel considers herself to one of the prenatal yoga experts within the Ithaca area. We hope to get the word out about this title to ensure trust within mothers-to-be that this yoga profession-al understands the importance of prenatal yoga. We want consumers to have confidence that they will be well taken care of when they come and take a class and that their instructor is well qualified.

To build and retain a core client base for the offered yoga classes.Through our other objective of increasing awareness of the classes offered, we hope to build a larger clientele. We also plan on creating ways to ensure that these clients will return for more classes other than the initial prenatal class. We hope to increase positive word of mouth from current clients to increase the amount of traffic in classes.

To develop a social media presence with a specific focus on “The Journey”.Our agency plans on developing strong social media efforts to increase the amount of aware-ness on these platforms. We will mostly focus on Facebook, because this is the best way to reach expecting mothers, but other platforms will be used as well such as Instagram and Twit-ter. We hope to use the campaign theme of “The Journey” to lead consumers to Heart Thread Yoga’s website and to increase the overall online presence.

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The public relations plan for Heart Thread Yoga is designed to achieve the following objectives:

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Target AudienceOur target audiences have been selected based on their ability to become customers of Prenatal Yoga classes taught by Rachel VerValin.

Pregnant mothers are our primary target audience. Pregnant women, whether pregnant for the first time or veteran mom-mies, care for their health and are willing to do just about anything to improve their pregnancy and the health of their growing babies. Luckily, pregnant woman can immediately take prenatal yoga classes and can feel its benefits. We want to establish brand loyalty among this audience as well as in-crease awareness of our classes and the classes she provides. This demographic can be readily available to take one of our client’s prenatal classes, and these women will be especially willing to take the classes to improve their health and the health of their growing little one.

The next target audience group we have chosen consists of mothers who have recently given birth. We have chosen this group to target due to their ability to understand the rollercoast-er-ride that is post-pregnancy life. This group knows that it can be hard to get back in shape after having a baby, and they are looking for ways to meet and relate with other mothers. This group can also spread the word to other mothers about the benefits of prenatal yoga.

Our secondary target audience are those women who are think-ing about becoming pregnant. This group is new to the “baby” world, and there is a lot of information for them to research; it can be overwhelming for future mommies when learning about what is truly important to do during all the phases of pregnancy. We want this audience to understand that when they do become pregnant, prenatal yoga can offer them numerous benefits that will help them along this nine month journey.

We hope to attract several local media outlets, such as newspapers and blogs. We plan to utilize several social media platforms to expand our campaign, as discussed in our tactics. Also, our campaign will be successful and spread further through word-of-mouth from past clients, as well as through the promotional materials discussed in our plan.

The area of focus for this public relations campaign is inIthaca, New York. This is where our client is located, and our audiences that we should primarily focus on are within this domain. However, with an expansion of the brand, ourcampaign could eventually be expanded to surrounding areas.

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Target Audience

Meet Alyssa

Olivia, 31, is incredibly excited to become a new mother. She works full-time as a teacher at her local elementary school, and has been dreaming about starting a fami-ly with her husband, Jake, for years. Olivia has spent a majority of her life being active – playing sports through-out high school, starting a club field hockey team at her university, and regularly going to the gym after grad-uating college – but has been worried about staying fit when she became pregnant. Over the last few months, Olivia has been reading up on how to stay healthy dur-ing pregnancy, and wants to find something to keep her body fit that will also benefit her growing little one.

Alyssa, 27 and an art director, just gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Thomas about five months ago. She has been fawning over her little angel and absolutely adores him, but knows that she has to take care of herself as well. Alyssa has a group of close-knit friends who enjoy brunching and taking strolls through the park, but she would love to meet some women who understand the crazy lifestyle that comes with being a new mommy. Alyssa’s current goals are to get Thomas to say “mama” as his first word, and to get back to her pre-pregnancy weight without having to spend hundreds of hours at the gym.

Meet OliviaPRIMARY TARGET

PRIMARY TARGET

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Target AudienceMeet KellyKelly, 33, has worked hard over the past decade to build her career, her home, and her relationship with her husband Karl. She enjoys trying new things to keep her busy and healthy (like trying new recipes and taking classes at her local rec center) and loves to go hiking with Karl and their German Shepherd, Doodle. But Kelly is ready to add the finishing touch to make her life even better: a beautiful baby. Kelly and Karl have been discussing having a child for years, and the two are excited planning for a future pregnan-cy and everything that will come with having a family. Kelly isn’t really sure where to start, but is ready for her upcoming adventure.

SECONDARY TARGET

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Strategies

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Differentiate client classes/base by creating a comprehensive space for mothers.

Heart Thread Yoga offers several services for a wide variety of individuals. Concentrating on distin-guishing the services for mothers as a separate part of the company will make it easier for mothers to see the opportunities offered for them. This will set Heart Thread Yoga apart from its competitors and help build a client base of women who will utilize the services both during pregnancy and beyond.

Based on our research, we found that few women are aware of the positive effects of prenatal yoga. Due to this lack of knowledge, we have identified a missed opportunity for pregnant women. Educating women about the positive effects of prenatal yoga is the first step to increase awareness, and Heart Thread Yoga can use this opportunity to position itself as a reliable source of information and practice.

It is crucial to gain awareness in the community to be successful. One of the most successful ways to do this is through word of mouth. Consumers are found to trust people that they can relate to whom are not directly related to the company. We believe by reaching out to bloggers in the area we will be able to spread the word about Heart Thread Yoga.

Media is a key way to engage with any audience both directly and indirectly. Increasing the buzz about Heart Thread Yoga through media outlets will provide the opportunity to engage with custom-ers and promote the company. Distributing branded promotional materials will also reinforce the company’s image and keep the target audience engaged.

Educate mothers on the benefits of Prenatal Yoga.

Reach out to mommy and daddy bloggers and past clients to advocate.

Use all relevant media outlets and promotional materials to create awareness andengagement with the target audiences.

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Tactics

1Differentiate client classes/base by creating a

comprehensive space for mothers.

Heart Thread Yoga’s website as of right now does not largely distinct between the various types of yoga classes offered, but specifically does not have a section devoted to those prenatal yoga classes that are taught. We will focus on creating the theme of “The Mommy Journey” by imple-menting a separate space on the website to go into more detail about prenatal yoga and the benefits it provides to expecting mothers. We believe that devoting space to the prenatal yoga aspect of Heart Thread Yoga will provide for less confusion from consumers and more awareness of the classes themselves. This section will encompass the journey of becoming a mother, including before you get pregnant, prenatal and postnatal in order to give a full background

and enough information to pique consumers interest. In-cluded in”The Mommy Journey” section of the website, there will be an interactive forum for anyone to discuss or place questions to have other mothers give an first-hand answer. Consumers often go looking for more information when making decisions, especially when it comes to pre-natal decisions. We believe that having a separate section of the website dedicated to the prenatal yoga classes will create a comprehensive space and decrease confusion.

THE MOMMY JOURNEY

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1Differentiate client classes/base by creating a

comprehensive space for mothers.

Tactics

LOCAL BABY MOONSSOUL Media will create a special event that will occur monthly called “Babymoons” that will take place locally around the Ithaca area. The first part of the day-long event will be a group prenatal yoga class taught by Rachel herself from 10am-12pm. Next, the group of expecting mothers will then have lunch together where they will have time to talk about how their pregnancy is going and be able to give one another advice and sup-port. After this lunch session, the group will move into a mindful parenting childbirth preparation class with Nancy Lee Koschmann from 1-3pm.

Finally, to wrap up this Babymoon event, the group will move to August Moon Spa at La Tourelle to par-ticipate in Tranquility Hour from 4-7pm. The August Moon Spa specifically has Pregnancy massages, so we believe that this is the perfect way to end the local Babymoon event for this group of expecting mothers. 18

Tactics Tactics

PALM CARDS

2 Educate mothers on the benefits of Prenatal Yoga.

Since a lot of expecting mothers are not aware of the benefits that prenatal yoga can have on their pregnancy, it is extremely important that we education this audience in order to help them understand why they should be partaking in an exercise such as this one. We will create Palm Cards that will list the numer-ous benefits of prenatal yoga to show mothers that it is a safe and healthy exercise to do while pregnant.

(See Appendix C for an example)

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Tactics2 Educate mothers on the benefits of

Prenatal Yoga.

MEET & GREET WITH JILLIAN DRAWER’S

We suggest that Rachel VerValin set up a scheduled time each month to have a “coffee/baby” hour. Each session, Rachel can meet with prospective clients in the studio space to enjoy refreshments and teach these women the benefits of prenatal yoga in addition to making them feel safe and welcome to take a class with her in the near future. We believe that this will be an excellent way for expecting mothers to learn both about prenatal yoga itself and about the woman that will be teaching the course.

Jillian’s Drawers is a small, mom-owned, natural baby boutique that is located in Ithaca, NY. They carry high quality products for all your baby needs. We think that this is a great opportunity to have Ra-chel VerValin engage in a partnership with Jillian’s Drawers in which she will go to the shop and meet with expecting mothers and discuss her prenatal yoga classes and teach them the benefits of this type of exercise. We believe that this engagement with the expecting mothers who are shopping for their babies is a great way to make the topic of prenatal yoga relevant to the consumer and get them excited to learn more.

COFFEE HOUR / BABY HOUR

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Tactics Tactics3 Reach out to mommy and daddy bloggers

and past clients to advocate.

We believe that a great way to get the word out about our client be-ing one of the prenatal yoga experts in Ithaca is to run an advertisement in a media outlet that reaches the local community. The Ithaca Times has more than 64,000 readers and publishes a weekly newspaper to the local community, meaning we will be able to reach our target audi-ence that is located in the area for access to the prenatal yoga classes.

In order to reach the suggested target audience, SOUL Media suggests reaching out to “Mommy Bloggers” within the local Ithaca area. This can be done by inviting bloggers to sit-in on a class and ask questions regard-ing the benefits of prenatal yoga. By introducing this uncommon yet ben-eficial activity to the blogging world, a greater range of mothers will be introduced and better educated on prenatal yoga. Moms believe the word of other moms, so it is important that we increase our word of mouth to gain more attention. We believe that this is a smart way to start making re-lationships with the “Mommy” community here in Ithaca as it is a potential source to gain the attention of our target audience of expectant mothers.

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Tactics

Although our client does post on Facebook, they don’t seem to be frequent or recent, with the last post being from June. We will use Facebook to make the page an informative, interactive space for prospective clients and also to retain interest from current clients. The page only has 151 likes and there is little to no interaction from consumers. We will use the Facebook page to create events for the those that are going to run in this campaign related to prenatal yoga, as well as make postings to promote the different prenatal classes that are offered. Also, to make prenatal yoga relevant, we will use the page to post articles and anything media related that will promote “The Journey” of motherhood in order to reach more viewers within our target audience.

With more followers than on Twitter, Instagram seems to be becoming a more and more popular social media outlet. With that being said, we think that Instagram is a great way to connect with clients or any yoga lovers in general! We recommend that Rachel posts daily photos of sneak-peeks of her prenatal classes; this will get mothers or mother-to-be excited for future classes. Also, it is important to “Regram” popular yoga and baby related posts while tagging other accounts and using relevant hashtags. Lastly, to keep the instagram fun and current, Rachel can add facts and/or inspirational quotes. All of these tips will attract more people to the Heart Thread Yoga instagram potentially leading to more clients and more talk about the benefits of prenatal yoga! (See Appendix A for an example)

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Use all relevant media outlets and promotional materials to create awareness and engagement

with the target audiences. 4

Tactics Tactics

Our client, Rachel VerValin, does have a YouTube channel, but only has one video posted from February, 2015. We, at SOUL Media, believe that there is a huge opportunity on this platform for creation and growth. We suggest the creation of a separate channel solely for Heart Thread Yoga, in order to keep a unified and consistent image as not to confuse con-sumers. Instructional videos of prenatal yoga poses will be posted in a video series, and each one will show a more in-depth view of the poses as to help consumers who cannot make classes in-person. Also, videos could be created from interviews with mothers or ex-pecting mothers who currently do take the prenatal yoga classes on the benefits of this type of exercise and why our client is one of the the leading prenatal yoga experts in Ithaca. This platform would really be beneficial to increasing awareness of prenatal yoga and its benefits.

While Heart Thread Yoga does have a Twitter account, SOUL Media suggests that it should be used more frequently than it cur-rently is. With very sporadic tweets, most of which are shared from Instagram, the Twitter account is lacking followers and tweets in general. We think that Heart Thread Yoga could better utilize this social media plat-form in a variety of ways.

First, we suggest following more popular accounts that deal with prenatal yoga, yoga, mommy bloggers, etc. By doing this, Heart Thread Yoga will be able to tweet and retweet these accounts, ultimately bringing

more traffic to the twitter account and gain-ing more followers. We also recommend tweeting frequently. This will show followers that the brand is engaged with its prospec-tive and current clients. Effective ways to stay connected with followers includes: tweeting class information and posting photos from classes while including relevant hashtags. Tweeting, fun/health facts about yoga, benefits of the yoga sessions, and information on “The Journey” of mother-hood, will attract followers and keep them engaged while also educating them.

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Tactics

Pinterest is last form of social media that we are suggesting Rachel utilizes. Pinterest has become one of the leading social media platforms, and is especially popular with the target audiences we have mentioned previously (i.e. pregnant women, post-pregnant mommies, and pre-preg-nant potential mothers). With this great plat-form, Heart Thread Yoga can not only promote itself and the Ithacan yoga community, but can also provide insight on current yoga trends, popular prenatal tips, and even maternity yoga clothing. Creating boards such as “Prenatal Poses”, “Health Tips”, “Yoga Gear”, “Heart

Thread Yoga Merch” and “Places in Ithaca to do Yoga” will provide visual representations that our target audience can follow and “pin” to their own boards. With the use of Pinterest, Heart Thread Yoga can gain followers and make connections with other yogis/yoga studi-os, all while promoting its brand and the won-derful benefits of prenatal yoga.

(See Appendix B for an example)

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Tactics Tactics

A great way to keep our target audience engaged is to use pro-motional materials or “Baby Swag” with the Heart Thread Yoga logo. These promotional materials will be used as incentives and some of them can be sold for profit to cover the expenses. These promotional materials include stickers, onesies, water bottles, and yoga mats. The stickers will be handed out to all customers, new and current. The onesie will be given to mothers who complete the post natal yoga class. Water bottles will be sold. Yoga mats will be awarded if mothers takes all three class-es with Rachel to encourage them to continue practicing yoga beyond the Mommy Journey. The majority of these promotional materials will be given out at other events that we have listed as tactics above. This is a great strategy to use to get the word out about Heart Thread Yoga and get expecting mothers to partici-pate in events.

(See Appendix D for more merchandise)

Baby sportting Heart Thread Yoga Onesie

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

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EvaluationThe success of our campaign will be measured and tracked continuously throughout as different stages are accomplished:

SOCIAL MEDIA INVOLVEMENT

WEBSITE TRAFFIC

ATTENDANCE

FEEDBACK

SOUL Media hopes to increase social media engagement with a specific focus on “The Journey.” Social media engage-ment will be measured through the growth of number of likes, shares, comments, followers, tweets, and retweets on Face-book, Instagram, and Twitter. The results will be compared with the initial data to determine the increased engagement.

Our agency plans to use Google Analytics to monitor the website traffic to determine the success of a new section of the site, “The Mommy Journey,” which will feature an inter-active forum. The data will also be used to determine which information is most relevant to Heart Thread Yoga’s clientele.

Attendance of customers per class will be tracked to measure the growth in number of those who attend prenatal classes, local baby moons, and baby/coffee hour. This will be done through sign up sheets for event, either online or paper.

Customers are encouraged to provide feedback in the fo-rum section of the new site. There will be three conversa-tion topics tailored to determine how they heard about Heart Thread Yoga, any suggestions for improvement, and a place for customers to share their experiences.

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Timetable

MARJAN FEB APR MAY JUN JULY AUG SEP OCT NOV DECHEART THREAD YOGA

This timetable displays the tactics in which SOUL Media has developed for Rachel to use to flourish Heart Thread Yoga. Each tactic has been strategically assigned to a month(s) that we think it will thrive the most. For example, we have all forms of social media running yearly, along with The Mommy Journey and Baby Moon’s while the advertisements in the Ithaca Times will only be running two months out of the year. This strategy allows for activities to be occurring all year long with some that will be ongoing and others only sporadically.

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BudgetSTRATEGY DESCRIPTION COST

Palm Cards Educate about the benefits of prena-tal yoga

$70

Baby Hour Purchase coffee, tea, and bagels from Dunkin’ Donuts. Teach benefits of prenatal yoga and get to know clients.

$30

Ithaca Times Purchase advertising space in the Ithaca Times for June and Decem-ber: 7 days free, $15 for each additional week, $2 for each photo uploaded

$60+

Promotional Materials - Baby Swag Stickers, onesies, water bottles, and yoga mats with Heart Thread Yoga logo

200 Stickers 2”x3” = $87Yoga Mat: $380.25

Website Additions Add The Mommy Journey to existing website. (Additional options in-clude web designers in Ithaca: Bells Design, Ithaca Design Company, Flourish Design Studio)

Time Spent

Local Baby Moons Group prenatal class: 10:00 am-12:00Group lunch: 12:00-1:00Childbirth prep class: 1:00-3:00 Tranquility Hour stay anytime between: 4:00-7:00 pm

Time Spent with Clients

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Budget

Collaborate with Jillan’s Drawers

Reach out to Jillian’s Draw-ers and arrange a “meet and greet” at the store

Estimated time spent: 3 hours

Collaborate with Mom + Dad Bloggers

Reach out to Mommy and Daddy Bloggers for mutual promotion

Time spent communicating

Social Media Usage Consistently use Face-book, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest accounts

Time spent updating and maintaining platforms

STRATEGY DESCRIPTION COST

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For this campaign we wanted to be as cost-effective as possible. Rather than spending money, most of our tactics require time spent, which is why we included two different pie charts. The monetary chart covers all the costs in relation to merchandise and other materials, and the time spent chart includes the amount of time Rachel can expect to put in for each activity.

BudgetMONETARY COSTS

Palm Cards

$70

$315

$380

$270$60$3

0 Baby Hour

Ithaca Times

Waterbottle Merchandise

Yoga Mats Merchandise

Onesies Merchandise

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TIME SPENTBudget

Baby Moon

Meet & Greet

Website Additions

Blogging

8 Hrs

2 Hrs

4 Hrs

3 Hrs

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OUSLmediaTM

Marlowe is a senior at Ithaca College majoring in Cinema & Photography and minoring in Art, Integrat-ed Marketing Communications, Writing and Graph-ic Design. Marlowe has interest in pursuing the cre-ative side of advertising, with the hopes of one day becoming a creative director or an art director for a big advertising agency. In the future, Marlowe would love to live in either Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Wash-ington. On campus, Marlowe serves as the President for the Class of 2016, and also serves as a Student Leadership Consultant in the Office of Student En-gagement and Multicultural Affairs. Marlowe’s favorite yoga pose is Downward Dog because he loves dogs.

Lauren is a senior at Ithaca College studying com-munication management and design with a minor in integrated marketing communications. She has spent more than half her college career planning events on campus as well as designing weddings as part of her job back home in Rochester, NY. After growing up in Upstate New York, she is tired of the cold and plans to move down south sometime in the near fu-ture. She will be happy with whatever she ends up doing after graduation, but will most likely stay on the event planning path. Her favorite yoga pose is Child’s Pose, mostly because she can easily fall asleep.

Ashley is a junior at Ithaca College studying Integrated Marketing Communications and Spanish. She spends her time planning week-long events that benefit the entire campus com-munity. Ashley is especially passionate about using social media as a marketing tactic and would like to pursue a career in this upon grad-uation. In the future, Ashley aspires to work for an agency that has a global presence which would allow her to utilize her knowledge of Spanish. Her favorite yoga pose is Warrior Pose because it makes her feel empowered.

Emily is a junior at Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications, is an integrated marketing communications major. Emily was born and raised on Long Island, NY. Emily has earned a place on the dean’s list since she arrived Freshman year. Next se-mester, she will be studying abroad at Ithaca College’s program in London, England and she hopes to spend as much time possible traveling around Europe. After graduation, she plans joining an agency with the hopes of being hired into a media department. Her favorite yoga pose is Tree Pose, because she can do it without breaking anything.

Irma is a junior, Integrated Marketing Com-munications major at Ithaca College. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, Califor-nia. On campus, she is a Resident Assistant and serves as President of the Residence Hall Association and previously held the position of National Communications Coordinator. Next semester, she will be studying in Bar-celona, Spain where she plans to travel and embrace other cultures. After college, Irma hopes to pursue her interest in the commu-nications field, either in marketing or adver-tising. Her favorite Yoga pose is Downward Dog because it offers a rejuvenating stretch.

Katie is a sophomore Integrated Marketing Communications major at Ithaca College with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. On campus, Katie is the Assistant Treasurer of PRS-SA, a wardrobe stylist for HiFashion Studios, and a Leadership Scholar. She also spends her time writing monthly articles for College-Fashionista as a Style Guru Intern. After col-lege, she dreams of working in New York City where she will pursue a career in the fashion industry. She ultimately hopes to incorporate social justice efforts into her career in fash-ion. Her favorite yoga pose is Child’s Pose, because she is able fully relax and de-stress.

Maegan is a junior at Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications study-ing Integrated Marketing Communications.On campus, Maegan is part of IC Cour-age, Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow (STAT), and since returning from the London study abroad program last Spring she has become a study abroad ambassador. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in New York City in the sports or entertain-ment industry in the advertising or public re-lations departments. Her favorite yoga pose is the Cow pose, because it’s easy, relax-ing, and named after her favorite animal!.

Alane is a sophomore at Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications. She is earning a degree in integrated marketing and communications combined with a psy-chology minor. She is from Chicago, Illinois, but is really enjoying all that Ithaca has to offer. In her free time Alane is either practicing yoga or dancing with Ithaca College’s con-temporary dance company, On The Floor. After graduation she hopes to combine her love of marketing with her passion for dance. (Her favorite yoga pose is Warrior 2, be-cause it makes her feel strong and powerful.

Appendix Table of Contents

Appendix A - Example InstagramAppendix B - Example PintrestAppendix C - Example of Palm CardAppendix D - Example of Yoga Mat

Here you will find a list of examples as stated in our tactics.

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Appendix A

Example Instagram Profile

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Appendix B

Example PintrestBoards

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Appendix B Appendix C

Example of Palm Cards

FRONT BACK

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Appendix D

Example of Yoga Mats with bag

Public Relations | Ithaca College | Professor Arhlene Flowers | Fall 2015OUS LmediaTM