This thesis research aims to define, identify, and promote community theatre as a “third space” for disadvantaged youth. A third space is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “...the in-between, or hybrid, spaces, where the first and second spaces work together to generate a new third space. First and second spaces are two different, and possibly conflicting, spatial groupings where people interact physically and socially: such as home (everyday knowledge) and school (academic knowledge)” (Oxford Dictionary, 2021). For disadvantaged youth, the creation of a third space in the theatre can give them a safe environment away from issues they may have at home or at school, it can further their learning about themselves and others, and it can also help those youth feel a sense of belonging to a community larger than themselves. Because of these benefits, it is clear that performing arts programs can offer a great impact on disadvantaged youth; however, many theatre companies struggle to market their programming to said communities. This may be in part, due to low marketing budgets, no specificity in labor resources dedicated to youth programming, or ineffective marketing strategies and tactics. This research aims to provide tangible recommendations for youth programmers to better involve their target audience.

In the early years of the National Football League, scouting and roster development resembled the wild west. Drafts were held in hotel ballrooms the day after the last game of regular season college football was played. There was no combine, limited scouting, and no salary cap. Over time, these aspects have changed dramatically, in part due to key figures from Pete Rozelle to Gil Brandt to Bill Belichick. The development and learning from this time period have laid the foundational infrastructure that modern roster construction is based upon. In this modern day, managing a team and putting together a roster involves numerous people, intense scouting, layers of technology, and, critically, the management of the salary cap. Since it was first put into place in 1994, managing the cap has become an essential element of building and sustaining a successful team. The New England Patriots’ mastery of the cap is a large part of what enabled their dynastic run over the past twenty years. While their model has undoubtedly proven to be successful, an opposing model has become increasingly popular and yielded results of its own. Both models center around different distributions of the salary cap, starting with the portion paid to the starting quarterback. The Patriots dynasty was, in part, made possible due to their use of both models over the course of their dominance. Drafting, organizational culture, and coaching are all among the numerous critical factors in determining a team’s success and it becomes difficult to pinpoint the true source of success for any given team. Ultimately, however, effective management of the cap proves to be a force multiplier; it does not guarantee that a team will be successful, but it helps teams that handle the other variables well sustain their success.

Especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic and age of social unrest in the United States, there has been an increasing need for comfort, yet the idea of comfort is quite vague and rarely elaborated upon. To simplify the idea of comfort and communicate the ideas around it effectively, I am defining comfort as a subset of escapism in which a person escapes to reduce or alleviate feelings of grief or distress. As companies rush to comfort their customers in this current state of uncertainty, marketers are pressed to identify people’s insecurities and comfort them without coming off as insensitive or trite. Current comfort marketing focuses on inspiring nostalgia in its customers, having them recall previous positive experiences or feelings to comfort them. Nostalgic marketing techniques may ease mild grief in some cases, but using them to alleviate severe distress probably will not be as effective, and has contributed to several seemingly out-of-touch “COVID-19 era” commercials.<br/>When addressing comfort, marketers should understand the type and hierarchy of comfort that they are catering to. Not all comforts are equal, in that some comforts make us feel better than others and some do not comfort us at all. A better understanding of how and why comforts change among different individuals, and possibly being able to predict the comfort preference based on a product or service, will help marketers market their goods and services more effectively. By diversifying and specializing comfort marketing using this hierarchical method, marketers will be able to more significantly reach their customers during “uncertain times.”

Micro influencers have become extremely powerful in terms of swaying buying patterns among consumers. This thesis examines the greater impact that micro influencers have on brand marketing. This was completed through a literature review that highlights the evolution of marketing, influencer marketing, discussing reach, relevance, and resonance, and Generation Z’s purchasing decisions. In addition, we conducted an online survey through Qualtrics that allowed us to analyze the impact social media influencers have. The results of our research indicate that TikTok is used most frequently, but Instagram is where social media influencers are followed most. From our data, we concluded that Generation Z is most influenced by authentic, genuine content created by influencers regardless of follower count. We recommend that a brand interested in reaching Generation Z (we refer to the brand as “Brand X”) use micro influencers, as our research shows that genuine relationships are valued among this generation. We believe that micro influencers are the most valuable to use as they are able to create meaningful relationships with consumers due to their reach, relevance, and resonance with the individuals their content reaches.