The movie industry is an uncertain business, and films often fail to make money, so the movie promotions and marketing decisions studios make are vital in determining success. With movie promotions, people from different cultures can perceive films and their advertising efforts differently because of their backgrounds, so movie marketers must recognize these differences to be able to succeed in international markets. This thesis is intended to help provide information for filmmakers and their respective film advertisers on how different cultures may perceive promotional movie poster factors, and how they can be more successful in their pursuit. Specifically, we are focusing on the influence of stars and review sources featured on such posters and how they might play into someone’s response to a film. To do so, we will be comparing viewers relative to their Hofstede cultural dimensions (of individualism and collectivism and power distance) to understand what factors might influence a society more and why. We first dive into our preliminary research, then make predictions and test them through a 2x2 study to determine what movie promotion elements are most influential to different viewers. Next we will conclude with the managerial implications and limitations and future research of our study. Overall, our research and data findings offer insights to filmmakers on how they might enhance and tailor their movie promotions when marketing to different cultures.

This project analyzes aspects of ESports and gaming in relation to college/university students and college/university campuses. The specific focus of the project was establishing that there was an interest in additional Esports and gaming engagement on campus and then determining what manner of engagement was most desired by students. In order to discover the most popular form of Esports and gaming engagement for students, we held two events: a recreational ESports Competition and tutorials to teach students how to mod video games. After carrying out these events we established that an Esports Competition was a more popular form of engagement. However, we also established that both forms of engagement would be successful with proper marketing and execution.