Releasing music 20 years ago looks a lot different than releasing music today, and it is still ever-changing. Artists can make music in their bedrooms and release it independently by simply uploading it online. These artists can use social media to market their music themselves. But with it being so easy for new and small artists to put out a song it begs the question: in this customer era of marketing, how can new and small artists use co-creational marketing strategies, such as themes of nostalgia and hidden messages, to differentiate themselves? This project seeks to answer that question. In this partial creative project and partial research project, I tasked myself with writing and producing a song myself, then using that work to test these different marketing strategies. I distributed a survey where participants would listen to the song and then decide which of two visuals they preferred for a cover, merchandise item, and social media feed. Each set of visuals had one with a nostalgic theme and one that utilized hidden messages. This project discusses the importance of social media in an independent artist’s career and marketing efforts, as well as discusses customer-centric marketing and co-creation marketing strategies through nostalgia and hidden messages. I found success in a nostalgic strategy and interest in hidden messages. This research sets the stage for testing similar strategies by collaborating with other artists and their work in the hopes of creating guidance for independent artists when marketing their releases.

On September 30, 2019, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, signed the Fair Pay to Play Act which prohibited universities from taking away an athlete’s scholarship should they choose to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL). This was a monumental moment in college athletics as numerous lawsuits against the NCAA had been filed by former and current athletes due to the unfair nature of “amateurism.” With California getting the ball rolling and the Supreme Court pressuring the NCAA to change their outdated ways, the NCAA withdrew their rule stating that student athletes could not monetize their NIL. While this was a massive step forward in regard to compensating athletes for the time and effort they put into their sport that in turn generates revenue for the school, it also posed many questions that needed an in-depth look into including how this will affect non-revenue generating sports. This study aims to measure the student-athlete knowledge surrounding name, image, and likeness, as well as capture the athletes, coaches, and administrators' projections of the future implications of this policy. On the surface, this is a wonderful opportunity for college athletes. However, with the variability in the popularity and profitability between revenue generating and non-revenue generating sports, this does not put student-athletes on a level playing field to profit off their name, image, and likeness. With non-revenue generating sports falling vastly behind revenue generating sports, a further divide between these two segments of collegiate sports will form. Though there is an opportunity for all collegiate athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness, the feasibility of putting these athletes on a level playing field is slim. In addition, with this new era comes a whole new set of rules for recruiting tactics and the desire to get more influential athletes. The data collected for this thesis, in conjunction with this new rule, implies that sports producing more influential athletes will be given more money as more eyes will be on the individual athletes. This will leave smaller sports behind because it will continue to create a divide between revenue generating and non-revenue generating sports. This gap will be created by increasing the publicity and recognition surrounding the revenue generating sports, while pushing less relevant sports further behind.

On September 30, 2019, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, signed the Fair Pay to Play Act which prohibited universities from taking away an athlete’s scholarship should they choose to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL). This was a monumental moment in college athletics as numerous lawsuits against the NCAA had been filed by former and current athletes due to the unfair nature of “amateurism.” With California getting the ball rolling and the Supreme Court pressuring the NCAA to change their outdated ways, the NCAA withdrew their rule stating that student athletes could not monetize their NIL. While this was a massive step forward in regard to compensating athletes for the time and effort they put into their sport that in turn generates revenue for the school, it also posed many questions that needed an in-depth look into including how this will affect non-revenue generating sports. This study aims to measure the student-athlete knowledge surrounding name, image, and likeness, as well as capture the athletes, coaches, and administrators' projections of the future implications of this policy. On the surface, this is a wonderful opportunity for college athletes. However, with the variability in the popularity and profitability between revenue generating and non-revenue generating sports, this does not put student-athletes on a level playing field to profit off their name, image, and likeness. With non-revenue generating sports falling vastly behind revenue generating sports, a further divide between these two segments of collegiate sports will form. Though there is an opportunity for all collegiate athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness, the feasibility of putting these athletes on a level playing field is slim. In addition, with this new era comes a whole new set of rules for recruiting tactics and the desire to get more influential athletes. The data collected for this thesis, in conjunction with this new rule, implies that sports producing more influential athletes will be given more money as more eyes will be on the individual athletes. This will leave smaller sports behind because it will continue to create a divide between revenue generating and non-revenue generating sports. This gap will be created by increasing the publicity and recognition surrounding the revenue generating sports, while pushing less relevant sports further behind.

This thesis analyzes the evolution of social media and video marketing, as well as offers advice on how local restaurants can capitalize their marketing efforts on social media platforms using video. Due to the ever-changing social media trends and algorithms, it is vital for a local restaurant to understand the channels in which consumers are getting information, the influencing factors of the varying algorithms for each social media platform, and the topics consumers would like to hear about in order to market effectively. In order to test the research I have collected, I have produced four high-quality videos, which can be found in Appendix A, of menu items from the local restaurant Ingo’s Tasty Food and posted them on the restaurant’s Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok accounts. These videos range from 15 seconds to one minute and have been posted on different days of the week. My findings determined that the quality and length of a video does not have consistent effects on the engagement received on these three platforms, nor does the day of the week in which these videos are posted. Based on these results, I recommend that a restaurant focus on the content of its videos, rather than the quality, length, and day of the week posted.

I was interested in discovering how cutting edge brands differentiate themselves and create brand awareness using social media campaigns because social media is becoming the standard for most marketing campaigns. Having worked in social media marketing for a few years, I have seen that it can be difficult creating unique content that stands out against other brands. I first began by briefly looking at the history of marketing, digital marketing and social media to examine the importance of each and successes and failures that have occurred during each of these marketing eras. I next began researching social media and campaigns to dive deeper into what it takes to succeed using each platform. One major section that was critical to my discoveries was determining how a brand can gain consumer attention and foster brand awareness. To gain more information, I looked at The Apple #ShotOniPhone campaign and the Nike Dream Crazy campaign as to how innovative companies such as these can differentiate themselves using social media campaigns. I wanted to complement my secondary research so I interviewed three social media experts who have social media marketing experience. Most of what I found from them supported what I found in my secondary research. There were seven main key factors that I derived from the totality of my research. These seven factors that brands should use in order to have successfully differentiated social media campaigns that enhance brand awareness are: 1) hyper targeting toward the consumer using quality content and creating a storyline, 2) creating an uplifting emotional element within the campaign that engages both the mind and the heart, 3) being authentic and transparent in all aspects of the campaign 4) having a strong message that relates to the brand, the consumer, and is at the core of the campaign 5) having a high engagement or reaction with striking messages and eye catching visuals, 6) making the content personal to the consumer on some level in a positive emotional manner and 7) encouraging the consumer to see life through the lens of the campaign and create an inner narrative.