Written By: Riley Codero

To be considered for Top Chapter (which we always strive to be), the American Marketing Association (AMA) requires small chapters, defined as having 25 or fewer members, to host a Marketing Week of at least two days during the Fall Semester. We still try to make it an entire week’s worth of events, and it is a great way to get people on campus involved and spread the love of marketing! We are judged in four categories including Activities, Execution, Results, and Goals, so here is what we accomplished!

Family Weekend Tailgate

The first event we hosted was a fundraising table at the Family Weekend Tailgate on October 17th. Our Director of Large-Scale Events, Aiden Simpkiss, built and designed a personalized UNH MAC cornhole table for people at the tailgate to use. We had 10 of our members sign up for time slots to volunteer and get people walking by to donate to our club. We had a jar collecting cash donations, a QR code to scan, and a raffle to win a piece of UNH merch. All tickets were sold for $1 each and helped fund our club to attend ICC. After tabling for four hours, we made a total of $163 through cash and online donations. This was a great event because we didn’t spend anything to host it, so the $163 is pure profit in our pockets!

Professional Headshots

Next, we offered professional headshots to students at Paul College for only $10 on Monday, October 19th. We had 5 of our members learn how to take and edit professional headshots for this event. We unfortunately only had one headshot taken, so if we do this event again, we need to make some changes. This is a great opportunity for students to get a huge discount on professional photos; just not enough students knew about it. We should have marketed this event more through word of mouth and posters around Paul, so more students were aware; now we know!

Boo baskets

The next event was all about community service. As a club, we gathered later that Monday to curate ‘Boo Baskets’ for children in local hospitals for Halloween. This is always a great event to be able to bond with other club members and give back to the community. 20 people came together to create 12 baskets including trinkets like candy, picture books, stickers, and homemade Halloween cards to help brighten these kids’ days. This was my favorite event, and I hope we can do more community service events like this in the future.

Stonewall Kitchen Tour

On Tuesday the 20th, a group of 15 of us took a trip to Maine and visited the Stonewall Kitchen York Company Store. During our time here, we got to take a tour of the factory and get an insightful presentation on brand management. We are super grateful to Emily Sims for granting us this opportunity and allowing us to experience a behind-the-scenes view of being a Brand Manager at Stonewall Kitchen. They kindly gifted us free jam and a 25% off coupon to use in their store, truly making the experience unforgettable.

Case Competition with Vital Design

The next day was our Case Competition with Vital Design. Vital Design is a full-service digital marketing and web design agency. This event was only offered to AMA students, and we had under an hour to create a marketing strategy for Special K cereal. This was a great learning opportunity for us to get hands-on marketing experience for a real brand we know and love. It was a mock case, but we were judged on our presentation, marketing strategy, target market, etc.

Alumni Headshots at Tideline Public House

On the 22nd, we traveled to Tideline in Durham for an Alumni Headshot Fundraising/Networking Event. We had a little more success here by taking and selling 3 headshots. Although still not the numbers we hoped for or expected, we made so many great connections with alumni. Whether it was getting to know about their career path or their time at UNH, hearing from alumni allows us to connect with business professionals on a personal level and to gain true business world insight.

AMA Regional Conference at emerson College

Our 7th and final event was the AMA Fall Conference hosted by Emerson College’s American Marketing Association Chapter in Boston, Massachusetts. This was an amazing and insightful conference that got us prepared for the International Collegiate Conference (ICC) in the spring, where we will compete against different chapters from all around the country. During our time here, we got to see a presentation about social media strategy and brand image from Bob Cargill, hear from Emerson alumni about their careers in marketing, and participate in a Case Competition for Bites of Boston Food Tours. During this competition, we were paired up and given 30 minutes to brief a case and come up with a persuasive pitch and marketing strategy. Our goal was to get more traction for these tours in the colder winter and spring months, and to highlight the value of the package due to its higher price point and target demographics being college students. Overall, this was a super fun competition, and Zachary Morin and Mia Pittore from our chapter won 3rd place overall!

Final Thoughts

To wrap it all up, Marketing Week is an amazing opportunity for us as a club to grow closer, but also to give back to our community and work on our marketing skills. Over the last 7 days, we have had a total of 102 attendees across all events, making it one of our biggest ones so far. Thank you to everyone who made this possible. Go Wildcats!