These are some of the research projects I worked on throughout the year during my time at UIUC, running the gamut from caffeine consumption habits among college students to questioning how brand messaging actually works on Twitter! In my final masters capstone project, Gendered Media Messages in Film Franchises, I explored how media promotion and the availability of promotional merchandise for popular film franchises (or lack thereof) affects media preferences among preteen girls.
Twitter has become an increasingly popular place for advertisers to promote their brands. But how can they measure their success? Although traditional advertising practice would assume that Twitter would be best used as a platform for influence, it might be more effective for advertisers to treat Twitter as a place to focus attention and guide the brand conversation.
Film franchises such as Frozen and Marvel’s Avengers have become a ubiquitous part of the American media landscape, and research has shown that these stories and characters are influential in shaping social gender norms among children and young adults.
To what extent do media promotions for popular American film franchises (trailers, posters, press releases, promotional merchandise such as toys and action figures) use gendered marketing, and how do they influence media preferences among preteen girls?
This presentation is an overview of my MS Advertising capstone project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Check out the final project here!
A speculative social marketing initiative designed with four other graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to increase healthy levels of coffee consumption among students. Designed as a final project for a social marketing class.