Sunshine helps bring out the crowds for College of Management’s ‘real’ campaign Field Day

April 12, 2007 - The Marye Anne Fox Field became a playground Thursday afternoon, when a group of College of Management students took over the space for their first Real Deal Field Day and COMSAB Olympics.

If the quantity of food consumed was any measure - about 100 pounds of barbecue pork and 10 very large pizzas disappeared during the first 52 minutes of the event - hundreds of people came through to enjoy the sunshine and activities. More pizzas came throughout the afternoon, and the popcorn, snow cone and cotton candy machines kept producing snacks as people moved from one activity station to the next. The games included jousting, an obstacle course, oversized tricycle races, golf, and sumo wrestling.

Participants also received 'Get Real' t-shirts designed by the undergraduate integrated marketing communications class that organized the Field Day - but only after they talked with students in the class to learn what the 'real' campaign was all about. Then they took a brief verbal 'quiz' on what they learned to qualify for a free gift. This extra step was done to support one of the purposes for the event - to help current and prospective students understand better what the college has to offer, and what its brand stands for.

Students from the two sections of the class taught by instructor Claudia Kimbrough co-sponsored the Field Day and COM Olympics with the College of Management Student Advisory Board (COMSAB) - a student organization that includes officers from all the college's students organizations. The organizations also had representatives at information tables talking about their activities and encouraging students to consider joining next year.

Earlier this week, the students hosted a Business and Breakfast session at the Nelson Student Commons, serving faculty and staff plus current and prospective students. A special effort was made to reach out to First Year College Students who may be thinking of transferring to the College of Management in the future.

The pair of events were designed to help create awareness about the college’s new ‘real’ campaign, which emphasizes the college’s focus on enabling students to gain a real-world perspective through their coursework, networking, project-based learning, internships and other experiences.

The campaign had a ‘soft launch’ last fall, when the ‘real’ message began to appear on various college communications materials. It expanded to the college’s website, a new college lapel pin, and other marketing and communications materials.

This semester, students in the BUS 465 class have conducted usability tests on the website – their findings are being incorporated in the college webmaster’s continued improvements to the site – as well as focus groups and other communications projects, including two t-shirt designs.

One of those designs was used for the t-shirts that were given away to Field Day participants. It also was part of the students’ artwork in the Free Expression Tunnel - their 'real' messages were visible from about midnight Monday through mid-day Tuesday.

The pair of events also answers a need identified in the students’ focus groups – more opportunities to get to know fellow students and faculty members beyond their own academic programs.

While this was a major culminating event for the semester, the students will continue working on a number of projects for the class, including summarizing and presenting their brand and communications research findings. Some of their findings have already been implemented with enhancements to the college's website, including greater use of color and graphics.

They're also continuing work on an alumni recognition project, identifying alumni who have achieved success in their careers and designing a display showcasing their achievements.

Because the college is so young - it was established in 1992 - many of its established alumni received their degrees when business courses were being taught through the Department of Economics and Business in the College of Humanities and Social Science.

Among the college's top alumni are:

• H. Fred Gallasch, Jr. ('67), designer of the fifth generation Corvette
• James W. Owens ('73), CEO of Caterpillar
• Gary Masey ('78), principal, LarsonAllen CPA
• Anne Marie Pecht ('79), senior attorney, Department of Justice
• John B. Kerr ('80), president of Kerr Drugs
• Philip Rivers, ('03) NFL Quarterback

And, to wrap up their project, the students are doing a 'post event' online survey. It's on the college's home page.

You can read about the students’ experiences with this project in their BUS 465 Blog: http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/page/BUS465. Video interviews with some of the student participants will be posted in the near future.