What is your name and major? Jaret Kelly – Marketing
Where are you from? Harborcreek, PA
What is your favorite thing about Behrend? Behrend has so many opportunities to grow and succeed as a business professional. With so many clubs, organizations, certifications and extracurricular activities, Behrend allows it’s students to set themselves apart from other business students.
What did you do to win this award? I was tasked with submitting a PR plan/proposal that would focus on a target demographic of investors that had participated in Erie Homecoming – an event lead by The Erie Regional Chamber & Growth Partnership to show investors opportunity zones within Erie that are ready for investment projects. The end-goal was to follow up in a way that would reinvigorate the original interest from the event and explain projects and zones ready for investment.
Can you tell us a little bit about your PR plan? My plan focused on a theme that was called #NothingToDoInErie. This is a hashtag that local Erie influencers have used as a means of poking fun at the people who say the phrase and mean it. You’ll see #NothingToDoInErie peppered in with posts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, showcasing incredible events like gallery nights, cultural festivals, and more. I wanted to use this as a way to humor and help accentuate just how much opportunity there is for growth in Erie. Along with this, I outlined a targeted marketing campaign that would set investors into different categories based on their levels of previous investment, capital for investment, and industry. A local coffee shop owner would receive different materials than a CEO of an insurance firm. Finally I wanted tangible incentives to be sent to possible investors. I find that in many cases, PR teams are less willing to spend more for tangible items of actual quality and instead spend more on ad-space. I however made it a part of my plan to partner with local businesses to send a “Erie-Package” to investors that could include stickers, a t-shirt, posters, all that would include information about investment while sporting the #NothingToDoInErie credo.
What inspired you to submit to the contest? My supervisor at Behrend’s Office of Strategic Communications, Steve Orbanek, has been teaching me about PR and Communications for years, and has had me work on this project as a part of my development for writing skills and PR planning. He has been essential in helping me become a better writer, planner, and organized professional. It’s one of my favorite parts of being a part of Strat Comm and gives me an opportunity to create something that is completely my own and isn’t bounded by any strict guidelines and rules.
Did you use any of your skills from Behrend, if so which classes helped you the most? Certainly skill’s I’ve picked up from marketing classes, business writing, and design classes. The class that has helped me the most in creating this plan and understanding a proper strategy is Marketing 480. Ms McAuley has done incredible showcasing how important inbound marketing styles are for creating effective media and targeted plans. This, coupled with the skills we learned about creating media for social were essential to crafting this PR proposal.
What are your goals after graduation? I’d like to stay in Erie. Similar to the investors, I see a lot of opportunity within Erie for growth. However, I believe this growth must be for everyone. Erie is currently seeing incredible jumps for changes of infrastructure, but we still falter when it comes to the impoverished people that live in Erie. We need proper leadership that will make constructive changes that don’t lead to gentrification and will increase Everyones quality of life.