Pucker Up

In my mind our business's biggest downfall is the lack of consistent buzz about the RutgersZone. Externally, this can be attributed to the fragmented campuses of Rutgers University which sometimes seem like they are independent of one another. Being that we are located on Livingston, it is not unfair to say that most of our loyal customer base lives or spends a lot of time on that campus.

But how do we reach the students at the five other campuses?

Through advertising. Or at least that is my answer for now.

Internally, our downfall is attributed to lack of resources. We only heavily advertise on Livingston, because there is not enough manpower to flyer each campus. Moving past this, I am committed to seeing my advertising project to completion. Working with the Marketing office, the RutgersZone Marketing team, Matt and myself =) , complied humorous posters to display in the student centers of each campus. We will then begin to flyer within the student centers, main class room buildings, dining halls, and where ever else within our capabilities.

Coming up with creative ideas for advertising is one of the most challenging and fun parts of my job. Let me walk you through an abridged version of what I do.

We consider a product, for example a smoothie.
Which smoothie would look the MOST Delicious on a print poster?
Something tells me not our Kitchen Sink Smoothie, because despite the playful name and as appetizing as it looks it is pretty hard for a potential consumer to imagine the taste of Vanilla Ice Cream, Orange Sherbet, Mixed Berry, and Mango Puree all together unless they have had a prior experience with our yummy product.

Next!
Mango Smoothie? No, because it may be confused with an Orange Julius beverage.
Strawberry Mango? N0
Orange Mango? No
Strawberry Banana? No
Mixed Berry? YES!

The bright red would look beautiful on glossed paper, and most students can conceptualize the taste of a Mixed Berry Smoothie. mmmmmhmmmmmmmm.

The next step was to consider funny copy to accompany the image. (Copy simply means texts slash words for all those not in the biz.)


So what will be our Headline?!

While I was thinking of this, it was shortly after October when my girlfriends and I dressed as the WWE Wrestlers for Halloween. Keeping it classy, I was the D Generation X member, Shawn "sexy boy" Micheals. But I must admit I was the antitheses of sexy. Those of you in MY GENERATION (play on words? like that?) may remember this dynamic duo creating quite the stir with their trademarked "Suck It" phrase and dance move for lack of a better word.

That gave me the IDEA! A Mixed Berry Smoothie inside our glassware with a red straw aimed at the reader, copy reading "Suck it".

Ehhhhh. That won't get approved anywhere past my level of management which is pretty low on the chain of the command. So I needed to keep thinking!


It needed to be playful pun.

I got it!

"Pucker Up"
The innuendo is innocent enough. Everyone can receive a kiss from boyfriend, girlfriend, mom, dad, dog. So this I thought was golden.

But why don't you tell me?