LIST IT LIVE IT REPORTAGEBY:

Creative Team: Nancy Ahoua, Ines Cano, Leon Chow, Luke Gracia, Alexandria

Martins, George Hagan, Andreea Sava & Sam Davis

F O U N D A T I O N S O F A D V E R T I S I N G

Content Page

Executive Summary I

Introduction:The Creative Team 1-2

Decision Of The Mascot 2-3

Characterisation Of the Horse 3-5

Varsity 5-6

Documentary: Filming 6-7

Saints Game 7-9

Conclusion 9-10

References 10

Appendices 11

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Executive Summary

In this report there will be the exploration of the different stages and processes through the List It Live It project and how Advertising students working in different teams and work-

ing all together as a class can manage to be in a similar real life working situation. The pro-

ject had different events,situations and challenges that the creative team had to face. The

project consisted to come up with an idea to promote the University of Northampton, this

big idea was a mascot. In this report specifically the creative team will describe their expe-riences, roles and tasks given throughout the project describing how the team came up

with this idea and the tasks advertising students had to do to be successful within the

stages of the creation of the mascot and the ways in which to promote it and start a con-

versation.

The individual reflections shown as appendices shows the different experiences of each member and describe how they felt throughout and specific events and what they can im-

prove in the future.

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I

Introduction: The Creative Team

This project is extremely complex and is developed on several levels, which require atten-tion to detail in each. In order to be more organised and to effectively complete the tasks

set, all Advertising students were divided into groups. This chapter focuses on the creative

team and their contribution to reaching the final and most important goal of successfully

delivering this project which is to promote the University Of Northampton. (See appendix

1 and 5)

First of all, the team was highly involved in creative processes such as generating ideas for

the campaign (initial brainstorming activity), deciding on the purchase of the mascot and

the costume, finding a suitable name or researching information about the mascot’s behav-

iour and characterisation. Moreover, some of our team members were involved in external

activities. There was an important part of the filming team for the documentary, as well as part of the photography team, whose participation was vital at the Varsity event, where

the mascot was launched.

One of the first tasks set for the creative team was the designing of the T-shirts for Hamp-

ton. The process had begun with getting well informed on what or was not allowed to ap-

pear on the T-shirts. It was decided that Hampton needed two T-shirts when he needed to represent the University, one for rugby and one neutral university branded top to wear at

other sporting events. Details on University’s official logo were given, beginning with the

colour spectrum. Then followed a debate on branding the T-shirts: whether they should

have Students Union’s logo or just the logo of the University of Northampton printed on

them. After the colours and the right logo were chosen, the team went on to discuss about where the name of the mascot should be positioned on the T-shirt. Consequently, for a pre-

cise result, trials were made on the actual costume. It was decided which positions would

fit best and would be highly visible. The team decided that Hampton’s name will be

printed at the back where is more visible. When everyone agreed on the final design

sketch, the T-shirt was purchased from a previously established store and imprinted ac-cordingly.

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One of the main obstacles of the project was to obtain funds, as there was no initial budget allocated by the marketing department. Students fell in agreement, at tutor’s suggestions,

that organising a crowd funding event would be an efficient and necessary option in order

to achieve that objective. The main element supporting this idea was that everyone who

chose to donate would obtain a badge and will become a mascot angel. This would have

required promotional merchandise. Therefore, it would have been creative team’s job to design and create these products, such as reward badges. The action was eventually cance-

lled, as it became possible to access some funds from a different source.

Decision Of The MascotThe whole Advertising class came together to choose what mascot the team thought it

would be best to represent The University of Northampton at The Saints Stadium. The

class considered as to if the University had a mascot which was already representing it, but looking further into it it seemed that the mascot was never advertised enough or even

been used more than once which meant the public or students were completely unaware

of its existence. This made the class feel that they had the rights of creating their own mas-

cot.

Discussing more into it, it came to our awareness of all sports teams that play for the Uni-versity of Northampton had the animal of the stallion representing them as their logo for

all teams using mostly the colours of red and yellow. We thought having a stallion mascot

would be a good choice as they’re seen to be dominant, aggressive animals which would

be an ideal image for the mascot to have if it’s performing at The Saints Rugby Stadium.

However we didn’t want to run the risk of The Student Union having a part of the owner-ship over the mascot. Which led us having the final choice of the mascot will be a horse.

The animal of a horse was always seen to be a mighty creature. The Native Americans

were said to refer a horses as “God Dogs” and that they signify strength and power (Al-

chin L 2014). (Runaas C. 2008) refers to a horse as “Strength, power and beauty”. We all

had the same believes that the horse would be the right choice as our opinions of the ani-mal being strong and powerful would give us the ideal image. (See Appendix 3 and 4)

After the class had officially agreed what the mascot would be The Creative Team were

handed the task as to pick which mascot would we be using to represent The University of !

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Northampton. Discussing as a group we first had to consider our budget on the amount we can spend on the mascot. At first our budget wasn’t a great amount so we looked into

second hand mascots on the websites. We looked on the website Ebay and found the seller

(cheapest_fancy_dress. 2015) who was selling a horse costumer for a low price of £17.99.

We also found another seller (fancy_dress_discount_store. 2015) who was selling a two

man horse costume with a higher price of £69.99. However as a group we felt that these costumes looked unprofessional and cheap. The class agreed that we would need to spend

a reasonable amount for a good quality costume and agreed that we didn’t want the cos-

tume to be second-hand. By this point we have been allowed to have a higher budget and

found a horse mascot which was new and better quality. The seller (Horse Mascot Cos-

tume. 2015) was selling this at a much higher amount of £502,32 compared to the other second-hand costumes. But as a class we agreed that for this costume being in such good

condition and having that look that we desired to represent at the University it was worth

the amount.

Characterisation Of The Mascot

It was acknowledged early on in the process that it was necessary for there to be continu-

ity in the way our mascot moved, acted, reacted. Essentially the character of the mascot had to be completed to make the mascot have its own identity and personality. This task

was naturally delegated to the creative team because of the skills set and with some mem-

bers having prior experience with Performing Arts. Kardi set the creative team a task

which consisted to do a storyboard of how Hampton was born,

there were several discussions in the creative team of how was the beginning of Hampton being a University Mascot.

Later on, one individual of the creative team recalled a drama

practitioner that he had studied around 3 years ago; Rudolph

Laban constructed the theory of ‘Laban Movement Analysis’.

LMA which “is a method and language for describing, visualiz-ing, interpreting and documenting all varieties of human

movement.” The creative team believed that by formulating a

set character with this theory, then the person whom acts as

Hampton can maintain the personality the team had created.

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LMA is split into the four sections which are: body, effort, shape and space; the unique combination of each aspect creates logical characters that can then be further developed

and make it easy and clear for the team to think about the character.

The Body section covers which part of the body moves, which are connected and which

are influenced by other parts. We thought that by having Hampton lead by his stomach a

‘jolly’ ‘active’ and almost ‘clumsy’ aura would be created and suitable for Hampton. We then further shaped this character with the effort features. Below shows which characteris-

tics the creative team chose to further craft the aura.

EFFORT FACTOR EFFORT ELEMENT (FIGHTING POLA-

RITY)

EFFORT ELEMENT ( INDULGING POLA-

RITY)

Space Direct Indirect (Felixible)

Weight Strong Light

Time Sudden (quick) Sustained

Flow Bound Free

(Konie,2011)

Shape and space are heavily linked to body and effort respectively, with shape focusing on

the geometry created and space following the same idea of musical harmony, Laban theo-

rised that in the same way musical notes harmonise, movement can harmonise in the same

manner. We felt that these sections were less important towards creating a basic mascot character that allows anybody to ‘become’ Hampton.

Looking back again at the design of the T-shirts which is an essential part of Hampton be-

cause the T-shirts shows how Hampton supports the University and promoting it at the

same time. Having mentioned that the Advertising Students came up with two t-shirt

ideas we found that the Students Union would happily oblige to providing a Rugby shirt big enough to fit Hampton and furthermore even with his name at the back. This liaise

between the Student Union and Hampton it is partly provided for social media promotion,

in an almost mock ‘signing’ of the mascot, the social media team jokingly tweeted a simi-

larly jeering message along lines of “ Hampton the Horse to sign 5 year contract with Uni-

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versity Of Northampton” alongside with a picture of the T-shirt being passed. The neutral top was more of a task as it became clear the creative team would need to source themsel-

ves. The main requirements of this design was to stay in line with the Univeristy’s brand

guidlines and for it to be sport neutral allowing felixble use. The creative team found a

group of students who were sourcing fair trade T-shirt materials and printing those for a

more ethical end product. It was chosen that the team would request for the t-shirt to be made.

Varsity Day

The first main release day for the mascot was Northampton University’s Varsity day. This

was a day when all the Northampton sports clubs would play against the visiting univer-

sity, Derby’s sports clubs. This day was ideal for the release of the newly named ‘Hampton

the Horse’, as mascots are generally associated with sporting events and with supporting teams on match days and make the matches more entertaining

and release a bit of tension during the game of the half time.

The advertising team took full advantage of this knowledge and

prior to Varsity we had come to an agreement with the Students

Union (who were in charge of arranging varsity and also in charge of every sporting club that would be involved in varsity

on that day), where Hampton the Horse would become their

unofficial mascot for the day. And given the opportunity it was

the perfect day which Hampton will gain life and be part of the

University of Northampton. As the Students Union symbol was a stallion and all teams apart from rugby were referred to as ‘the Stalions’ Hampton was

all but secured the place as mascot for the day as his appearance had such a strong link

with a stallion (the mascot itself being a horse).

The Mascot was presented with a full ‘Northamp-

ton’s Stallions ’ kit and unveiled to all the sports captains in the students union in the morning of

varsity. A member of the advertising classes crea-

tive department was tasked with the role of being

inside the mascot costume for the entirety of the !

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day. It would be his role to be charismatic and raise awareness for the mascot by being involved in as many activities as possible throughout the day.

The aim for the mascot was to be in as many photo opportunities and be seen by as many

people as possible on the day. We also aimed for the mascot to be photographed and be

put on various social media platforms to further raise the awareness for both the univer-

sity and Hampton the horse.

The day was a great success as the advertising class and the mascot succeeded in their goal

to raise awareness for the mascot to the entire university. The mascot was present at al-

most every event that took place in Varsity Hampton went around each and every sport

even to the cheerleading squad and followed their dance routine where Hampton inter-

acted alongside with the public. Being in that moment was very important since the cheer squad will also be performing in the Saints match and make Hampton familiarise within

that type of environment. Also, Hampton appeared to the University of Northampton

rugby association’s big win over; Hampton was also present when Northampton won the

whole of varsity by winning a greater number of events than Derby. The horse itself made

a very successful impression as seen by the amount of user generated content that was taken on the day of pictures with the horse and the buzz it made on social media. (See Ap-

pendix 2)

Documentary: Filming

The creative team, had the contribution to document of the whole process from the mar-

keting department giving the brief to the saints game. Once members of the creative group

were trained in how to record the documentary the filming began. This included starting from day one with the process of thinking what to even do to complete the task of promot-

ing the University. The documentary would then end with the scene of the mascot and

cheerleaders at the game. Plus not only was the creative group filming the documentary,

but also editing the final cut of the documentary and ensuring the best shots captured

were used to present how the all the groups completed the assignment. (See appendix 8)

During the process there were scenes that the creative group captured from iconic events

where the mascot appeared. These include Varsity against Derby where the mascot made

its first appearance into the public and which they got the opportunity to meet the mascot,

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Hampton would be with at the match day with Bernie. Another part the creative group recorded the new mascot participating with the Universities teams such as cheerleading

(an addition to the routine) and rugby where Hampton celebrated with the team a huge

win. These moments were all captured by the creative team, filming the documentary for

the assignment. (See appendix 6)

Making the documentary was a challenge for the group due to not having enough time to capture all the necessary shots as the kit took time to rent out. Another issue was the

transportation of the kit from Avenue campus as that took time

and then restricted the documentaries filming time. Other chal-

lenges the creative team faced included the batteries as some

times when recording the time limit was also restricted on how long the batteries would last but this was just a restriction on the

amount the creative group could capture.

However, this may be so but as a group the creative group over-

came these challenges and managed to film great footage to use

in the final cut of the documentary. This included the group communicating well and ensuring everyone was briefed on what

their individual task was to complete the documentary. For ex-

ample some people collected kit while others filmed or had an-

other role to ensure the filming day went smooth. From this the group produced an excel-

lent documentary that clearly shows the whole process of the assignment task.

Saints Game

The focus of this advertising campaign was to create awareness/inform the people in Nor-

thampton of the University and the Saints game using our mascot. Before this, our propo-

sal was to make a mascot for our Student Union sports teams—to guest star on the Saints

match day. The use of the mascot would represent the University well and hopefully gene-

rate conversation at the Saints game. The role of advertising in this campaign was very significant, and awareness and informing were one of the main focuses for this campaign.

Creating awareness of the University and also the Saints game but likewise was to increase

consumer familiarity. However, a lot of aspects were predetermined from the beginning

for example the location/event. (See appendix 7)!

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Pitching to the Saints

Pitching to the Saints was a very important, identifying that the mascot can be reoccurring

because it was a off the shelf costume bought, so the

usage can be endless. Doing this pitch was essential

to see if the Saints agreed about the usage of Hamp-

ton in the Game and promote the University Of Nor-thampton and also engaging with Bernie during the

half time of the match.

Planning

Planning for the day there were a lot of logistics that had to be discussed before the game for example where the team would meet, transport, and what jobs need to be allocated to

who. The meetings prior to the Saints game there were assess to risks that may occur on

the big day. Roles were allocated to the creative team for filming and photography, possi-

ble risks that may have occurred were professional cameras not being rented which would

lead to no stills being used in the documentary, leaflets not being picked up which would result in no leaflets being distributed. Possible risks had to be assessed in order to avoid

them from occurring.

Communication channels used

Mass media is the form of advertising that will be used to communicate (internet). There

were a variety of online and offline channels that you can use to send the right message to the right audiences. Examples of online channels include your website, search marketing,

email marketing and social networking. Offline channels include things like direct mail,

paid advertising and public relations.

For this advertising campaign social media is the main communication channel that would

be used, prior to the Saints game (Varsity) but also during the Saint’s game. The naming process of the mascot a social news story for the #AdStudents and making Hampton have

an own account updating about university events and other events that can happen outsi-

de which Hampton is included and interacts to build more awareness and he isn’t a one

time mascot event.!

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The rationale behind using this social networking microblogging was to connect with an extensive audience but to also prior to the Saints game, the hashtag #AdStudents was

used to create user generated content, and the mascot also have a twitter page which ena-

bled the followers to track Hampton’s whereabouts and its up and coming events.

Electronic communication channels encompass email, Internet, intranet and social media

platforms. This channel can be used for one-on-one, group or mass communication. It is a less personal method of communication but more efficient.

Conclusion

After months of preparing the new campaign the creative team are now awaiting for the Saints game on the 9th of May for the grand reveal of Hampton The Horse. Starting from

the initial brainstorm the creative team successfully created a campaign that fully pro-

motes the university and will hopefully start a conversation and bring more awareness

about the University and that fits in with the brief given to us by the marketing depart-

ment.

After brainstorming multiple ideas to help support the “list it, live it” campaign we agreed

that creating a new mascot for the university would be beneficial and will run well along-

side Bernie, the Northampton Saints mascot. After characterising Hampton the team had a

successful day at the Varsity matches that allowed us to showcase the mascot to those at

the event by interacting with each sports team and people who turned up to the event. Within the documentary the creative team was able to catch the important moments of the

mascot and how advertising students manage to make this campaign/project successful

and functional.

The varsity matches served well as an almost “warm-up” to the Saints game, which after a

long time of preparation, we are confident that Hampton will serve the university well for years to come.

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References

(Alchin L, 2014). The Indigenous People of the United States. Available:

http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-symbols/horse-symbol.htm.

Last accessed 28th April 2015.

(Cheapest_fancy_dress., 2015). Adult Big Head Derby Horse New Fancy Dress Mascot Costume

Sports Animal.Available:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adult-Big-Head-Derby-Horse-New-Fancy-Dress-Mascot-Co

stume-Sports-Animal-/400876106821?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5d5613f445. Last accessed 28th April 2015.

(fancy_dress_discount_store. 2015). Panto 2 Man Deluxe Pantomime Horse Christmas Fancy

Dress Mascot Animal Costume. Available

:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Panto-2-Man-Deluxe-Pantomime-Horse-Christmas-Fancy-

Dress-Mascot-Animal-Costume-/191097246035?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2c7e489153. Last accessed 28th April 2015.

(Horse Mascot Costume, 2015). Horse Mascot Costume. Available:

http://www.top-mascot.co.uk/art-horse-mascot-costume-202.htm. Last accessed 28th

April 2015.

Konie. (2011). A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF LABAN MOVEMENT ANALYSIS.Available: http://movementhasmeaning.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/LMA-Workshop-Shee

t.pdf. Last accessed April 30th 2015.

(Runaas C. , 2008). The Freedom to Run . Available:

http://www.horseprotectionday.com/Articles/freedom_to_run.htm. Last accessed 28th

April 2015.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Individual Reflection By: Ines Cano

This second assignment is based on a new campaign to promote the University Of North-

ampton; this is called List It Live It set by the marketing department. Us, advertising stu-dents had to find a way to promote the University. The first thing we did is we had the 10

of November the briefing of Marketing; this was a very exciting project to carry out and

felt very enthusiastic and look forward to make this successful. When the marketing de-

partment gave us the briefing I felt confused of what they wanted us to do and with the

idea of not having a budget led it to be a bit more challenging.

The next session we had to brainstorm ideas to process the campaign project. Kardi had

two different methods to get our ideas running to brainstorm. For me was a bit challeng-

ing I really didn’t know what to say and also say anything because of my shyness, but I

tried and said one idea, when I said one a few more came out and I felt happy about it. I liked the idea of the way Kardi had these methods I never heard these techniques to brain-

storm and I founded interesting to use it for the future.

On the 1/12/14 we where divided into 4 groups to work throughout the project we were

able to choose between: Social Media, Planning, Creative and Account Management. I choose to be in the Creative team, in my team there is Leon, Luke, Nancy, Andreea, Alex-

andria, George and Sam at first thinking on working with them I felt insecure but each

time my insecureness disappeared and now I’m very satisfied working with my group

members and interact more when we are set group tasks. Being able to do the brainstorm

it came down to some ideas and the one many liked was the mascot idea. Then Kardi set my team to search a mascot, the cost and the time of delivery. Also seeing a YouTube video

of a Lizard mascot led us to like even more the idea of a mascot and find the inspiration.

After agreeing we had to perform some pitches, the first one was to the marketing de-

partment which took place the 26/01/15 and turned to approve the mascot idea. In the

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next session we had a funding discussion and we agreed to do a crowd funding, Kardi set my team to design some badges. I thought the crowd funding to get money for the cos-

tume this was a good idea but in my opinion instead of the badges we could of come up

with something else. After that session I kept thinking what could we use to reward those

who funded I came with the idea of giving pens with the Northampton logo the for this, a

pen is a daily utensil that everyone needs, this could also be used in Open Days and give them free for future students and be a good way to also promote the University. Being able

to think this it made me be more engaged and help my team. At the end the crowd-

funding wasn’t going to take place because Kardi had the idea of agreeing with the enter-

prise department, we had to pitch to them and they agreed in giving us a budget of 750£.

After the exciting news we ordered the mascot. Afterwards we had to pitch again: one to the SU, the cheer squad and to the Saints. All of them went well and they all agreed with

the mascot, within the pitches each member of a team had to pitch but it had to be a differ-

ent person each time, I regret of not volunteering to do one pitch this would of help me a

lot in the future and have to do a real time pitch and know what to expect and have the

experience.

After the order we had to design a mascot outfit, and my team was asked to do this at the

end we came with the idea to follow the colours of the sport equipment of the University.

On the 25th March it was Varsity day, this was the day to launch our mascot, so before this happened we had to create a time schedule for our mascot to go around and see as many

matches as possible. So this session we mixed ourselves and worked with other different

members and we are able to choose to what you want to work in. I chose to work in doing

the schedule, because I really like to organise things and have a plan before; we did a first

draft looking at the timetable of each match and highlight the important ones such as American Football with the cheer squad. In Varsity day I was very excited and motivated

and very proud with the outcomes of the mascot and the way we brought awareness. We

launched the mascot at the SU and it was a satisfaction and successful seeing people tak-

ing pictures with our new mascot.

On the 9th May we are going to our first real match against London Welsh in Northamp-

ton. Before this day comes we had our last meeting with Kardi and discussed what other

tasks are left to do. There were some jobs that remained were: leafleting, photography, col-

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lect the T-shirts for the mascots, press release and organise the cheerleading squad. In the creative team it was more suitable to choose photography. Alexandria and Nancy and my-

self volunteered to do this task when we go to the Saints ground. I was very excited to see

that there was a task to do with photography because last year I did a professional course

and I was always very enthusiastic about photography. So having this opportunity was

exciting and I can demonstrate another skill that can be practiced that I’m passionate about. Also with this I can show more of an individual contribution to the group.

Overall, working in a team it isn’t always easy, but everyone contributed and helped in

making decisions, some did more than others but we tried for everyone have a go at some-

thing to experience. Looking at the overall project I felt that I should of contributed more individually and stand up and say what I want to do when we were given tasks and this is

a key element I want to improve for next time. Doing this project I gained the experience

of working in a real life advertising job and apply all your skills throughout and even dis-

cover new ones.

Appendix 2

Individual Reflection By:Luke Gracia

Throughout the advertising media project, from the initial briefing to the final event in the

Saints stadium which is still to come, I have been involved in various tasks contributing to

the final outcome of the project.

The first part of my involvement in the project came in the initial stages of brainstorming possibilities after the briefing for marketing where we were told we would be required to

find a means to advertise Northampton University to the town of Northampton and the

surrounding areas. We were also told we would have the Northampton Saints rugby sta-

dium at our disposal and we would be able to organise a spectacle during half time at an

important Saints match during the rugby league. As the Saints were such a popular and successful team and have a large support, our use of the saint’s stadium would be impera-

tive for the most successful outcome to our brief.

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13

During the initial brainstorming session I learned how a group can work together and put all their suggestions forward to culminate in an idea which best suits the brief we were

given, is supported by every member of the advertising class as it was decided on by the

entire advertising class and the idea with the most realistic and achievable end goal.

After the idea of the mascot was decided upon it was down to a group of four people, in-

cluding myself, to pitch the idea back to Marketing who had given us the initial brief. This pitch would include the already decided idea which was the Horse Mascot with the possi-

bility of including cheerleaders in a performance during half time. This pitch was a great

opportunity for me to experience what a semi-professional pitch would be like, I also

learned how personal and informal meetings can be more productive given the situation

and circumstances. We used this to our advantage and successfully pulled off the pitch al-lowing the entire operation to move forward.

Our next crucial role as creative was to create and develop the characteristics of the mascot

and determine how the person inside the mascot would conduct themselves around peo-

ple. As our demographic would be university students (during varsity) and generic sports

enthusiasts and families (during the final half time show), we decided that the character would be cheeky and charismatic while also not being inappropriate for younger viewers.

This experience was interesting as it allowed us to look into the possible demographics

and better understand them, this would then influence our decisions to adapt the charac-

ter to optimise its appeal to the audience it would be aimed at.

My largest contribution to the class project was my role in being the mascot on varsity and on match day. As I had never taken on a task that involved being charismatic and putting

on a performance I was more than egger to put my name forward to be in the suit and take

time to study the characteristics that I would have to implicate on varsity. My role on the

day would be to attend every sporting event being held during Varsity and cause as much

of a spectacle as possible to draw attraction to ‘Hampton the Horse’ and raise the univer-sity’s students awareness to the mascot. This would in turn bring a stronger following to

our newly made twitter page, help it grow in following and also create a great deal of user

generated content for the university itself through hashtags and tagging.

While in the costume I attempted to interact with as many individuals and groups as pos-

sible, persuading them to take as many photographs and ‘selfies’ with me as possible,

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14

these individuals would then post their pictures online and create user generated content for out page to pick up on and retweet.

While in the costume I attempted to interact with as many individuals and groups as pos-

sible, persuading them to take as many photographs and ‘selfies’ with me as possible,

these individuals would then post their pictures online and create user generated content

for out page to pick up on and retweet.

The day turned out to be very successful and our goal of raising awareness for the mascot

was accomplished. I attended every event taken place in varsity and was able to interact

with both the spectators and the players in some cases who all took a great deal of photos

and later that day posted them on various social media channels. Hampton the horse was

also present in all the major victories the university made such as the rugby union victory over Derby and when Northampton won varsity overall.

The experience showed me the level of involvement an advertiser can have with their

audience and the various different ways they can raise awareness for certain projects. I

was also shown how user generated content can be used to the benefit of a campaign and

the means to get people to generate content by understanding the demographic of certain events. I feel as though the day was a great success and greatly contributed to the project ,

it also served as a good means to start up our campaign toward our final event in the

Saints stadium where I shall be performing to a sold out crowd during the half time show.

As a group I feel as though the creative department have worked very well together

throughout the project and have evenly distributed the workload to every member so that each person had an even amount of work to do and no individual was left with too little or

too much to do. I feel as though our major weakness however was our organizational

skills as I found it very difficult to come into contact with each member and in some cases

it was somewhat tedious to delegate roles to certain members as they were all so egger to

do certain tasks and unwilling to do others.

Personally I feel as though I have made a good contribution to the project and have been

successful in my endeavours. If I was to find a fault in my performance in this project it

would have to be the amount of work I took on as I suggested myself for far too many

roles and gave myself more work than I could manage. I have found a better understand-

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ing of my and strengths throughout this project and will continue to improve on them for following projects.

Appendix 3

Individual Reflection By: Alexandria Martins

For our assignment the class of Foundation of Advertising 2014-2015 were asked by the

marketing department of The University of Northampton to promote the List It Live It

campaign they have set up. Some members of the marketing department came to us for a

briefing to explain as to what exactly they wanted us to do. Personally I did not fully un-

derstand what the purpose of List It Live It was so the briefing was most useful into in-forming us all. List It Live It was described as a ‘bucket list’ as to which the university was

current students as well as potential ones to start a conversation using their hashtag

‘#LISTITLIVEIT’ as to what did they want to accomplish in life, what were their dreams,

who shared their goals and how could the university help them achieve that.

Once we had an idea of what our marketing clients wanted, our lecture Kardi informed us that we would be able to promote the List It Live It campaign at The Saints rugby game.

Myself and the class found this quite exciting (BBC. 2015) Northampton Saints were at the

top of the Aviva Premiership Rugby league and one of the best teams in the country. This

showed us we had great potential of being able to advertise to a wide range of audience

and promote List It Live It to the great number of fans the team has. Doing some research on the popularity of The Saints we looked on their social (Northampton Saints. 2015) the

team had 52.600 followers on Twitter and 71,258 likes on their Facebook page (Official

Northampton Saints. 2015). So these are just some of the people we could reach out too.

After we learnt about working with Northampton Saints in promoting List It Live It the

class were asked to brainstorm ideas in how we would do so. We tried different methods into which got us thinking of what ideas we could think such as picking the best idea to

the worst, picking random objects out of the box and let that inspire you to come up with

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an idea. I was given a tiara which then made me think of the idea of a princess contest of any young girl attending the game come dressed up as a princess and post a selfie with

the hashtag #LISTITLIVEIT and have the chance in winning a prize. This didn’t seem like

such a good idea once thinking more about it as the game of rugby was seen more as

manly and princess walking around didn’t seem anything like that. The idea of a Univer-

sity of Northampton mascot finally emerged and the class agreed that was a promising approach for us to take. Double checking that the University didn’t have an official mascot

already we decided that this is what we wanted.

After this we had split into groups which covered every area of this mascot idea so that it

would be more straightforward to organise. I chose to be on the Creative team as that’s an

area that took my interest the most and I felt that I could get the most enjoyment from it. The group members that also joined I felt very confident in working with as I’ve had pre-

vious team experiences with them and knew we could work together efficiently.

Before we made anything official we first had to convince certain other individuals of our

mascot idea such as the marketing team who assigned us the promoting the List It Live It

task, members of the Enterprise department to see if they could donate money to assist us, the Student Union for branding approval, and the Northampton Saints to see if they

would allow us to use the mascot in their area. We created a presentation and pitched to

all departments where we were successful in getting approval for the mascot idea. Having

a informal meeting with a member from the Enterprise department he was happy in do-

nating money to the idea. He even offered a higher amount of £2000 which was more than expected so we could afford two mascots. However there were other departments who

had an issue with this so the donation was lowered but still enough for us to

afford one mascot. Also discussing with the Student Union we realised that if we involve

them into our idea then they would have some rights to the mascot. We felt that this could

cause some issues so we decided on that we could allow people to rent out the University mascot for reasons such as sports events or open days. The Northampton Saints seemed

pleased with our pitch and had the idea that their mascot could work together with.

As we had the all clear to start making the idea come alive I and the Creative team were

assigned the role to find a suitable mascot. We first looked into it being second-hand on

Ebay and Gum Tree as we had a lower budget. The results we found were agreed to look

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cheap and unprofessional which wasn’t the image we wanted. So going back to the class we all agreed that it was worth the money to purchase a new, high quality costume to rep-

resent University of Northampton. We also had to create the personality of the costume.

We decided on confident and hyper characteristics as we thought that would help get the

crowd going and attract attention. We met up with students from the drama department to

see if they would be interested in being the suit-wearer. However there was an issue as they expected payment which we couldn’t afford so we settled with our classmates doing

the job. We also designed T-shirts which the mascot and some advertising students can

where on the day. This would help the public realise who we are promoting. The class

came together to think of the name for a mascot. We posted on social media that people

had the chance to suggest names and we would pick which we liked. Using social media would get the word spread around about our new mascot and #LISTITLIVEIT. Once all

names were in the class decided on the name ‘Hampton’ giving the relation of the Univer-

sity being in Northampton it would give the public the familiarity to link the mascot, The

Saints Game, and University together.

We also got the University Cheerleading team involved by getting them to on performing a routine with the mascot on match day at half time which would be a great time to create

awareness. We also created a film team who documented Hampton’s story and how why

he was created. By posting this on our website and social media it’s a great way to make

viewers understand what we’re trying to promote. Whatever idea we come up with or

progress we make myself and the ad students are using the hashtag #LISTITLIVEIT to spread the word. We also created awareness and did a test run on using Hampton on our

Varsity day and supporting all University of Northampton teams playing.

As match day draws closer we are now assigning jobs as to what we do on the day. Most

students will be handing out leaflets as well as having conversations with people attend-

ing the game to tell them about List It Live It. I personally chose to be in charge of taking the pictures with my team members, Ines and Nancy who I feel I work well with. I’ve had

experience in photographing at events and really enjoyed it so I was eager to take on this

role.

References:

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(BBC. 2015). Aviva Premiership Rugby. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/teams/northampton. Last accessed 28th April 2015.

(Northampton Saints. 2015). Followers. (Twitter) Available: https://twitter.com/SaintsRugby/followers. Last accessed 28th April 2015.

(Official Northampton Saints. 2015). People. Facebook. Available: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialNorthamptonSaints/likes. Last accessed 29th April 2015.

Appendix 4

Individual Reflection By: Andreea Sava

For this reflective essay I will use Gibbs’ reflective cycle (1988) as it is explained and

adapted on the University of Cumbria’s website. The model includes six stages: descrip-tion (what happened?), feelings (what were you thinking and feeling?), evaluation (what

was good and bad about the experience?), analysis (what sense can you make of the situa-

tion?), conclusion (what else could you have done?) and action plan (if it arose again, what

would you do?). As for the content, I will focus on what I consider to be two key steps of

the campaign, namely the mascot and its launch day.

Choosing the mascot

I believe that our first and most important milestone had been to come up with a great

idea for the campaign. Thus, after a brainstorming activity, we agreed on creating a new mascot, whose purpose would not only be to attend sporting events, but also different ac-

tivities in which University of Northampton were involved. The whole process was quite

complex, as we needed to decide what our mascot should look like, what it should repre-

sent (what animal?). This later matter was subject of discussion and debate because we

figured we should not interfere with Students’ Union symbol, the stallion. However, we decided to stay close and chose a horse instead. The next decision was whether we should

opt for an off-the-shelf costume or a personalised one. Another issue was to obtain the

budget for the campaign. Once this had been resolved, we were able to buy the costume

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and to start working on making it come alive. This means that we had to choose a suitable name and train the mascot to have the right personality and behaviour in order to pass on

our message.

I find this process to have been extremely challenging, yet entertaining and of high emo-

tional involvement. When we first decided to create a mascot I thought it was a great idea

and I supported it, because I could vividly imagine it becoming a great success. For me, it had been all

about organisational issues just until the costume was delivered. From that moment on, it

suddenly became more personal and I started to get involved on an emotional level. As I

was part of the creative team, I got the chance to be a part of the characterisation of the

mascot that was no longer ‘the mascot’, but Hampton. In other words, I was part of the family that grew up Hampton and taught him how to become a mascot everyone would

love.

I would say that this process mostly had good parts, however it also had some challenges

we needed to cope with. For instance, when trying to build a character for Hampton, there

were some differences of opinion among us. Even though we used some support materials such as the Laban Movement Analysis (Laban Institute of Movement Studies, 2015) or the

Mascot Acting Bible (Cho, 2015), it was still difficult to commonly agree on specific fea-

tures. Some people wanted him to be a little bit arrogant, while others saw him as a

friendly mascot. In the end, everything was professionally managed and the team came to

a conclusion.

I consider that our main help and support for this process had been our tutor, as she gave

us guidance and supported us morally, as well as practically, by helping us obtain funds

and by teaching us the development rules. From my perspective, any drawbacks or incon-

veniences were only barriers we needed to pass in order to evolve.

There is always room for improvement; therefore I believe that we could have put more effort into making Hampton a unique character, by creating some signature moves or

promoting him more for him to be integrated easier. Nevertheless, these aspects are con-

tinuously developed so that we will have an improved version of Hampton at the Saints’

game.

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Varsity

Varsity is an annual event where The University of Northampton plays the University of

Derby in a number of sport fixtures throughout the day. Whoever gains more points wins

and is crowned Varsity Champions (University of Northampton Students’ Union, 2015). We chose this event to be the launch day for our mascot.

Throughout the day, Hampton was introduced to more and more students and teams and

received a warm welcome from all of them. The smile on their faces, the excitement, the

countless hugs and pictures taken, the interactions and the continuous amusement gave

me a feeling of accomplishment that lasted the entire day. I felt like we had genuinely managed to achieve something. I think that the success we encountered at Varsity was a

great impulse for everyone, not only for me. As Hampton was running towards the mid-

dle of the rugby field to celebrate and congratulate the Stallions for wining, I felt more

confident than ever that our project will be successful and that we were on the right track.

Among the things that went well that day are the warm welcoming of Hampton, our ca-pacity to remain organised and stick to the schedule throughout the day, our ability to cap-

ture memorable moments and keep the social media accounts up-to-date with the ongoing

events. I consider that one of the main inconveniences was the fact that the costume was

heavy and heated rapidly, thus constraining Hampton to take regular breaks.

From my perspective, one of that day’s main advantages were the good weather condi-tions which allowed us and Hampton to be present at all the outdoor games and to remain

active the entire day. One of the downsides was that Varsity took place on a Wednesday,

when students still had lectures and seminars, therefore the attendance at the games being

diminished.

I can confidently say that I did my best to help the team during Varsity. However, there are some aspects I would consider improving if it arose again. For instance, I realised on that

day that I would have enjoyed being part of the photography team. Even though I took

pictures during the day, I would have enjoyed doing it in a professional manner, thus cre-

ating useful material for the documentary. Not only do you become an asset to the team,

but it also gives you the feeling that you are part of the action.

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In conclusion, this campaign is so far a success, as a result of the joint efforts of our stu-dents and I believe that if we managed to pass these first critical steps and to overcome

every barrier so far, we are now determined to work even harder to succeed and see this

project meet a glorious end.

References:

Education Unit.

Laban Institute of Movement Studies (2015) European Association for Laban / Bartenieff

Movement Studies Website [Online] Available from: http://www.limsonline.org, [Ac-

cessed: 30/04/2015].

Laban, R. (1980) The Mastery of Movement, 4th edition revised and enlarged by L. Ullmann, Lon-

don: MacDonald and Evans, (First published as The Mastery of Movement on the Stage, 1950).University of Cumbria (2015), Gibbs’ (1988) reflective cycle [Online] Available from:

http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/public/liss/documents/skillsatcumbria/reflectivecyclegibbs.

pdf [Accessed: 30/04/2015].

University of Northampton Students’ Union (2015) Varsity [Online] Available from:

http://www.northamptonunion.com/ [Accessed: 20/03/2015].

Appendix 5

Individual Relfection By: Sam Davis

All through our advertising project from our first brainstorm to the Saints game that has

yet to come. I have been trying my best to help contribute to the team in creating our full

campaign. My involvement began with the initial brainstorm. This was when we were still

trying to create an initial idea that fit with the marketing department’s brief of advertising

the University to Northampton. We were told that we would be given resources such as

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the Northampton Saints rugby stadium and we were allowed to organise something for half time at an important game. This was very beneficial to us as it meant that we had the

opportunity to advertise the university to a large crowd of many people. A lot of the fans

are local too so advertising the university would be more impactful as it would be more

personal to the fans.

We worked effectively as a group in the brainstorm with all of us contributing different ideas that fit the brief and was achievable with the resources that we had. Afterwards we

had all come together to select the idea that we agree would be the most effective in terms

of promoting the university.

After we decided on using the idea to create a mascot. The idea then had to be pitched to

the marketing department where all of the ideas were discussed such as potentially get-ting the cheerleaders involved in the performance at half time. Unfortunately, I was not in

the team that pitched the idea but it went smoothly as they also agreed that it would be an

effective strategy to advertise the university.

We decided to go with a Horse mascot as it coincides with the rugby stallions. We then

spent a long time searching online for Horse mascot costumes that we could purchase with the allocated budget. We understood that we were not going to have the resources or

time to create a brand new horse mascot design so we had to purchase pre made ones. We

found a suitable one that looked playful

Next, we had to develop the characteristics of the mascot. I explored multiple drama prac-

titioners to find a style of characterisation that would suit the persona of the mascot. Due to our target audience of university students, rugby fans and families we decided that the

mascot should be rambunctious, cheeky and playful but we were mindful to keep the

character sensible and family friendly so we do not influence young children to mimic the

behaviour and alienate parents. I particularly enjoyed this section of creating the character

as it is was a fun creative experience.

We also found a guide online that was written by an individual who was a team mascot

for years. He wrote useful information and guides on the qualities of a successful mascot

and gave advice for appropriate behaviour. We then used that as a general guideline for

whoever was going to wear the mascot costume on the day.

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Next was the naming of the Horse mascot. We let people make suggestions online and then we filtered through the ones that were appropriate for the horse. We ended up with

the final name “Hampton” a name that is obviously a play on Northampton and allows

for alliteration “Hampton the Horse”. We then introduced the mascot at the university

varsity games to raise the student’s awareness which gathered a lot of attention and

helped the twitter page grow in followers.

Luke, who was in the mascot costume attended every varsity event and interacted with

crowd members was present for when Northampton won the varsity. Being present for

Northampton’s victory was very good as it reflects positively on the mascot, it would not

be good if people were to associate the mascot with Northampton’s defeat.

Overall the experience has showed me the in depth planning that advertisers commit themselves to when they create campaigns. I have also learnt how to operate well in a part

of a team environment. I think the creative team worked very well together throughout

creating the campaign, there was not one team member that I felt lacked in quality or con-

tent of work. I actually feel that we all contributed significantly as a collective to create

something that would actually be of assistance to the university.

All we can really do now is wait for the Saints game on the 9th of May and hope that the

campaign is a success but through all the large amounts of planning we have committed to

the task I feel that it will run smoothly.

Perhaps personally I held the group back due to illness I was not present for a couple of

the group sessions but I was always then sure to discuss to group the outcomes of the ses-sions, listen to their ideas and express my own.

However; I do feel as if I have made a good contribution to the project, it was an interest-

ing experience given to us and it was fun being part of the creative side of a project as big

as this was. I like to think that I have learnt a lot from the project and I am eagerly waiting

for the Saints game to see how the project fully pans out.

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Appendix 6

Individual Reflection By: George Hagan

The project started by choosing which group class members would like to be split off into

to complete individual tasks that would then later be designated to those specific groups.

From those groups I decided my skills would be best suited to work in the creative group as I played for the University rugby team. I also decided when it came to choosing shirt

colours, but also how they would work with a mascot and even what mascot to use, that I

was better in the creative group. After the groups were decided we started work on the

tasks provided and the creative group consisted with what mascot to use, what the mascot

should wear and how the mascot should act.

The group started brainstorming what the mascot should be and I chose some which had

relevance to the University, these were a horse/ stallion mascot and a bear mascot. The

reason for choosing the horse was because the sports teams name and the Students Union

emblem is a Stallion. The reason then for the bear mascot was to relate it to rugby, as the

University’s rugby team was called the Bears in the past and is still strongly known by that name today. The reason for relating the mascot to rugby as well as the Bears was be-

cause the mascot would be shown at a match of the team the University had strong con-

nections with in terms of sponsorship, the Northampton Saints. In the end, the decision

was to go with a horse so there was no relation to the Students Union. This ensured there

would be no claim of the mascot being theirs, but it would still relate and promote the University, one of the projects main intentions.

After the mascot was decided the group researched into the costs of the mascot and it was

soon bought with a budget given by a different department in the University. The groups

then had to decide on the colour of the shirt the mascot would wear on the day to repre-

sent the University. We decided it would be best to wear the sports teams kits worn when representing the University in competitions. I brought a shirt from my last rugby match

and we went ahead with the same colour scheme and design.

Once that had been decided, there was an idea to create another group who would film a

documentary of the whole project, I put myself forward to split off into that group. After

all the members were decided, myself and the other members were sent to learn how to !

25

operate the camera equipment so that it would be used correctly to film the documentary. Following on from this I was then responsible for renting and providing the kit for the

documentary and ensuring every piece of kit we needed was at a venue and was in work-

ing order. This then continued all the way through the project up until the game where I

had to provide recording equipment but also equipment for the photography team on the

match day. This was to capture key parts of the projects final piece.

The camera crew group then went and pitched to the Northampton Saints the idea we had

to present a half time show. This was to promote the University using the new mascot and

the award winning cheerleading team at the University. Northampton Saints agreed to al-

low us to put on a halftime show with cheerleaders and also allowed us to use their own

current mascot in the show as well. They also wanted us to produce a hashtag on social media so they help to promote the University to a wider audience.

Being part of the Camera crew I also filmed the launch of the mascot on Varsity where

Hampton made appearances to as many sports competitions as possible, and even took

part in sports such as the cheerleading routine and the celebrations of the rugby union

team winning their match. This involved following the mascot around filming moments of his release and his interaction with various students and spectators.

On the day of the game I was responsible for ensuring all the equipment was working and

had back ups of the kit in case it failed on the day. During the day I ensured we got the

right footage for the documentary to use to show the final part of the project. This would

show all of what we had worked up to, but also that the documentary would show that we had completed the original task of the project, which was to promote and raise aware-

ness of the University of Northampton to the general public. This would then hopefully

trigger a word of mouth effect on the internet and the video of the mascot completing its

routine at the game would go viral, reaching millions of people online.

The positives of the project were that everyone in the groups I was assigned to worked well and had no issues in terms of contributing towards the project and the individual

tasks. The groups worked well when individuals were designated specific tasks rather

than all trying to complete the same task, which made the workload of bigger tasks a lot

easier. This also proved the group had great communication with each other and everyone

knew who was doing what tasks and for when it was to be completed.

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The negatives of the project included a few things, such as: the mascot not having a budget for some time and trying to work out how to budget an expensive mascot. However, this

was resolved before more complications with the investors arose. Another negative was

losing time to record due to the kit requirements on when it could be taken and given back

to Avenue campus library. This meant some scenes had to be filmed quickly without set-

ting up properly or with only one take being filmed so we could obtain some of the key footage of particular scenes from the story board. Another issue that was encountered was

the batteries for the equipment failing. This was because some were not charged and due

to the timings of kit being taken out we had no time to charge them or even have a charger

to do so. However, this was resolved as I brought a spare battery with me which often had

full charge and could be used instead to capture the footage we needed without the cam-era dying part way filming.

Appendix 7

Individual Reflection By:Nancy Ahoua

Introduction/Description

I’ am currently studying Advertising and Marketing, for this module (Foundations of Ad-

vertising Media); the assignment was to work on the Saints Match Day Promotion. The

purpose was to get the opportunity to document the activity and create an advertising

campaign. My lecturer set different groups for the campaign which were social, creative and planning. I chose to be a part of the creative team because I would fit best in this team.

In this individual reflection I will be reflecting back on the vicissitudes and positive re-

sults.

Project planning

Weeks prior to the Saints game was a great deal of planning to prepare for the main event. In order to create ideas for the campaign we created mind maps, the mind maps consisted

of the different ideas that we could use for the campaign. Once the ideas were shared it

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was time to narrow down which idea would be the most suitable. This is how the idea of the mascot came about.

The next task was to design the mascot, there were a few creative restrictions because of

the University’s Brand Identity. For instance the University’s black and white logo and the

positioning of the logo are factors we had to take into consideration when designing the t-

shirt. The brand identity guidelines also had Logo – Prohibited use’ the prohibited use made my creative ideas restricted because I thought t-shirt designs however they couldn’t

be used because of Brand identity boundaries. Other constraints was the time, looking for

a that will ship in time was a factor we had to take into consideration.

Feelings

When the project was assigned I felt very optimistic and excited because I had never pla-nned an advertising campaign and to see it unfold as we worked through it was exciting

and rewarding. Prior to Varsity I felt that I was not participating towards the preparation

for the Saints game, to rectify this problem I fully immerged myself on the day of Varsity

and got involved with social media by tweeting pictures of Hampton the mascot using the

hashtag #AdStudents. My participation on the day of Varsity was eye opening and made me enjoy the experience. During the experience, time went by extremely rapidly which

caused a sudden urgency for last minute tasks to be executed, for example renting cameras

for the Saints Game and completing assignments. Throughout the preparation of the cam-

paign I felt like I was a part of an advertising agency because of the creative control we

had, the decisions we had to make and considering certain logistics. The professionalism of the task made me feel like I was working professionally and not a student, which was

incredible because I had an opportunity to experience what it would be like in a professio-

nal working environment.

Varsity

On the day of varsity I was very optimistic about the day ahead. However once going to the meeting point (Student union) it was disappointing to see that there were only a few

people that showed up, especially because it was not an individual assignment, everyone

had to participate. On the other hand, I felt that it was out of my control and I can only be

responsible for my own participation and input on the day. The day started from

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11:00am-21:00 it was a very long scheduled day, so throughout the day it got quite fati-guing. During the rugby game, I took a few pictures of our mascot

which I then posted on my social media site with the hashtag #adstudents, #varsity. The

underperformers were evident in the meetings subsequent to Varsity; at first it was very

discouraging because I felt like they didn’t deserve to have an input at such a late stage in

the process. However reflecting back on Varsity, on a whole it was a unique experience, I got a chance to bond with my team mates and also interact with the university students

whom were asking about our mascot and the rationale behind it.

Filming

Filming day was amusing, we had the opportunity to set up the scene and improvise with

what was going to be filmed. Filming day was definitely one of the highlights, creating a story board from the ‘briefing from marketing’ to the ‘half time performance/banter’ and

also filming the reaction of the advertising students. During filming, we communicated

well because we had good communication we were able to allocate group members with

roles they were comfortable with. I was one of the “actresses” in the film because I felt

comfortable in front of the camera, whereas those that were not so comfortable in front of the camera came up with the positioning of the shots and different props being used.

Evaluation

Revaluating myself, I believe I should have planned as the weeks went along. Planning

would have made the process of the campaign much smoother and last minute stress

about the campaign may not have occurred. If I set goals that challenged my comfort zo-nes I think I would have gained a lot more out of this experience. Planning promotes team

building and a spirit of cooperation. When the plan is completed and communicated to

members of the group, everyone knows what their responsibilities are, and how other

areas of the organization need their assistance and expertise in order to complete assigned

tasks, if effective planning was done I think there would have been a better group cohe-sion.

Although planning was an area that could have been reviewed, there is a lot that went

well during this experience. Conveying the idea of a mascot and the arrival of the mascot

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was one of the highlights, it was an idea and to see it being executed and having tangible proof of our work was very gratifying. Varsity was also an event that went well, seeing the

response from university students of the mascot was also rewarding, several people wan-

ted to take pictures and it generated a lot of word of mouth about our campaign which felt

like a small accomplishment.

Even though planning throughout the preparation of the campaign was not successful the thorough plan of what was going to happen on the day of Varsity was successful. Prece-

ding to Varsity myself and other group members planned out what was going to happen

and where it would be happening and what time on the day (see appendix 1). This tho-

rough plan made it easy for the team to follow during the day, especially because it was a

long scheduled day if certain members wanted to leave for a break they knew where would be when they came back.

Analysis

Looking back at the experience the planning was evidently a positive aspect of the expe-

rience however formulating a plan of who would be in the mascot should have been pla-

nned. Although there was a volunteer to be in the mascot, the length of time the person could stay in the mascot was not specified which may have resulted in serious health pro-

blems. In order to avoid this there should have been a risk assessment made and detailed

research of the rules behind wearing a mascot. Varsity went extremely well, this was be-

cause of the schedule made prior to the day. The plan lead to the day running very smoo-

thly because it was organised well. I was able to contribute to this experience, this may be the reason why I felt Varsity was a success, previously I had never experienced varsity

which intrigued me and lead me to take part on the day.

Conclusion/Action Plan

Reflecting back on this experience there are a few things I would have done differently.

Firstly I would have taken part in being in the mascot, there are not a lot of opportunities like this that get presented to me so I should have taken advantage of the occasion. I have

also learnt that I do not find it difficult to work with people I have never worked with.

When we were planning the schedule for varsity I was in a group with people I wasn’t

familiar with however I didn’t find it difficult to conversate, plan and also ask questions

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about times and dates I was unsure about. Being able to adapt and work in a group will definitely help me in professional working environments. This experience has allowed me

to evaluate myself, I have realised that when put in group situations I take a while to ex-

press my ideas and thoughts that I have of the fear of being incorrect or my idea being re-

jected. In the future I should have confidence with my suggestions so I can share it, even

though it might not be taken as a plan, realising that it is all a learning experience will be-nefit

References:

Boud D, Keogh R and Walker D (1985) 'Reflection: Turning Experience in to Learning', Lon-

don: Kogan Page

Brockbank A and McGill I (1998) 'Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education', Buckingham: SHRE/Open University Press

Cowan J (1998) 'On Becoming an Innovative University Teacher Reflection in Action', SRHE/

OU

Kolb D.A. (1984) 'Experiential Learning experience as a source of learning and development',

New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Moon J (1999a) 'Reflection in Learning and Professional Development Theory and Practice',

London: Kogan Page

Schon D (1991) 'The Reflective Practitioner How Professionals Think in Action', London: Ave-

bury

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/services/disability/service/using-gibbs-reflective-cycle-in-coursework.pdf

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Appendix 1

Appendix 8

Individual Reflection By:Leon Chow

Throughout this personal reflection of my duties as both part of the creative team and the

filming crew I will be reviewing my contribution and what I have learnt from this ‘mock’ agency proposition up until this point using the cyclic Gibbs’ model of Reflection.

On the 10th of November 2014 we had our first official meeting as a group to talk about

potential ideas of how to fulfill the assignment brief of fully utilising the sponsorship of

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the famous Northampton Saints Rugby team given to us by the university marketing team; unfortunately with an absence of a budget. Kardi suggested a technique that inhibits

hesitation and apprehension that consists of contributing absolutely any and every

thought that comes to your mind; this allows freedom in creativity without feeling silly. I

feel this technique, labeled only as‘Sky’s the limit’ by Kardi, aided this critical process of

imagination which meant wild ideas could lay foundations to reasonably feasible sugges-tions once reigned in. I played with the Acronym of L.I.L.I (standing for List it Live it), and

raised the idea of having a female mascot named Lili. We then had to choose two of our

favorite ideas from the board and put them on sticky notes on the board obviously then

identifying the most favored proposal. It was then agreed that our next meeting would

consist of choosing the idea and playing around with it hopefully finding a reasonable conclusion.

The 17th and the 24th of November was then dedicated towards coming up with a solid

idea and devising groups based upon personal strengths, we essentially set up what Kardi

called a temporary agency working as a real business with real money. This real life im-

mersion was a daunting however stimulating prospect, the main focus being on the cons-traint of a budget, we then proceeded to search internally for resources or crowd funding.

It was found that Katie Hill, a member from our planning team had linked relations to the

head of cheerleading, which would become mutually beneficial for both parties. We belie-

ved that to overcome two hurdles of both design of a mascot and lack of money we would

approach the Student’s Union with the proposition of a horse specifically as a mascot, the-refore not infringing any copyright issues of ‘Stallion’ should have they not decided to ac-

cept and fund the idea. I believe this strategic choice was extremely clever as the horse

most represents the university with the associations and allowed us to bypass the Stu-

dent’s Union regardless of their decision and stance. The opportunity arose to pitch to the

Student’s Union, ideally one member from each sector within the agency would go, I per-sonally wanted to go to the Saints team pitch so I decided I would sit that particular pitch

out.

By the date of the pitch the need for funding from the SU was unneeded, as we had al-

ready received £2000 from the ‘Enterprise fund’, nevertheless support from the SU would

exponentially increase our prospective success through promotion and repeated exposure. Multiple designs had been sketched up by our team, both naturalistic and inspired by

existing designs, in spite of this we set on purchasing a pre made costume for various rea-!

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sons including the fact of the ever approaching deadline date, which at this point was 25/4/15, and also the undeniable fact that a custom made costume would be significantly mo-

re costly, taking into account the cheerleader team needing payment now that they were

on board by this point.

My next main contribution to the task was the venture to the Saints’ rugby ground where

Kardi, George, Nerea, Hannah and I proceeded to present using slide-style boards to assist us, providentially the members of the Saints were supportive and accepting of the proposi-

tion. We discussed outlines such as time constraints within the half time slot, also the issue

that we had initially planned for the Milton Keynes game; due to the capacity being triple

fold that of Northampton’s size. We therefore had to negotiate for another day, we chose

the later date as that both allowed for an extended deadline lightening the work load and also worked with exposure as it would be the last game of the season with them almost

certainly winning the league. This then associates the mascot with memorable times such

as this event to the prospective audience. Furthermore we also left with the permission to

use ‘Bernie’, their infamous dog mascot, for the upcoming sports event Varsity where the

mascot would be unveiled.

Being supported by the enterprise fund meant that we had to adhere to certain requests,

such as the need for a ‘documentary’ that displayed our experience as first year students

getting real life practice in this immersive project so that the video could be used as mate-

rial for promoting the university. This created the need for a filming crew, myself, Nerea,

George and Hannah, I felt up to the task as I had taken media in A-Level and I would say that my editing ability will certainly prove useful as delegating internally means lowered

costs.

Kardi arranged for our recording group to have special 1 to 1 tuition with one of the media

lecturers on Avenue campus so that we had the basic knowledge to be able to record the

documentary, however fortunately we all possessed at least an intermediate level of prowess with the equipment. This session was still productive however due to the lecturer

giving us permission to come in and use the professional gear such as the microphone for

the cameras and for voiceovers, allowing us to record when needed which would not have

otherwise been available to us. Whilst at Avenue campus we received news that my name

suggestion of ‘Hampton’ was chosen in a meeting with the marketing team, this meant

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that we would need to prepare for the release of Hampton officially at Varsity through PR on social media.

The creative team had to collaborate with the social media to create a series of Vines for

the days leading up to the release, we chose Vine as our medium of promotion because of

its ease to be embedded into other mediums such as Twitter and Facebook, we also chose

Vine because of its looping 6 second appeal. During its release we received a total of 1023 interactions solely on one vine, this showed our reach and success.

Varsity day met and even exceeded our hopes for how Hampton would be welcomed, the-

re was an extremely high level of participation from the sports teams with ‘selfies’ being

the preferred method of involvement. Tasks throughout the day were less dependant on

which team we were part of as not all members of the class could attend, this left a small team to follow Luke around in the Hampton costume which would constantly update the

dedicated Hampton Twitter page, keep to a strict schedule, assist movement and to record

video material for later use.

On the 9th May we will be going to the Saints’ ground, and will be what we have been

working towards, on the day I will be part of the filming four that ensures we ascertain all possible video recording of the day so that it may be used in the documentary afterwards.

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed this hands on practice, it has given me opportunity to

experience the workings in a professional environment using Gantt charts to project pro-

gress and real budgets; a sense of responsibility has certainly enhanced my enjoyment in

this first year task.

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