September 2020 - April 2021
Penn State THON is a student-run philanthropy committed to enhancing the lives of children and families impacted by pediatric cancer. Their mission is to provide financial and emotional support to the families through various fundraising and events. And all the efforts culminate in a 46-hour no sit, no sleep dance marathon where hundreds of students take a stand in Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center.
I was involved in THON all four years of college. For two years I served in leadership positions in the organization and one of them was as the Marketing Captain on the Merchandising Committee where my role was to lead all marketing efforts for the THON Store. This included but was not limited to:
Development and Growth through Social Media - Created a new Instagram for the THON Store that branched off from THON's main Instagram page to create two pages for differing purposes under a unified brand. The Store page focused solely around the products, promotions and sales while the main page more focused on awareness, initiatives, family stores, etc.
Social Media Marketing & Management - Complete ownership over content creation, product photoshoots, content editing, social media posting scheduling and supporting customer service through any interactions or messages on the platform.
Brand Development - Developed a brand solely for the THON Store after the brand off from the organization’s existing social media platforms that still tied into the broader organization but focused entirely on the merchandise and products.
Sales & Promotion Strategies - Worked alongside inventory and finance to create sales and promotions ideas to drive sales as well as reduce inventory of older merchandise and open up storage space for new merchandise orders.
Digital Marketing & Performance - Introduced performance measurement and digital marketing KPI concepts to the broader team to begin to think about how to measure the success of initiatives, sales and promotions.
Marketing Lead for the Penn State THON Store
Product Photoshoots
A large part of my role was product photoshoots. I organized, photographed and edited all photos myself ensuring we displayed all pieces of available merchandise while highlighting diversity and leaders in the THON organization.
Brand & Marketing
I created a THON Store Marketing Guide including the key pieces needed to create digital marketing content for the Instagram, website or any other digital platform while staying consistent with the THON brand. It also includes step by step instructions for someone to create a social media graphic or how to correctly prepare a photo to post based on THON guidelines.
Store Information
I served in this role during peak COVID-19 which posed additional challenges such as limiting in person sales, store capacity, and affecting customer service & order fulfilment. A key part of the marketing role became keeping customers up to date on Store information, I created various Instagram graphics that became the primary channel for these communications.
Sales & Promotion Strategies
Another key piece of the marketing role was to promote sales, especially by creating promotions and sales. These were either tied to specific THON events or net new ideas to drive sales.
Video Commercial
A new project that emerged due to the pandemic was a THON Store Commercial. THON 2021 was not held in person and instead was broadcasted for people to dance and view from home. Since a large part of merchandise sales in the past were in-person during the actual 46-hour marathon we didn’t want to miss out on this sales opportunity. The commercial was broadcasted every few hours during the broadcast to stay top of mind and capture as many viewers as possible.
If you are interested in learning more about the organization go to thon.org
If you would like to check out the Penn State THON Store visit store.thon.org