Alicia Riding Co-creator of Spark Magazine Red River College P104-160 Princess Street Winnipeg, MB R3B 1K9

March 11, 2013

Kenton Larsen Public Relations Instructor Red River College P104-160 Princess Street Winnipeg, MB R3B 1K9 Dear Mr. Larsen, This is the proposal for Spark magazine launch, Spark Something New, at the Magazine Trade Fair, a one day event on March 28, 2013. The proposal includes an outline of what Spark can do for the trade fair and the steps needed to be taken prior to and after the launch. It tells how the Spark team will generate interest in the magazine in our target audiences and how we could keep them reading our magazine if we were to continue producing it. Thank you for reading this proposal and I look forward to hearing your feedback. Sincerely,

Alicia Riding

Spark Something New

Magazine Launch Proposal
Submitted to: Kenton Larsen, Public Relations Instructor Submitted by: Alicia Riding, Co-creator of Spark Magazine Date: March 11, 2013

Executive Summary
About Spark
Spark magazine is all about living healthy in new and different ways and to spark something new in our readers. With all the writers trying things for themselves, it gives readers a firsttimers experience rather than an expert opinion. It better allows read ers to judge if it is something they would like to try.

The Launch
The launch of Spark is obviously important to its success. The goal of the launch is to get our magazine out there for readers to see and gain interest in its future. With the possibility of sponsors, Spark cannot only promote itself, but local businesses as well, creating good community relations. After the launch, we hope people will think more about the different ways they can stay active and healthy with the different ideas we provide at the trade fair and in our magazine. This in turn will generate a readership base since Spark will be the name they associate with this revelation.

Spark Something New

This proposal tells of some ways we can promote the magazine. The theme of the launch is spark something new which will encourage people to get interested in their health and try new things that could become a permanent change in their lives. With our Facebook and Twitter pages, Spark is already generating a following online that we hope will help encourage our followers to attend the trade fair and pass the message along to their friends and family. Our promotional efforts will also be put into advertising through posters and guerrilla marketing strategies.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i Purpose Statement ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Situation Analysis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Target Publics and Desired Outcomes -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Strategy and Rationale --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Preliminary Budget -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Evaluation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7

Purpose Statement
The major goal is to generate as much publicity, notoriety, and momentum for our magazine, leading up to and including a successful Magazine Trade Fair on Thursday, March 28, 2013. The campaign will: 1. Put the magazine at the forefront of our target publics minds and create brand interest. 2. Get people talking about our magazine and encourage our target publics to buy it when it comes out. 3. Include a way to build a database of people who are interested in our magazine and a plan to convert them into readers and buyers later. 4. Harness new and traditional media, PR ad publicity to reach potential readers. 5. Get people talking about the magazine by giving them a stated or implied invitation to participate online and at the trade fair. 6. Be fun.

Situation Analysis
Overview
Spark magazine is a healthy-living magazine with a twist. The writers themselves try new and different ways to stay healthy and active from a first timers point of view, giving readers a relatable angle to each story. If the things below are addressed, we could have a successful launch at the magazine trade fair.

Strengths
The magazine has a different take on healthy living by having the writers actually trying the activities for themselves, giving a personal touch to the articles. Our target audience of 20-30-year-olds is almost the same as those who attend the college so we will reach our audience well.

Weaknesses
A large market for healthy living magazines and therefore, a fair amount of competition. Our schedule for school (and work schedule for some) is very inflexible, so the work will need to be done mostly in the time we have available outside of class hours. Money will also be an issue as we are all students and have very little to spare.

Opportunities
The atrium in the college is good for a magazine launch because many students, teachers and other people come through the college. The location of the college in the Exchange District it perfect because its easily accessible to many people.

Threats
Multiple healthy living magazines at the trade fair could take attention away from ours. If the other tables are more eye-catching, our table could be overlooked.

Target Publics
Primary Audience
The primary audience is made up of women aged 20-25 who love to stay active by going to a yoga studio at least once a week. They also enjoy eating healthy and is looking into trying new foods and supplements. She doesnt like going to the gym because she finds it uncomfortable to go by herself.

Secondary Audience
The secondary audience is made up of women aged 25-30. They are mothers who are looking for ways to keep active at home between taking care of the kids and working part time. She also wants to make sure her children are eating well and rarely lets them have soda, chips and other unhealthy foods. She likes to try new recipes on her family and is always looking for them online, in magazines and in newspapers.

Desired Outcomes
Primary Audience
We should try to keep this audience in our main sights because they are the most likely to subscribe or keep buying the magazine. We need to make sure that we keep the focus on activities that this audience will enjoy. With this targets love of technology, an online component would be a good companion to the print magazine. An idea for an online addition could be each group member blogging about something new they tried related to our magazine such as an exercise class or a new, healthy food.

Secondary Audience
We want this audience to be reminded that even with children, they can stay active and instill good habits in their children for staying healthy. This audience will focus on different foods and snacks, so the recipes are a big part of why they will buy the magazine. Similar to the primary audience, an online component would be beneficial to this audience.

Strategy and Rationale

Strategy
Action
The theme for the launch of Spark is to spark something new. A title that could be used is Spark something new. After winter is over, people are more able to get outside and try new and trending activities and Spark provides ideas for its readers of things to do. Preparation In the weeks before the launch, we will use Twitter and Facebook to promote the magazine and trade fair to generate interest in it for our followers. Creating decorations for the table, baking, and collecting prizes the magazine group will need to get sponsors on board with the idea enough to possibly donate items we can give away. At the Launch The launch will take place in the atrium in the afternoon of March 28 and at the table, there will be healthy goodies (cookies, brownies, etc.) for sale or to give away. If a partnership with Vita Health happens, we may have them supply a gift bag or another prize to give away in a draw. The amount wed like to spend on the launch and printing the maga zine is $200 -$300. If Vita Health sponsors us, we could cut the costs on some of the things at the launch such as prizes. After the Launch When the trade fair is over, we can consider continuing the magazine online through our Facebook and Twitter pages and creating a blog to post the articles on.

Communication
Communication Tools To get attention about the launch, we can use the magazines social media pages on Facebook and Twitter. Another way to communicate with our audience is through word of mouth by telling our friends and family about the trade fair and they can tell people they know who may be interested in our magazine and coming to the trade fair. We can also promote the magazine on our own social media pages like Twitter, Facebook, and our blogs. 4

Advertising/Promotion We could send pitch emails to business that could be interested in letting our magazine put up posters in their buildings about the trade fair. We could also ask our sponsors if they would like to join us and promote their business alongside our magazine at the trade fair.

Rationale
Preparation The preparation is important to having a successful launch at the trade fair so we have to think of ways to get people interested in our magazine. Some ideas are using Facebook and Twitter to get people talking about our magazine and having a contest for our followers on these sites. We should make sure our table is appealing and can stand out among all the other tables. At the Launch Although having prizes and goodies isnt necessary, it will likely draw people in to our table, where we can tell them about our magazine and keep them around long enough to convey the message. Communication Tools Our means of communication through social media needs to be clear and concise so that our audience knows what we want from them and whats in it for them. We need to tell our followers when and where the trade fair is and what they can win if they attend. Advertising Traditional advertising with posters isnt absolutely necessary, but it would add to our reach if it were possible to do. Guerilla marketing would also be an interesting option to further our reach of both Spark and the trade fair.

Preliminary Budget
Costs:
Magazine printing Advertisement prints Items for gift bag Banner for trade fair Buttons or wristbands T-shirts (4) Total $100 $30 $100 $30 $50 $100 $410

Evaluation
Preparation
In the preparation stages of the magazine trade fair, success we can measure by using the statistics from our magazines Facebook page, Twitter followers, and how many sponsors we have for our magazine. On Facebook, 50 Likes will be a good place to set the bar. On Twitter, 50 followers is also a good bar to reach for. We can measure how much our online audience is excited about the magazine and trade fair by seeing how many times they check out our pages or how much they tweet and comment about our magazine. If the statistics increase by 20% during the month leading up to the trade fair, it will be an easy way to see if our message is reaching our target publics.

Implementation
At the trade fair, we can measure the success of our table is by seeing how many people came to our table because of our online efforts by asking them how they found out about the trade fair and our magazine. Another way to measure success is by counting how many people enter to win our prizes by keeping track of all the entries. The prizes have items in them that relate to healthy living so this will help us to see how many people are truly interested in our magazine and healthy living not just the prizes.

Impact
We can measure how much of an impact we have made online by seeing how many people tweet about our magazine and how many post comments on our Facebook page during and immediately after the trade fair. A way to measure long term success would be to see how many people continue talking about our magazine online. If at least 15% of our followers mention our magazine or the trade fair, we will know that we have made an impact.