Don Dickinson’s marketing class will have a chance to extend its lessons outside with the “Gen V” campaign. The promotional event, which combines Portland State Athletics and the new Pontiac Vibe, will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 30, in the Park Blocks.
The group will be giving away free pizza and root beer floats, as well as many prizes, including football tickets and a DVD player. Athletes from PSU will also be present to meet the students and community and to entice participants into taking a free test-drive of the Pontiac Vibe
The 400-level class designed their theme for the promotional campaign by taking the V in Vikings and the V in Vibe and creating a fictitious generation called “Gen V.” The event will be the culmination of weeks of planning and advertising, designed and organized by the students, which will include posters and lawn signs displaying their slogan, “Gen V – Are you experienced?”
The Gen V experience was designed to raise awareness and interest in the athletic teams at PSU.
The class has planned a Product Familiarization Activity (PFA), in which participants will visit eight educational booths, using the information gathered at each to fill out a questionnaire. After completing the activity students will receive free pizza and a root-beer float, as well as be entered to win door prizes and tickets to the PSU versus University of Oregon football game held in Eugene Sept. 21, 2002.
Participants in the activity are invited to test drive the Pontiac Vibe, being loaned to the class for the event by Western Pontiac Dealership of Gresham. Upon driving the car for the two to three block test-drive, students are entered to win a $50 gift certificate from McMenamin’s.
The Vibe’s trunk will contain a number of balls from various PSU sports, including tennis, basketball and soccer balls. The participant who correctly guesses the number of balls in the trunk will receive a free DVD player.
The event has also been designed as a fundraiser for the Dove Lewis Emergency Animal Hospital, a nonprofit Portland-based hospital devoted to emergency and critical care for animals. Raffle tickets, for a $100 gift certificate to Fred Meyer, will be sold for $1.
The proceeds will benefit the therapy dog program, which connects pet owners with the elderly or ill community members, healing through the positive effects animals have on the well-being of humans.
Dickinson’s winter 2002 Marketing 443 class became known on campus through their “Paper or Plastic?” campaign, which focused on credit education, and was sponsored by Citibank. Some students addressed their concerns over the advertising campaign being veiled as an attempt to coerce students into signing up for credit cards.
No complaints have been presented to Dickinson about this term’s advertising campaign for the Vikings and the Pontiac Vibe.