Impact of Messaging and Branding on Fashion Show Outcomes; A Public Relations Campaign for Planet Chic, A Cosmic Fashion Show

As a Journalism/Public Relations student minoring in Fashion, I have found myself interested in and surrounded by event production. As a member of the ASU student organization, The Chic Daily, I was beginning to see our production value decrease as we hosted our semesterly charity fashion show events. Factors playing a part in that included so many various items such as who was leading the production, how much time we had, venue conflicts, time conflicts, etc. I saw that our main problem was that two months was not enough time for full-time students to plan a quality, large-scale event, thus our student organization’s tradition needed to evolve into hosting a yearly non-profit fashion show instead. I also saw an opportunity for our events to be so much more than just a student-based event. For my Barrett, The Honors College Thesis, I created a public relations campaign to promote a fashion show I produced, and analyze the impact of the media campaign on the attendance and overall perception of the show. I conducted secondary and primary research regarding our past fashion shows, including relevant interviews with previous producers, event statistics and a social media audit. Moving forward, I began the branding process for our next show, including building a branding guidelines book, organizing and creatively directing promotional photoshoots, and organizing the timeline for a model casting, picking the venue, coordinating with sponsorships, building a budget, building media lists, drafting media advisories and pitches, and more. In producing the fashion show, I created a magazine to put on every guest’s chair, as well as curated the runway choreography, vendor organization, model and designer lineup.