220 PRODUCTIONS

During my undergraduate academic career at West Virginia University, I noticed the need for a promotional and marketing company designed to accommodate the needs of small businesses and student organizations. West Virginia University rests in a small town with a population of fewer than 60,000 individuals and over 25,000 being students. This provided an excellent model to cater to small businesses largely founded by alumni or current students.

While gathering research on such a firm, I noticed the emergence of social network sites such as Facebook and Myspace and quickly noticed a tool that could grow into our competitive advantage. Creating a competitive advantage became my first priority. Along with my co-founder, we began to gather market research and list compiled of student email addresses from student organizations and various events. We understood that our advantage depended on ways to attract, gather, and track students at WVU. With this information base and our ability to attract the collegiate market through sponsored events, we began to create leverage for any company or individual needing to market to Morgantown’s target audience.

After a number of successful production events to gather and track information from our target audience, 220 Productions started to become a brand. 220 became powerful brand by connecting advertisements and events to students via new media.

Nightlife companies began to take interest in our services. These companies were small businesses that couldn’t afford an internal marketing or promotional base. New media resources such as Facebook and Myspace became excellent and efficient way to market to their target audience. 220 Productions had created and maintained large groups and friends compiled of WVU students and individuals in the surrounding community. Consequently, 220 Productions became the premier company for businesses needing to attract the collegiate market mainly due to our use of new media. We began to expand in that direction. I started to acquire management and marketing knowledge from other similar production companies. We began interviewing and hiring graphic designers with the ability to design a number of marketing necessities such as flyers, websites, blogs and logos. As a production company, we wanted to facilitate as much in house services as possible in an attempt to specifically cater to every client.

Landing substantial Morgantown nightlife contracts solidified our work and provided an excellent opportunity in undergrad to develop marketing and management skills in the emergence of new media. We gained knowledge and the ability to attract the collegiate target audience within our 60,000 person community. Our services grew to flyer design, website design, full graphic design, event planning and full marketing planning. Our clients began to spread to various other small business categories including non-profit organizations. Our natural ability to market to the collegiate market due to their and our dependence on new media has become our specialty and strength. In the future, 220 Productions will continue to grow to a number of different markets and services.