How many of you actually stop and read the posters taped to the walls of our academic buildings and the Barone Campus Center? Some of you probably instantly answered that you don’t read them, that you are completely involved in campus activities or that you didn’t even see any posters. While many of the posters are brightly colored, students seem to constantly be in a rush.
I believe that Fairfield uses a good variety of ways to advertise events such as physical posters, social media postings and emails. While Fairfield takes advantage of the many ways they can advertise, many students still decide not to attend events, or they just do not pay enough attention to the forms of advertisement on campus.
A good amount of the events occur on the weekend when many students want to go out and drink as opposed to sitting at an event. Also, I have noticed that many students only seem to attend events when they are required to by a professor and must write a reflection paper on it. Many first year students also have to attend events in order to pass their First Year Experience course which forces them to attend campus held events.
I think we as the students are to blame more than the advertising for the low turnout at events. Although the students are to blame, there can still be improvements made in Fairfield’s advertising techniques. One of the improvements that should be made is changing the location of some of the posters.
Students walk in and out of the academic buildings to attend classes every day, but the location of some of the posters are in really bad places. Many are placed along the staircases of these buildings as if students are going to stop on the stairs to read them. The stairs have crazy traffic jams when classes are beginning and ending where students are pushing others just to move an inch. Also, when students walk in the hallways on their phones, they barely even tilt their heads up. Therefore, I don’t think students are going to give these posters the time of day.
As a student, I definitely pay more attention to the emails that I receive. While I pay attention to my emails, I still do not think they are 100 percent efficient for spreading the word about events to other students. I always see student’s email inboxes filled with 1,000 plus emails, and maybe they will occasionally click on one, but they rarely read the full email. I definitely will skim through emails more than I would read a poster, but as a student, if the headline or subject does not appeal to me, then I will completely disregard the email.
One of the emails that I specifically think advertises events successfully is the Engagement at Fairfield emails. It is an entire list of events that are either going on during the week or weekend sorted by each day and time. I normally read through the list quickly to see if anything jumps out at me.
Another way I stay informed is by following many of the Fairfield accounts on Instagram such as sports and clubs. Whenever there is an event coming up, normally an Instagram story or post will be sent out providing more information. Since I am an avid Instagram user, it is hard for me to miss these posts.
I believe that coming up with advertising methods at Fairfield is extremely difficult, because some students will pay attention and some won’t even acknowledge forms of advertisement such as posters and emails. I think Fairfield uses a good variety of techniques, but many students will only pay attention to events they are interested in.
Overall, I think the students are more to blame for not attending the events compared to Fairfield’s advertising techniques. Students, you should take a look now and again, attend an event some time! They could make your Fairfield experience even better.
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