Executive Summary

At the beginning of the semester, five students were placed together as a group and given

a task to accomplish. Throughout the duration of the semester, Taley, David, Toni, Haleigh, and

Kaylin, have worked collaboratively with Bryan Graham and Scotland County Parks and

Recreation. The organization had the task of effectively planning and facilitating their first ever

haunted house. The proceeds from this event would directly benefit the youth of Scotland

County.

Our role in the project was established early on. We were responsible for assisting in the

recruitment of volunteers, promotion of the event via social media and on our campus, and

post-event research. In the weeks leading up to the event itself our team worked together

on-campus and in the community to help accomplish the tasks at hand. We decided that there

were two areas of research that would be most beneficial to the future success of this event. We

wanted to know how people heard about this event, for marketing purposes, and what they’re

overall reaction to the haunted house was.

In this packet, you will find the results of our research and an overall compilation of the

work we have completed throughout the duration of the semester. There were hits and misses,

but overall, we believe that we have accomplished the goals that were set for and by us. The

research we have collected depicts the overall rate of success and the best methods for promotion

and can be used for further endeavors.

a.​ Research: Provide an introductory brief narrative of the kind and amount of research you
​

conducted. Describe any problems you had and how you overcame them.

In the research that the team conducted for the production of the haunted house

“Insanitarium” for Scotland County, we research the prices of the average haunted house, how

other haunted houses flyers looked, as well as how to recruit volunteers. The problems that

occurred were keeping the numbers of volunteers high especially on the night of Halloween

since the volunteers may have had the intentions of visiting other sites for the holiday. Another

issue that occurred during the campaign was the team being able to attend certain organizational

meetings and scheduled nights at the haunted house. Problems with the client of the event there

was a difference of interest of the idea of what the flyer for the haunted house should look like.

We overcame these problems with strong communication with the client and the volunteers

through text messaging, phone calls, on and off campus visits as well as keeping track of the

volunteers through the UNC-Pembroke Community and Civic Engagement (CCE) page.

Initial Primary Research with the client (how many interviews—what did you find out?
​

Through our first official meeting with the client, we were able to discuss the role and

responsibility that our team had to complete in order to successfully give the client what he

needed. The team discussed how often we should post on Scotland County’s social media page

and the team was given a list of dates that were vital for the production for the haunted house.

The team met with the client from monthly through August and October.
 Initial Secondary Research –what kinds of secondary research did you perform at the beginning
​

to become better informed? What was its purpose and what did you find out?

The secondary research is when and where should the team promote and recruit for the

haunted house nights. As a team, we picked the University Center (UC) and the time frame from

12-2 when is during our meeting time for class. We researched how other organization on

campus recruited high numbers of volunteers for their personal events. This helped our team

organize a plan to give our client more than enough assistance for the nights of the event. The

purpose of this helped the team to see how important it is to not only look at the competition but

also how other organizations simple recruit. We found that high peak times on campus and going

to classes helped reach out to volunteers.

Conclusions from Initial Research: did your research identify the need for further primary
​

research or not? For example, did you decide you needed to do an IRB and surveys such as

focus groups or customer interviews to get more information before writing your

communications plan? Explain.

Our initial research, as well as secondary research, was very helpful which allowed the

team to not have to go any further into the primary research. Writing out premade questions to

give to the client assisted with making sure we executed every element of the campaign

successfully. We did not have to conduct a focus group, prior customer interviews to help with

the writing of our plan.

·​ Additional Research during the planning and implementation stages: Describe any additional
​

research you performed while you were writing your plan and implementing it. Why was this

research necessary and did any new information cause you to change your plan and

implementation?

We did not have to take additional steps of research due to the strong initial research plan

and the important questions we asked the client in the first meeting. Any new information would

have just been added to the strong facts and answers we already knew the answers to.

b. ​ ​Planning: Provide a brief narrative how you went about writing your plan. Did you meet

your deadlines and include all components of the plan as instructed? If not, why not?

With the planning of this haunted house, we sat down as a group before meeting with the

client to discuss what kind of question to ask. We planned out who would ask what kind of

questions as well as who would be leading what part of the campaign. Any deadlines we have

placed we meant them except on date to present for professor Harrison due to

miscommunication. We made sure to delegate and never cross over each other with our roles.

Taley Strickland, Team Captain

David Scott

Kaylin Whitaker

Haleigh Epperson

Toni Nelson

With the creation of the flyer, we thought about using the website Canva that helps create flyers,

social media poster, and website designs online.

- Canva
- Simple design (Insanitarium in bold) Make sure that it is known that it is a hayride and

haunted prison.

- Consider location and a visual map

- Dates and times

- Also make postcard size flyers (same design) October 17th,19th, 31st

- Have a day to pass out small flyers in the UC with candy

-Ideas for left side photo (cell, zombie hand, military, or eyes.)

(iStock.com purchasing pictures)

Subsection:

·​ Communication Plan
​

We used a plan that we created at the initial start of our research. Sadly, we were unable

to present a formal detailed plan that included our first communication plan. Miscommunication

took place when the duration of the flyer process was going on. Luckily, we were able to have

another plan that described what our duties were and the station of the duties. “See Appendix D

for Video Footage Plan.”

c.​ Implementation: Describe in detail what occurred during the implementation phase.
​

Describe how well you were able to follow the plan. Under what circumstances did you

improvise or deviate from the plan and why?

During the implementation phase of the campaign, the group began the task that was assigned to

the team by the client. The first step was to create a flyer the discussed during the planning stage

to use the website Canva to assist with the production of the flyers. The team gave the client

various ideas, but ultimately the client did not use our flyers. “See Appendix A for team
member’s flyers.” Instead, the client sent the team two designs to pick from via email. “See

Appendix B for the client’s flyers” This took away from the team’s task and deviated from the

main assignment. After meeting with the client to clarify what exactly should the team be doing

to assist the client in any way, social media become the team’s task to focus on.

Social Media

• Money Off

- If people add them to their social media they can get $1 off. (Put on the general flyer so

people will know)

• Interviews

- Surveys

• Taking pictures for opening night, making sure we are posting the dates on Instagram,

Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat.

- Ask about a Geo-filter “See Appendix C for Geo-filter”

Video

- Take video footage for potential marketing use for next year haunted house. “See

Appendix D for video footage plan.”

The team promoted the event on their personal social media pages and monitored the

Insanitarium’s Facebook page to keep track of reviews from the audience. The promotion for the
haunted house nights was completed by all teams members via social media and going to the UC

during peak times. This where volunteers could sign up with the team’s personal computers as

well as receive information about the dates of the haunted house.

The various nights of the haunted house random surveys before and after the experience

was over were conducted. Video and photos were taken on the team’s personal cell phones and

camcorder. These steps were taken so that the client could have tangible information to refer to if

a SWOT analysis would be conducted as well as having images and video for the social media

pages.

d.​ E
​ valuation: Provide a brief narrative of the results of the campaign and future

recommendations for your client.

The team’s campaign was successful we reached our goal of getting numerous volunteers

for every night of the haunted house, Scotland County’s social media pages were updated with

flyers and post. The team communicated effectively through the app GroupMe in case of

questions or unexpected circumstances.

The surveys that were completed at the different nights of the haunted house showed that

Facebook was the best social media handle that gave the audience information about the haunted

house. The overall rating of the haunted house was a 5 which represented that the audience was

pleased (49.7 percent). Lastly from the surveys that best experience was the clowns. “See

Appendix E for Survey Results.”

Despite the pleasant reviews via survey, Facebook comments that were left on the

Scotland County’s page stated otherwise. There were various complaints about the wait time in
the lines, the haunted house ending earlier than advertised, unscheduled breaks that lasted 40

minutes and lack of thrill. Most comments were very similar and many people were not happy.

“See Appendix F for Facebook Comments.”

The advice that the team would give to the client would be very clear and concise with

what you desire the campaigns team to assist with. Taking into account that when working with

students that our campus responsibilities come first then follows what is asked of the team.

Making sure that you communicate with not only the team leader but the other members of the

team if there is any questions or concerns. Truly reading the Facebook comments and taking

heed of what the audience complained about. Depending heavy on student workers should be cut

down in the following years and making an announcement that the audience cannot and will not

be touched.

Subsections:

·​ Summative Evaluation: Provide a narrative that repeats the goals and objectives of your
​

campaign and state how well you met them. If you failed to meet or if you surpassed your goals

and objectives then explain reasons or hypothesize why. Your plan should have included the

research methodology you would use to evaluate the results of the campaign, e.g., observations,

surveys, interviews, counting the number of attendees, getting client feedback, etc. Did you use

the research methods stated in your plan? If not, why not

The goals and objectives of the team’s campaign were to recruit high numbers for the

haunted house nights, assist with promotions via social media and word of mouth. While meeting

any and all of our client’s request. The team met these goals and objectives by researching what

day and time are peak times to have a table inside of the UC, we kept constant communication
with the client and the team. We asked questions when we were unsure of what exactly to do and

the team thought proactively.

Team member, David Scott, created the surveys that were used for the haunted house

nights to see what the overall feedback from the audience was. “See Appendix G for Survey

Questions.” We discussed making this our research method in the initial planning process and it

reflected conflicting data versus what the audience commented on social media.

Formative Evaluation: Write a narrative and use bullets as appropriate to succinctly recommend

future actions for the client based on your assessment and evaluation of the campaign.

For the client’s first time doing a haunted house overall, the production and execution of

this event were adequate. There is always room for improvement and overall for the client as

well as the team, it was a learning experience.

·​ Remember that if you plan on using the campaign’s class again that the team will be students
​

first and the distance between campus and the site may be an issue.

·​ Communication is vital.
​

·​ Having patience and remembering that the team is still maturing in the public relations field.
​

·​ Laying out exactly you need assistance with and sticking to the plan.
​

·​ Always making sure everyone involved feels like a team.

​

Lessons Learned: Antonia Nelson

Insanitarium Haunted House

Time Is Important
 This was the first year that this haunted house was being put on, so being apart of a first

year event was educational, interesting, and somewhat frustrating. I found that what I thought

was enough time, wasn’t. I personally felt that the client didn’t spend enough time deciding what

they specifically wanted from us so we were off to a shaky start on knowing what exactly our

client was expecting of us. Once that was figured out, it went smoothly.

How to Prevent This:

·​ B
​ e ahead of the game and ask very clear what is needed.

·​ R
​ epeat back what the client has answered to make sure there are no misunderstandings.

·​ C
​ heck in regularly on what is being worked on.

Sometimes What You Did Won’t Be Used:

When we started on this event, we were asked to create some promotional billboards and

advertisements for postcards. We created three and none were used. We were frustrated at the

fact, but later realized that sometimes what you are creating just isn’t what the client is wanting.

What I Learned:

·​ B
​ e patient

·​ D
​ on’t get discouraged

·​ A
​ sk how you can do better for the client

·​ A
​ sk prior to creative work what the client has in mind. Tell them to be specific.

Communication:

I think what we struggled with was communication. Not in the sense that we literally

didn’t communicate but in a sense that the client was being misunderstood. I do think that has a
lot to do with conflicting schedules and a lot of word to mouth communication. By the last

couple of weeks I believe it was going smoothly but the first month was very rough in what was

expected and who was doing what.

How it Can Be Better:

·​ W
​ riting things out

·​ A
​ lways staying in contact with the client

·​ D
​ ouble checking on what is said and needed to be done

Lesson’s Learned: Taley Strickland

Always Have a Backup Plan:

One thing that really sticks out to me when I think about the lessons that I have learned

from taking this course and working with our client is the incident that caused David & I to

unexpectedly not show up for one of the dates of the haunted house. The dilemma was not that

David got sick and was unable to go to the haunted house, but the fact that he had all of our

research materials and I was unable to get them from him. Had I been able to, going by myself to

complete research would have been no problem.

In hindsight, I realized that I could have went out by myself anyway and maybe written

down research without the official papers. It would have been more difficult, but it was feasible.

I learned that, as Public Relations specialists, we must be prepared for the unexpected. In the

future, when working with organizations, I would definitely make sure to note that everyone

should have copies of the necessary materials in case of incidents such as this one.
Lesson’s Learned: Haleigh Epperson

Communication is always key:

During this project I learned that communication is everything. Being the first to

communicate and make the initial gesture is always important, it shows your concern and level

of importance. I think that the communication between the client and us as a group struggled

from time to time. It's not that we didn't communicate but that it was never fully clear. We had to

ask many times what our actual role was and what the client needed from us. I also think that we

struggled with communication in the sense of what the client needed us to. For example thinking

that Toni and I were going to a board meeting but actually the client needed us to dress up and

scare the board members, not communicating at all. Things were not explained to us fully, at

most times we might not have fully understood what was being asked of us as a group. To make

this better in the future, I think we should ask more questions, in a meeting write down the

client's directions and refer back to them in later meeting times and stay in touch with the client

regularly.

Time:

Time is very important, you never can have enough time to do something. Your client

may ask you to create something within a day and not even use it but time is never wasted. You

can always be doing something to help your client. I also think time was an issue because some

meeting times and meetings were not communicated very well causing for our group to wait or

show up at a canceled meeting. Time is key when working for a client, you want to get as much

done as possible and keep moving forward. The way time can be improved is through
communication. More communication and understanding what is being asked of us will improve

time management. When we knew what we were being asked and what we were doing as a

group we were on top of the task at hand and everything went fast and efficient.

Don't take everything personal:

You can not tell someone's tone and attitude in a text or email. So call them, leave a

message! Clients like up front and honest people and understand when something comes up. So

give them the benefit of the doubt. You may also be asked to perform a task and your work may

not be used no matter how good you may think it is or if it is better than what the client picks.

You learn through experience so take all the experience as you can get.

Lesson’s Learned: David Scott

Make sure everyone is involved in the conversation:

Communication was going well, or we thought. At one point, communication between

the members of the group and the client was going slightly well. Somehow, we missed an

important meeting with Mr. Harrison. Our client was supposed to attend this meeting to discuss

our plans, such as our roles, for the haunted attraction. We were so focused on meeting our

client’s needs that we forgot to inform our professor on what exactly we were doing. With all

this going on, confusion began between our roles with the client and the expectations from our

professor. I’ve learned it’s very important to make sure all parties involved in a campaign project

are involved in the current conversations taken place. One little mix up can cause lots of

confusion.
Lesson Learned: Kaylin Whitaker

A lesson I learned throughout this process is that it is important to stick with your initial

instinct. I felt from jump that since this was the client’s first time conducting a production as a

haunted house I knew it was risky for our team to assist. With our team being so fresh to

actually working with a client and exercising the RPIE process it was a learning experience. I

told the group from the very beginning I was uncomfortable with the actually campaign my

instinct told me that would cause issues later down the road. Thankfully the team respected my

personal feelings and schedule. To the next campaign class stick your instinct and speak up.
Appendix

Appendix A: Team member’s Flyers

Appendix B: The Client’s Flyers
Appendix C: Geo-Filter
Appendix D: Video Footage Plan
Appendix E: Survey Results
Appendix F: A few Facebook Comments
Appendix G: Surveys

Insanitarium Rating

Rate your experience (1 Bad - 5 Great)

1​​ 2 3 4 5

What did you like best about your experience?

Clown Room Hayride Doctor's Lair

Bodybag Room Jail Cells Military Gunfire

Other:

Insanitarium

How did you hear about Insanitarium?

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UNCP Serve Word of mouth​ Posters Billboard

Other: