Spring 2024 - As part of the Ole Miss IMC capstone course, this project was the culmination of the various communications and marketing skills that IMC seniors had learned over the past four years. Each capstone course was assigned a real-world client, and classes were divided into multiple groups - “marketing agencies” - who then competed in creating a brand and marketing campaign for the client.

My class had the opportunity to work with McCormick’s, a quaint restaurant located in Ole Miss’s on-campus hotel, The Inn at Ole Miss. In the initial client meeting, McCormick’s executives explained that they wanted a campaign to address the restaurant’s exposure issue among key consumer groups. After the meeting, the whole class developed an extensive survey and sent it to various audiences, including Ole Miss students, parents of Ole Miss students, and Ole Miss alumni. The survey’s results provided the foundation for each agency’s campaign direction.

Survey respondents indicated that they felt that McCormick’s had no true identity and that they would frequent the restaurant more if it were an Ole Miss-themed restaurant. Based upon the survey results, my agency decided to develop a campaign centered on the restaurant’s identity and Ole Miss culture. Our campaign slogan was “McCormick’s: A Rebel Experience”.

To address the awareness issues, we identified two key audiences and subsequent brand personas, and we determined the best communication tactics to engage these audiences, based upon survey results.

In early May 2024, each agency delivered their presentation to McCormick’s executives. My agency had the honor of winning the competition, with executives making the following remarks about our campaign:

“The entire team was knowledgeable and well spoken. So much great energy. The research was very thorough - especially the comparison of restaurants in other college towns. The brick program and Grove Collective partnership stood out. Good addition to put a McCormick's navigation button on the Alumni Association website. Well done.”

McCormick’s will implement our winning campaign into their current marketing and communications strategies. This was an awesome project to work on, and it provided a wealth of knowledge and experience in campaign development and execution. Link provided above to view as a PDF.