Role:
Brand & Marketing Strategist
Tools:
Figma
Qualtrics
Photoshop
Illustrator
In Person Booth
Timeline:
4 Months
Overview
The Brand
My Dearest Friends is a startup apparel company specializing in vintage-style university and college merchandise. Founded on the idea that campus culture deserves something more authentic than the standard bookstore rack, the brand targets current students and recent alumni who want to wear their school identity differently.
The company reached out to Utah Valley University seeking support. A student team — myself included — took on the engagement, with my primary ownership over brand strategy, channel design, and marketing collateral production.
The Problem
My Dearest Friends had products and a small customer base, but no scalable way to reach new buyers yet besides their website and word of mouth from the owners. Their own sales data told them that current students and recent alumni were the ones interested in buying, but they had no active presence at the university and no campaign infrastructure to convert that audience.
The company reached out to Utah Valley University seeking support from a student team. My group was fortunate to partner with them and take on the engagement, with my primary ownership over brand strategy, channel design, and marketing.
Strategy
Project Objectives
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Get alumni to buy with an email campaign
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Use flyers & QR codes to get more students interested and buying
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Promote the brand at UVU by doing a booth on campus
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Spread the word naturally
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The goal set by the client: 20 new purchases before the end of the semester.
Target Audience & Plan
Once again, the target audience was not our assumption, it came directly from the client's existing sales data. Students and recent alumni were the only consistent buyers. That gave us a clear directive to go to where they already are, and make the brand impossible to miss.
On-Campus Booth - The primary activation. UVU's campus culture has a strong history of booth-driven engagement. We had firsthand knowledge of previous student-run booths generating real results. An in-person presence gave us the ability to introduce the brand on a personal level, in one of the highest foot-traffic areas on campus.
Physical Flyers & Promo Codes - Distributed at the booth and across campus. Each flyer carried a QR code and a unique promo code, giving us a direct way to track which interactions converted to sales. The booth would include a wheel to spin where students would engage with us to win a prize, and gave us the opportunity to explain more about the brand to them.
Alumni Email Campaign - Partnered with UVU departments to reach alumni directly through an official email send. This channel was initiated in February, five months into the relationship-building process required by university policy.
Iteration & Execution
Physical Flyers, Email Campaign, and On-Campus Booth
All marketing collateral was designed within the existing My Dearest Friends brand system. Working collaboratively with the team, I contributed to all four primary deliverables — the physical flyer, the email campaign asset, the booth materials, and the promo code distribution system — using Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator.
Flyers were design to be passed out in person throughout Campus and at the booth. The email flyer was sent out to Alumni with QR codes to the instagram page and the website. The On-Campus booth was set up to give away prizes and discounts, students could follow the instagram page for a chance to spin the wheel and win. Sales resulting from the use of the QR codes or promo codes could be tracked to view impact.
Every asset was built around a single conversion objective: get someone to stop, notice the brand, and take action, follow, scan, and buy.
The Results
102 new Instagram followers gained in one week of booth activation. The account entered the week at 1,420 followers. A single week of in-person engagement drove a 7% audience increase — without any paid promotion.
100 flyers and promo codes distributed across campus, reaching hundreds of students in one of UVU's highest-traffic zones.
1 confirmed sale tracked directly to a distributed promo code.
The alumni email campaign was not deployed before the semester deadline. The university's approval and data-access process — initiated in February — required the full four months to navigate and was not completed in time.
The 20-sale goal was not met.
Impact
Boosting Visibility & Direct Impact
The booth showed that it was the right call. In-person activation outperformed every digital channel for brand introduction. The data is clear: 102 followers in one week from physical presence alone. For a startup with no campus recognition, that kind of direct, face-to-face exposure is difficult to replicate digitally.
What We Learned
The alumni email underestimated institutional complexity. We initiated the partnership early, but not early enough. University data-sharing policies require a level of process that a semester timeline cannot easily absorb. In a future campaign, that partnership would need to be established before the project formally kicks off, or our goal structure would be adjusted to reflect what is actually achievable within the timeline.
The deeper gap was brand connection. We focused on awareness and getting the name out. What we did not do enough of was give students and alumni a reason to care, "Wear your school" is not a differentiator. For this brand to convert at scale, a future campaign needs to build an identity students want to claim, not just recognize. That is the strategic shift I would lead differently.
What I Learned
This project holds a particular place in my work, not because it represents my strongest work, but because of what I learned from it. Working with a real startup, navigating institutional partnerships, and running a live campaign with measurable stakes allowed me to stretch, and ultimately fall short. It sounds corny maybe, but I made mistakes, hit walls, but walked away with a sharper understanding of what it actually takes to move a brand forward and navigate the corporate world. Not meeting your goals is not fun, but every project from here on out will be better.