Miss Syracuse helps record label students craft dog walk promotions

Collaboration and brainstorming leaped to the forefront of MUSB 420: Student Record Label, as the reigning Miss Syracuse, Gayle Petri, met with students to explore ways to design dog drawings and an event poster to showcase the “Disney Dog” theme of the 7th annual Lend a Paw for Autism Dog Walk.

“In the past, we as a class have these great ideas but are lacking the skill set in art and design to actually put them to life, so it was nice to be able to discuss ideas that seemed possible since we had a talented artist in the room,” said Natalie Wilks, a senior Communication: Public Relations major with a Music Industry minor, from Syracuse.

“Gayle was great at suggesting how to place the text that describes what the event is versus how to design the dogs in order to make the poster eye-catching.” – Natalie Wilks

Ms. Petri is a senior at Ringling College of Art and Design, in Sarasota, Fla., and a daughter of Senior Lecturer Armand Petri. She began the class, huddling with 25 students in the cavernous lecture hall in Thompson Hall on Feb. 14, by sketching out ideas before adding color and detail.

“Students did a great job making design suggestions,” Ms. Wilks, who coordinated the 6th annual Dog Walk a year ago, reported. All it took was a student’s suggestion to tap key components from the Disney movie “Up” to spur far-reaching conversations about how to incorporate the dog walk’s Disney theme into a cohesive event poster.

“Gayle was great at suggesting how to place the text that describes what the event is versus how to design the dogs in order to make the poster eye-catching,” noted Wilks, who is serving in a voluntary capacity at this year’s walk.

Petri worked with students to create designs that resembled a Disney dog – they chose to focus on Goofy, Pluto, Dug, 101 Dalmatians and Slinky. Petri also helped students craft the marketing strategy for last year’s dog walk.

Lend a Paw for Autism Dog Walk, which raises funds to support the Institute for Autism Research at Canisius College, will be held on Saturday, April 29, beginning at the Lake Shore Savings Clock Tower and ending at Dods Grove. Last year’s dog walk raised $2,000.

Social media was another marketing facet that Petri, who manages three Instagram accounts – personal, Miss Syracuse and promotion of her own work – discussed with students.

Wilks said a high priority of the Student Record Label class is to learn how to effectively promote an event. “The use of social media is super important to us as we plan and execute this event. Gayle suggested creating a cohesive theme on social media to make the page look like it is well thought out and planned.”

Recycling parts of social media posts by recreating them so they can be placed into other promotional vehicles was also advocated. An example Petri cited was the highlighting a piece of artwork she promoted by taking a photograph and placing it as one post, and then taking a video of it and posting that separately.

“She said if you are trying to promote something, different ways to showcase the same event without just reposting the exact same poster is important. People get bored seeing the same exact poster over and over, but if you come up with unique ways to incorporate a common theme, people will gain interest in the event,” Wilks said.

The critical importance of authenticity – both in video content and on social media – was emphasized by Petri. “Rather than making everything look perfect and pretty, the world wants to see that the people behind the Instagram page are real, entertaining people with authentic lives,” Wilks said.

Petri urged students to post videos of their own dogs as well as behind-the-scenes event planning and, perhaps, even a day in the life of a Fredonia student to help draw people to HAIL! Fredonia Records social media pages.