“Who’s Victor” promotion begins

Portland State business students gathered on campus Wednesday, May 9 to hold an informative session to propose a contingency plan and promotion ideas for the upcoming “Viking Victory Bash,” scheduled for Tuesday, May 22 from 11-3 p.m. in PSU’s Park Blocks.

The session included officials from the Viking athletic department and Athletic Director Tom Burman. The event will feature sports such as wrestling and men’s and women’s basketball. Local radio station Jammin’ 95.5 FM will also play music at the bash.

Burman said he’s pleased that the School of Business proposed such an idea.”Hopefully it will introduce our program to students,” Burman said. “This is one staff so hopefully they’ll make steps to generate awareness.”

PSU business student Rhett Acelar will act as master of ceremonies and promote the victory bash. He’s impressed with the support they’re getting from the athletic department.

“I’ll tell you, we’re really excited about this promotion. We’re really pumped up about it,” he said. “And we’re impressed with the presentation plan we came up with.”

The business students said one of their objectives for this event is to create a more positive student awareness on campus. But they said they’re planning on implementing their ad campaign to reassure the success of the campaign.

Officials said the “Who’s Victor” banner message strategy was used because it has created an ambiguous buzz on campus.

“We have a great class and we came up with great advertising,” Acelar said of the banners.

And by now, many have probably seen the advertising all across campus with signs reading, “Where’s Victor?” Officials said these banners will hang around campus along with green and white balloons to signify the event and to attract students to attend.

Don Dickinson, director of advertising and management for the School of Business, said he’s elated that the students can participate in such a project.”This staff has become super aggressive. It’s a concept where students can engage on campus,” Dickinson said. “(The Event) includes planning, research and a detailed document.”

This event is a collaboration between the School of Business and the athletic department. In fact, the athletic department allocated $2,500 to the School of Business for the event. Pizza Hut and Pepsi will donate products for all who attend on May 22.

Officials said there will be several prizes to give away as well. Caps with Portland State logos and other prizes will be available at the PSU athletic department Web site www.goviks.com.

Dickinson said the students will implement a plan called Product Familiarization Activity (PFA) during the event. The purpose of the PFA idea will be to incorporate answers to questions at different booths.

Jihad Qutub, public relation director for the event, said getting everyone together on campus is what the group would like to achieve.

“Our goal is to get as many people to know about this as possible. We sent out a press release to many media outlets to let them know about it,” Qutub said.