SPARC Marketing

The SPARC festival is one of the biggest student and academic driven events on campus.It is given its name "SPARC" as it highlights scholarship, performance, art, research, and creativity of the student body. It is a time to see what your fellow students have been up to for the past year. I think that this festival is a great idea, but should not be marketed as a festival; it does not give festival vibes. Rather, the university should market it as a "fair" as it reminds me of a science fair, and not so much a festival. If the university wants to make it a successful "festival " with higher student turn-out rates, then they should turn it into an actual festival with food and raffles, or things of that nature. This is just one of the aspects of SPARC marketing that sticks out to me. In addition to what it is marketed as, I am also conflicted with how it was marketed this year. As a Mount student, I know what the SPARC festival is by default because it is one of the things that this school hypes up to prospective students and incoming freshman. When thinking about the way that it was marketed this year, it truly lacked in care and creativity. If there was good marketing, I did not see it. The only time I was made aware of the festival was by professors that required me to attend. I feel as though this does not do justice to the hardwork that each student presenter put forth into their presentations. There was not any colorful graphics on posters or emails sent, and I had little idea of the type of topics that were presented. There was not much effort to highlight any individual presentations or topics. The only way I found out about certain topics was by word of mouth or professors and the last minute email with zoom links and times. If I may suggest, each department should send out emails regarding students with presentations in that department. The only department I see that does this successfully is the art and music department. I have gotten many memorable emails from them about their student's SPARC performances. Overall, the students did very well, but the advertisment of the event should align with the effort of the student presentors!