AWNY: 2011 Advertising Career Conference Recap
I had the privilege to attend AWNY (Advertising Women of New York) this past weekend with twenty-three other students and marketing professor Dr. Tracy Tuten. We left Friday, November 11th and returned Sunday, November 13th. We toured advertising agency, Dentsu on Friday and partook in the Advertising Career Conference (ACC) all day Saturday. There were several wonderful key-note speakers over the two days, with three different workshops the second day.
The first keynote speaker was social media marketing guru and head of AOL's media and marketing, David Shing (@Shingy). He highlighted several trends in social media, as well as proper implementation methods. He also highlighted several up-and-coming trends in social media marketing.
Augmented reality is a concept that allows users to more instantly interact with the world around them. Consumers may hold up a Lego's box, and see the Lego fully built and moving as if it were already assembled and ready to play with. Consumers may also use augmented reality while shopping. Users may get their phones out, hold their phones up while walking down a grocery store isle, to then find notifications of sales near them popping up on their screens.
Augmented reality displayed on cell phone
The second key-note speaker was Colleen DeCourcy (@Decourcy), founder and CEO of Socialistic. Ms. DeCourcy did a fantastic job explaining the passion, drive and creativity that is required to be successful in the advertising industry. She also encouraged students to fight for their ideas and to not be discouraged with less than fulfilling beginning jobs. She stressed the importance of hard-work and remaining creative, urging to not get bogged down in the monotony of "working".
I found her speech to be incredibly enlightening and helpful as a student who desires to one day be in the advertising industry. She gave very honest, first hand information, and is very successful and hard working. It was also refreshing and yet inspiring to see people in advanced areas of their careers, who also love their jobs.
As mentioned earlier, we were allowed to take three workshops on Saturday. Choosing my desired three workshops definitely posed a challenge (too many great topics), but I eventually narrowed it down to "Creative: Ideas first", "Six Tips for Getting a Job", and "Fashion Advertising".
My creative workshop was definitely one of my favorites. Tyler DeAngelo was the teacher and spoke on ideas vs. execution. An idea is timeless – everyone should understand the idea. This is a concept that is hugely important in marketing. If no one understands the idea, no one understands the message. Ideas should also be:
The idea needs to be simple, back to the necessity of everyone needs to understand the idea. The idea should be something that makes sense to everyone, and can be seen by a large audience, and still be relatable.
The idea may also uncover a truth. Mr. DeAngelo showed the Burger King "Freakout" commercial, where Burger King removed their signature burger “The Whopper” for a day. The video captures many of their customers’ reactions when they are told the Whopper is no longer being served. Customers became outraged, thus uncovering their enjoyment and patronage to the certain product. Link is included below.
Execution is the process in which the ideas are implemented. It is important to have a strong idea, but to have a strong execution is vital. Execution should be done in a way that is very exciting and new. It should draw users and consumers in, and should be interesting. Mr. DeAngelo showed a video of the campaign the “Best job in the world”. This execution is very smart, and relies on “older methods” of marketing, such as newspaper ads, to create a strong and very impressionable ad. Link is included below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa8fHfo4uEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI-rsong4xs
Six Tips for Getting a Job
This session was run by author and CEO Kathy Aaronson. This workshop was very insightful, and very raw. Ms. Aaronson is extremely driven and knowledgeable. She gave several pointers on how to answer some of the more common questions such as “Tell me about yourself”.
Ms. Aaronson gave a list of questions that many students should ask, but do not. She also gave insight on how to best answer questions, by relating them to the current situation, or, the interview. She also answered many questions at length such as “how do I answer what is my greatest weakness” – everyone’s favorite of questions.
We also talked about remembering your “spark”. Spark, being the reason one chooses advertising, it’s what got you interested, or “sparked” your interest. This is vital for anyone to look at when entering a job field. Reflecting and asking “Why do I want to do this?” “What made me choose this field?” If you cannot accurately answer these questions, how will you interview for the position. If you cannot accurately answer these questions, do you really want the job?
I chose this workshop because fashion advertising is what inspired me to choose marketing as my major. The workshop was helpful in the sense of hearing the information straight from professionals in the industry. Kaitlin Moughty Senior Marketing Manager of Freshpair.com was one of the speakers. She was very knowledgeable and articulated her responsibilities very well.
Ms. Moughty spoke mostly on digital marketing, seeing as FreshPair.com is an online company. She spoke largely about the importance of networking and knowing someone in the industry or company. One thing that was very interesting is she had never had an internship or job relating to fashion until a friend mentioned a job opening. Ms. Moughty said she goes to “meetups” from Meetup.com and has expanded not only her network, but has also gained insight on new, developing companies and trends, which has in turn helped her to be more innovative at work.
Overall, the trip was amazing, I definitely didn’t want to leave. I learned so much and met many people I was unaware were in my classes. I walked away from the trip with a new perspective on advertising, New York City, and many new friends. My dreams of moving to NYC to work in advertising were only affirmed. The trip was well worth any amount of money, and the experience was absolutely priceless.
