by

Boston Marathon 2013

It’s a story we’ve all heard by now. Horrific images we’ve all seen multiple times either on the news, social media, or both.

On Monday, April 15th, 2013 at the annual Boston Marathon, two explosions fifteen seconds apart went off at the finish line leaving three dead and 183 hospitalized and more injured. Countless limb amputations – both by the initial bomb, and later in hospitals.

Across the world people were affected by this. From people who ran in the race, their families, the spectators, and the injured; to everyone else who heard about it on the news, social media, or from friends and family calling them – from Boston or elsewhere.

The amount of people helping, in an incredible amount of ways, is overwhelming. Though this event is horribly tragic, and has shaken everyone everywhere, people are still coming together to help each other and spread a feeling and message of hope through tragedy.

Immediately after the bombs went off, people began responding. From runners to bystanders to already stationed first responders, everyone got involved.

15 National Guard soldiers ran in the marathon – with 40-pound backpacks on their back that contained water, gear, and first-aid and trauma kits. When they arrived to the scene of the bombs they immediately got involved and used their training and supplies to help whoever they could.

Though the impact of this event is tragic and negative for the most part, something we must all remember and look to is how it has brought people together to help each other; and that no matter who you are, or where you’re from; we’re all the same in a tragedy and we will all come together.

As many people have quoted in regards to this tragedy, Mr. Fred Rogers said; “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Stay safe everyone; and remember to hold on to hope.

(yes, I am aware this post is a week delayed as a response to last Monday’s tragedy, I apologize. I have had it in a draft for the last week but have not gotten around to publishing it until now.)

by

Agent 99 Glitter Gala

Last night I had the awesome opportunity to take part in a genious marketing campaign at Agent 99 (a boutique in downtown Kingston on Princess Street) created my IMC (integrated marketing communications) students at St. Lawrence College.

The campaign was created mainly to increase traffic to the store Monday and Tuesday which are the store’s low-traffic days. Originally the campaign was a VIP event where high school students would come in after hours to the store to try on dresses for prom and graduation and get their hair and makeup done to see “the whole look”.

But on the actual night of, when the event ran, there were also mini cupcakes, goodie bags, a movie playing, and a sale on shoes!

I thoroughly enjoyed this event, but must admit I’m somewhat surprised with my experience. When I first heard the 2nd years present their pitch, I was instantly interested and wanted to take part. I was afraid though that I couldn’t because I felt pressure that I would be obligated to buy a dress if I attended. I was so excited to find out I was under no obligation to buy anything, and when the students came back to our class to put us on the email invite list!

I received the first e-mail invite the night before the event was to take place, and I was bummed that I couldn’t attend because I would be busy baby-sitting that night. I RSVP’d that I could not attend and responded why. I actually by that point already had found and bought my grad dress, but still wanted to attend to take advantage of the hair and makeup; and maybe find jewelry or shoes.

However, when I attended, both my mom and I were very pleasantly surprised. We were enthusiastically greeted in a cheerful environment and what things were available and going on where explained to me. I had lots of cupcakes, took a goody bag, tried on many dresses, and definitely took advantage of getting my hair and makeup done. But the best and most surprising part is I found a dress that my mom and I (and everyone else in the store) instantly fell in love with; and bought it AND a belt!

Overall it was an amazing and completely successful event. (I would be curious to know how many sales they actually made that night!) Great job well done, IMC students!! 😀

 

by

IMC@SLC In Toronto

This past Friday, IMC@SLC students went on a field trip to Toronto, along with a few second year students from the college IMC program.

The first stop was Dundas Square where students were given time to explore the area and try to complete a scavenger hunt. A few things that I found on the scavenger hunt were; an ad-free spot in Dundas Square (picture available in gallery), a flyer being handed out in front of the Eaten Centre (Black History Month flyers), an ad that is steps away from purchase (H&M – pictures available in gallery), and also estimated which ad(s) cost the most; those being probably the H&M ads that would be $1 million per print ad (of which there was 3) plus the moving/video ad with them that would be more than $1 million, or the Air Transat ad – which had 3 very large parts to it.

The next stop was Fuze Marketing. Here we got a tour of the building, and then got time to talk to people who work there (a creative resource manager/digital project coordinator, a copyrighter, and someone from the creative team) before having some pizza. Things I took away from this visit was that to get a job in this area it’s all about who you know and your connections. We were advised to get to know as many people in the business as you can and have good standing with them/keep in contact, and that doing internships are a very good way to get hired. Though the tip we were given about internships is to get involved as much as possible; if you sit and wait for people to come to you with work, it won’t happen – go to people and offer to help them, ask what you can do, etc; get as involved in as many projects as you can. Essentially just make it more trouble for the people you are working for to fire you than to hire you full-time.

After Fuze Marketing and a lunch break, we went to Bell Media. After a very (unfortunately) brief but very interesting talk with the marketing manager at Bell Media, we were given a tour of the building. We saw the Toronto breaking news room, the business channel studio, e-talk, the Marilyn Dennis show studio, and finally, got to be in the audience at Much Music for the Much VJ search after show. This was a very interesting experience. It was neat to see the inside of all the studios and how small they actually are though they appear very large on TV. A thing that really caught my attention was that there wasn’t cameramen in most of the studios; the cameras were remote-controlled robots that were either controlled by the person onscreen, or from a control room. Much Music was the only place I saw cameramen. It was also a little.. odd? To see first-hand what it’s like being on live television and realizing how fake the VJs or personalities really are, along with how the audience must be fake as well and act happy and excited no matter how bored or grumpy they are.

I think the three key takeaways from the trip for me would be:

  1. A work week is never only the hours it is “supposed” to be, and your day never ends when your “shift” or whichever is finished – work is until the projects is done (which is never because there are always more).
  2. Professionalism is key. Don’t fangirl over celebs if you work with them, don’t come to work in sweats, etc.
  3. Connections are important. Network, network, network! Positive influences and impressions!
by

Direct Marketing

On Thursday, March 28th, St. Lawrence College’s 2nd year Integrated Marketing students presented direct marketing pitches to a client who owns several downtown businesses. The IMC@SLC focus program students got to sit in on these presentations.

In my opinion the top two campaigns are “InstaOutfit” for Blueprint, and “Glitter Gala” for Agent 99.

I think InstaOutfit will be successful because it is simple, and has a very broad target market. Unlike some of the other campaigns, anyone can participate; not just those invited or ones from a specific school. It is used on a media that is fairly universal and appeals to the target audience perfectly. Many college and university students have iphones and use instagram, as well as high school students. The benefits of this for customers is great; without taking too much money from the client. Everyone who participates – which only requires them to post on instagram a photo of them in their dream outfit from Blueprint, and give their name and preferred form of contact on the sign-up sheet – gets a 15% off coupon, and the winner (person who gets most likes on instagram) gets a $40 gift certificate they might use to buy their dream outfit. This campaign fits the client’s needs well in increasing traffic on their social media and instagram and creating exciting buzz about the store.

The Glitter Gala sounds promising in that it is definitely appealing to the target audience. I even wanted to be a part of it myself! The target market is girls in grade 12 or attending prom. A selected number of girls will be invited to the event by email, and may bring up to two friends – though the client commented that it should be up to four friends instead; the more the merrier. The event is an evening to try on prom dresses at Agent 99 and have your hair and makeup done by professionals so that you can see the “whole look”. No additional offer will be added to this campaign, as the night in and of itself is enough of an incentive and reward. This campaign is purely of benefit to the client; no cost for her, and traffic will be increased to her boutique for buying prom dresses. The likelihood that the girls who attend will purchase the prom dresses they try on is high, mostly out of guilt; but also they are much more likely to find the dress they love when they’re able to see the entire look.

Recommendations I would make to improve their campaigns would be to maybe make the Glitter Gala available to more potential costumers. I was very disappointed knowing I probably would not be invited to participate, even though I would also feel guilty to go and not necessarily purchase a dress there – or at least not that night. As far as the InstaOutfit campaign goes, I think it is perfect just the way it is and love the idea.

The main components of a good direct marketing campaign would be appeal to your target market, choosing a correct target market, and meeting the client’s or campaign’s needs or goals. You must choose carefully a target market that is in the client’s or campaign’s needs, and find a way to appeal to them in a way that benefits both the target audience and the client in a proper balance.

I am not sure which presentation was the best presentation necessarily. Or not clearly the best. I found that many of the presentations had group members running late, people unsure what to say when, and a few of the groups even seemed unsure all the details of their campaign and didn’t explain well. Some people tried overly hard to be professional in the way they talked and moved; and in the end just ended up being annoying because you could tell they were trying too hard. However, taking all this into consideration I would have to say that the InstaOutfit was the best presentation purely because their campaign was the best, was explained well, and they did not over-do their presentation.

 

by

IMC@SLC

IMC@SLC (Integrated Marketing Communications at St. Lawrence College) is a focus program in the Limestone District School Board. Students in this focus program come to St. Lawrence College and, with their classroom as a MacLab room, get team-taught by both college professors and a high school teacher to gain 4 high school credits (one is a co-op) at the same time as gaining 3 college credits. Students in this course take part in a co-op the entire month of May where they go to a business in the community and become their official marketing person during that month.

So far I am really enjoying this course. Learning about marketing is much more interesting than I thought it would, and may actually use this in the future as a job to make money – not necessarily a career, though.

As far as the experience in this course for getting to know how college is; I think that is by far the most valuable lessons we can learn here.  Being in the actual college, being taught by real professors, and having the college expectations applied to your work, deadlines, etc, is a great way to get prepared for college. And the best part, I think, about it, is that because students ARE technically still high school students while in this course (but also officially part-time students at SLC and have full access to everything but the gym membership) if you have extreme issues with work, or meeting deadlines; their is a high school teacher to buffer a little bit and help mediate any issues you may have and advocate for you. So you are not completely overwhelmed by being thrown into college because you do not have to move from classroom to classroom and get lost, or have all the expectations with absolutely no room to move those; you get to “safely” have a backup, but are still being “baptized by fire”.

I think IMC@SLC should almost be a mandatory part of high school, or a course similar to it should be made; because high school just does NOT prepare students enough for post secondary.

by

March Break Marketing

March Break is a much-needed week off in the middle of winter, when it feels like forever before spring weather will finally be here.

March Break is generally marketed to parents or children, not so much to older students. Most places market to parents who can’t get the time off and need something to do with their kids. March Break camps, activities in Toronto like Disney On Ice, etc. Events will even say  things outright like “need something for your kids to do on march break?”

Cruises and tropical destinations make it look like they are marketing to kids, but are really marketing to the parents. They will show all the fun and play that interests the kids, but then show all the relaxing things like candle light dinners and massages or spas while your kids are looked after and having lots of fun. Lots of fun, fast-moving commercials showing huge water slides, themed tea parties and play rooms juxtaposed against relaxing, calm spas and quiet candle lit dinners for the parents; assuring that their children will be well taken care of.

Theme parks and water parks are more marketed towards kids, however. All about the highest, fastest rides, junk food, games, and concerts or events. Water parks generally are towards families of any kind; claiming to have fun for the whole family.

An event in Kingston that was going on in the March Break, which I am unsure if it was “marketed” necessarily, was the Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo that was at the Frontenac Mall all week. I know they had it written up on the sign outside it, but that’s all I know of. This is designed for parents to bring their younger kids to to keep them from being bored out of their minds sitting at home playing with the same toys all week.

by

Radio Station Field Trip

Our class’ field trip to CJAI Amherst Island Radio Station, and Corus Entertainment was interesting.

CJAI was a very small radio station, but kind of cute. The information we were given there was very informative and told us everything we needed to about the station, the commercials, our client, and our target market. The people were super friendly there too.

Corus Entertainment was my favourite part of the trip, though. Everyone was so intrigued by all the “pretty colours” but I just thought they were a cool bonus – I wasn’t starstruck by them or anything. Just thought it was a cool touch to a place instead of using boring plain colours. I really enjoyed being in the radio stations and hearing them be live on-air. It was interesting to see that they actually smiled while they were talking to make them sound more excited and enthusiastic on air.

Going to the guy who recorded and edited the commercials (I forget his name….) was awesome. His little studio was pretty dark and I think it would be hard to be in there all day every day with that lighting and no windows… but it was pretty cool. Hearing Jim record that commercial was awesome too because I realized I hear him do commercials all the time – his voice is like my standard one I know for radio commercials.

The newsroom was by far my favourite part, though. It was soo cool to be IN the actual studio they record the news. It was not at all what I expected though. I expected a room with a window, kind of, even though I suppose I knew in the back of my mind it was green-screen and stuff. It was much smaller and more “ghetto” than I imagined it to be.

A fairly small room overall considering. And kind of funny how “ghetto” it was – almost like a really sketchy drama room that has so many random things laying around in it and almost kind of creepy.

I enjoyed the field trip – it was really cool.

by

Rant: Mental Health Stigma

Sometimes media can be a useful tool for teaching.

But other times it can be a harmful stigma-creating machine.

Mental illness is heinously portrayed inaccurately.

stigmaThings like making horror movies where the serial killers have Dissociative Identity Disorder – or D.I.D (previously Multiple Personality Disorder) – and one of the alters committed the crimes and they have no clue. Shows that have school shooters with Bipolar, etc. These types of things create misconceptions and breed fear around mentally ill individuals; because of course they are a danger to society, right?

Eating disorders are glamourized, and self harm is usually only shown as suicide attempts. Eating disorders are not what the  UK`s version (which came before the American version) of Skins shows. People with eating disorders do not smile and giggle a lot and say “Oh wow, how lovely!” all the time. They are not “cool” things to have and will not make you beautiful. They are also not chosen. Eating Disorders are serious mental illnesses that have been proven to have some genetic origins in many cases. Self harming is not necessarily a suicide attempt; it is just a misguided – and addicting – way of coping with extreme pain, distress, or other things.

Depression is not simply “feeling sad” or being “down” all the time – and it is not always so obvious as the commercials about “Depression Hurts” seem to say that there are so many physical symptoms that make depression something anyone can see in an individual  It’s a chemical imbalance in the brain, and often the most depressed people seem happy and normal because they pretend they are O.K.

Why do people with mental health issues (of any form) pretend they are alright, you ask?

Mostly because of the stigma. For example, someone who has DID may be scared to tell people because people are misinformed and do not understand it. Humans are afraid of things they do not understand; and when the media heightens this fear – it has ugly repercussions for suffers of mental illnesses, and how they are treated.

Media needs to quit creating harmful stigmas and use its power for healthy education instead.

mental-illness-perspective-and-perception