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WELCOME Winter 2016 01

EXPERT OPINIONRead insights from the following

contributors in this issue:

Leatrice Eiseman It’s here! The 2016 Pantone® Color of the Year has arrived, and Lee Eiseman shares

what influences the selection. (Page 5)

Stephanie CarlsLearn the secrets to capturing and

leveraging user-generated content from expert Stephanie Carls. (Page 4)

Melonie DodaroCanada’s number one LinkedIn expert tells us why we need a LinkedIn Company Page and gives us six key elements to work on. (Page 2)

01 Welcome Letter from the President, plus a selection of the key contributors writing in this issue.

02 Insights Ideas, opinions, news, and trends. 06 Millennial Marketers Three young marketers are interviewed to gain their insights on today’s marketing landscape.

10 Marketing Case Study Icelantic Skis CEO dishes on the power of brand partnerships, building an email list, and creating a community of followers.

12 Are Marketing Graduates Ready? Twelve educators tell us how they are preparing the incoming generation of marketers. 16 My Working Day Two interns talk about their experiences, and we tell you where to find your next intern.

Executive Editor Cindy Woods, cmoteam.com

Contributing Writers Tim Sweeney, Patrick Henry, Melonie Dodaro

Design Production Design Designlogix Diann Durham

©2016 All Rights Reserved

Printed and distributed by Merritt Graphics www.merrittprintsolutions.com

Introducing #amplify!

#amplify is a publication of Merritt Graphics Print Solutions

for the customers and colleagues of Joseph Merritt & Company, Inc.

#amplify is printed onBlazer 100# gloss text paper.

Follow us online facebook.com/merrittgraphics @merrittgraphics linkedin.com/company/joseph-merritt-&-company /user/JosephMerrittCompany

hroughout our 107-year company history, Merritt Graphics has found success in an ever-changing business climate, striving to

be an industry leader by strategically expanding the range of print and marketing solutions we offer our customers. We’ve witnessed firsthand how these solutions have helped our customers develop stronger engagement and relationships with their customers and, in turn, grow their organizations and brands. The introduction of new marketing platforms continues to change our industry, and we’ve taken notice that our customers are not only juggling more roles and responsibilities, but they are having to achieve their initiatives with fewer resources. Yet, even with new marketing platforms, we’re seeing that print and direct marketing have only become stronger with the onset of digital technology. Our desire for knowledge is driving us to learn – with you – about marketing solutions across all media platforms. It’s a challenging landscape to navigate and we’re here to help!

Welcome to #amplify! Our goal in bringing you #amplify is to provide you with a stream of engaging insights into the ever-changing world of marketing in which we live. You’ll find articles throughout the publication written in a “dip in, dip out” style for quick reads during your busy day. In this issue, for example, we explore whether our

graduating marketing majors are prepared for real world marketing. We talk to a dozen professors about how they are seeing the academic needs change; we talk to three young millennial marketers about how they have had to evolve already to meet the needs of the marketing roles they are in; and we talk about marketing internships. We give you 10 tips on mobile marketing strategies, tell you how to improve your company LinkedIn page, and guide you through collecting and using user-generated content on your social platforms. You may be wondering about the name #amplify. We thought the word amplification was just a trend we were seeing in content marketing, but upon further investigation, we found that it applies to the delivery of everything from marketing messages to brand promises. As we all strive to find appreciated ways to deliver content, what we are truly doing is looking for ways to amplify our messages across the marketing landscape and deliver them in the right forum, at the right time, and to the right audience. With this being

the purpose of our publication — to deliver education and insight in areas of marketing from management to mobile, social to digital — it seemed like a great name for this wonderful resource. We hope you enjoy your first copy of #amplify, and that you find it to be entertaining, informative, and most importantly — practical and relevant in how you approach and continue to learn about marketing for your organization.

t

Ed PerryPresident & CEO,Joseph Merritt & Company

Winter 2016INSIGHTS NEWS | REVIEWS | IDEAS | OPINION |

more important to have great content and information for those who are checking you out—even if it’s just a onetime visit. Taking into account that LinkedIn is the number one social media platform for business, having a current and accurate LinkedIn Company Page is an essential rather than a “nice-to-have.” Given the added SEO benefits (Google previews the first 150 characters of your Page’s text), and the fact that your LinkedIn Company Page allows your employees to link their profiles to your company and drives traffic to your website, having an up-to-date LinkedIn Page is essential. You also gain organic exposure to your Company Page for anyone viewing the personal profile of your employees when your logo (company profile image) is visible in their experience section and is a clickable

link leading back to your Company Page. n

SOCIAL MEDIA »

Putting Your LinkedIn Company Page to Work for You

ave you been wondering if you really need to have a LinkedIn Company Page for your business? Did

you build one, only to realize a year or more later that you’ve not so much as peeked in on it? In a study by HubSpot.com that included more than 5,000 B-to-B and B-to-C businesses, traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate, at 2.74%. That’s 277% higher than Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%). The study concluded that, while LinkedIn may not drive the most engagement on social media, it does seem to drive targeted and qualified traffic interested in doing business. Bottom line? It’s okay if you don’t have a huge following for your LinkedIn Company Page; it’s

1. BANNER IMAGEAs the first thing that people will see when they land on your Page, a professional, custom image is essential to create for your LinkedIn Company Page. The image should be a minimum of 646 x 220 pixels in a PNG/JPEG/GIF format, with a maximum size of 2 MB.

2. CUSTOMIZED URL Create a customized Company Page URL on LinkedIn. Keep the URL simple, and use your company name if it’s available.

3. COMPANY DESCRIPTION You have 2,000 characters available, and you should use them all! Take full advantage of the SEO-friendly nature

6 Key LinkedIn Company Page Elements

H

of the page. It’s important also to share your WHY message or brand story with your audience. Make sure that you include your keywords throughout the description to help your Company Page be found in a LinkedIn and/or Google search.

4. SHOWCASE PAGES These individual pages will appear on the right side of your page and are a great way to highlight your business’s particular products, services, solutions, business units, portfolios, or events. Make sure your posts to a Showcase Page focus on information and education. Avoid sales-related messaging or info. You can have up to 10 Showcase Pages, and each will have its own analytics feature.

GUEST WRITER: MELONIE DODAROCanada’s number one LinkedIn expert, international LinkedIn and social-selling speaker and trainer, founder of Top Dog Social Media, and author of the number one, international bestseller The LinkedIn Code.

5. UPDATESThe majority of your updates should focus on providing value and education; limit promotional content. Keep them short and simple with catchy titles, and try to always include visuals or rich media. What updates get the most action? According to LinkedIn, these would be company -branding updates such as “inside looks” and interviews, followed by job postings, and then tips and fun facts. Also noteworthy: Updates that include links get 45% higher follower engagement than those that contain no links. Link to a recent blog post, a YouTube video, or an industry-based news piece. Tip: Consider using an RSS news feeder such as feedly.com to track and gather content. Scan the headlines once per week and select an article to share on your LinkedIn Company Page.

6. “FOLLOW US” BUTTONS Make it simple for people to join your social bandwagon and visit your website by adding easy-to-install icons. Return the favor on your business website by adding a LinkedIn icon to drive traffic back and forth. While having a Company Page is important for your business, your employees’ personal LinkedIn profiles are ultimately how you can efficiently and effectively find, connect, and build relationships with your ideal clients, referral partners, and strategic alliances. Watch for our article “LinkedIn Marketing Strategies” (Spring issue), where we will take a deep dive into how your team can use their LinkedIn profiles to generate more leads and sales for your company.

INSIGHTS Winter 2016INSIGHTS 03

Putting Your LinkedIn Company Page to Work for You

10 Things Marketers Need to Know About a Mobile Marketing Strategy and Mobile Apps

UNDERSTAND YOUR USERS Whether through surveys, interviews, or research, learning how,

why, and from where mobile consumers are interacting with your brand is crucial. Pass that info to your IT team or developers. Creating an effective mobile site or app starts with a goal-driven design that aligns with user behavior.

USER-ORIENTED DESIGN Developing your app or mobile site with the above-mentioned

research in mind leads to a user flow that gets visitors to their desired location and delivers a positive experience. Create a model on paper to illustrate where the entry points are, where users will arrive based on how they came to be on your site or app, how users will move from one piece of content to the next, and how you will encourage that journey with CTAs, pop-ups, engagement buttons, etc.

APPS AREN’T FOR EVERYONE It’s not a “me too” market. Do your

users need information based on where they are located? Do you need to give people access to news, deals, or updates as soon as it happens or becomes available? Do you have content that could be organized in a library format for frequent consumption? If so, a mobile app could give you a competitive advantage. Surveys tell us that 67 percent of consumers are still more likely to make a purchase from their desktop or mobile website than an app.

APPS CAN BE GOOD FOR SMALL BUSINESS An app allows you to make a

sincere connection with loyal customers amid all the advertising clutter. Push notifications or special sales and promotions are two ways to do so. It’s also a chance to make their life more convenient; letting them collect rewards via mobile or easily contact you with customer service inquiries if you sell a product or provide a service.

SWEETEN THE POT . . . QUICKLY Our attention spans have

become gnat-like. That’s why your content needs to load quickly and be succinct. Studies show that the average consumer will start abandoning a slow site within three to five seconds. To attract (and maintain) the attention of mobile users, make a special offer the first thing they see and let them sign up to be notified as new offers become available.

UTILIZE LOCATION- BASED SERVICES Perhaps mobile’s greatest asset

to advertisers is that you can reach users wherever they are. If you’re not reaching out to people as they enter or leave locations nearest and dearest to you, know this: Research shows that nearly 8 out of 10 mobile searches for local business result in a purchase or some form of engagement.

USE EFFECTIVE KEYWORDS Again: location, location, location. Since most people conducting

searches on mobile devices are looking for results in close proximity to where they are or where they’re headed, combine your keywords with the local area. Keywords are as important in mobile marketing as they are in content marketing.

APPS AREN’T JUST FOR RETAILERS Nonprofit associations that use

mobile apps have seen an uptick in members’ engagement and an increase in the interest level of younger members. Whether the app is seeking volunteers or just sharing news, members who interact with their association via mobile feel more connected to the cause.

Whether it’s a responsive website design or a full-fledged

app, if your business isn’t mobile, it’s going backward.

Here are 10 thoughts to keep in mind when connecting

with a more mobile audience.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 9

8

ONE SIMPLE STEP AT A TIME Once you’ve made the decision

to build an app, do it in stages and test its usability and usefulness as you go. The world is full of apps with cool features that no one uses.

DO A LITTLE RECON Pick five organizations that have apps that were developed

for a target audience similar to yours. Choose from competitors’ apps or apps of organizations similar to yours and put them to the test. If you are in the nonprofit sector, see what other nonprofits’ apps look like and what they are sharing and offering. Get the full user experience to

know what worked well and what didn’t. n

Winter 2016INSIGHTS NEWS | REVIEWS | IDEAS | OPINION |

MARKETING »

Capturing the Voice of the Customer:User-Generated Content by Tim Sweeney

here is a difference,” says Stephanie Carls, “between story making and storytelling.” Carls is the Client

Success Manager at Rivet in Austin, Texas, as well as a branding expert and digital-lifestyle enthusiast who develops social media strategies for personal and corporate brands. At Rivet, Carls and her colleagues are spending more and more time helping companies rely on user-generated content (UGC) to create their brand stories. User-generated content is exactly what it sounds like—content created by a brand’s loyal consumers that is then used by that brand to tell its story to other potential consumers. What makes UCG such a valuable commodity is the trust people have in the voice of their fellow consumers. Research shows that 54 percent of adult Internet users are posting original photos or videos online and 92 percent of us trust that earned media above anything else out there. “I see questions from friends on Facebook all the time asking for advice on Disney World for their family vacation,” says Carls. “There are hundreds of books and websites on Disney, but who do they go to? People they trust. And there are a hundred replies with advice.” Therein lies the key to UGC. Rather than your brand telling your story, “the users who interacted with your brand tell your story, and that’s what is going to matter to other people,”

Carls explains. The success doesn’t lie. Rivet client Viking River Cruises started by sending a postcruise email to everyone that went on a cruise with them, asking them to share content (photos and videos) from their trip. “Within a week, they received 1,000 high-resolution photos and videos from guests,” Carls says. With Rivet’s help, Viking places those photos on their website where future clients shop for that particular trip. “They might have a map with photos around each stop on the cruise, all taken by customers,” she says. Another Rivet client, Build.com—the online home-improvement retailer with no storefronts—sends customers an email five or six weeks after their purchase, asking for content. The messaging and a link to a location where customers can contribute content is also included in the company’s email signature, on a confirmation screen where purchases occur, and on social media—all driving people back into Rivet platforms. Once collected there, the content can be organized via tags that make assembling, managing, and disseminating it to potential customers an easier task. The platform also provides a hassle-free experience for the consumer sharing his or her content. Whether you choose to use a paid platform or collect and share UGC yourself, the lesson is clear: Consumers want to hear from other consumers as they interact with your brand. On Facebook, Build.com is now seeing five times

more likes, one and a half times more shares, and four times more comments on UGC than on any content the company posts itself. Build.com is even using UGC in their TV ads and holiday catalog. “They had a customer who shared historical photos of their property and the remodel after they were done using many Build.com products,” Carls says. “Their team saw that and ended up shooting their holiday catalog at their house. If they weren’t using UGC, they never would have known that story.” Another advantage of UGC is that consumers often talk about it, which increases the time they spend on your site and social media pages. No matter what size business you have, you are certain to have loyal, returning customers who will help tell your story. “Think of a small-town bakery that has been a part of family weddings, graduations, and birthdays,” Carls says.“Those stories of big events in their lives are what people share when a company asks for that content. You might even see ways that your company needs to change and notice a problem before it gets too large.” n

TSTEPHANIE CARLS Client Success Manager, Rivet – Austin, Texas.

Winter 2016INSIGHTS 05

UGC: NOT JUST FOR BIG BRANDS Worried that the user-generated content approach doesn’t work for your business? Not so fast, says Stephanie Carls. Here’s her advice on jumping into the fray.

START FROM THE INSIDE OUT.An easy pathway into UGC is to share your own stories. But don’t just tell people how great your brand is. Those who are “too close” to their company sometimes don’t see them, but every company has stories to tell. Showing something as simple as what goes into making your products builds trust.

ASK FOR CONTENT WITH YOUR GOAL IN MIND.Don’t just ask, “What do you think of us?” Let people know specifically what you’re looking for. If you sell travel insurance and your clients didn’t need the insurance on their trip, flip the story and ask them to share images of the fun things they did. If they needed it, ask how the insurance came in handy.

DEFINE YOUR METRICS.Once you collect content from users, know what you want to do with it and define what you expect out of your efforts.

SAY THANKS.Once people talk about you online, acknowledge them and let them know you appreciate it. These people love your brand, so keep that enthusiasm going and honor it by sharing their story with everyone else. Even if the comments are negative, that’s an opportunity to learn what you could change and to show other consumers that you care.

NO MATTER WHAT, LISTEN!Even if you don’t provide a platform for people to share content, people will find or create a way to talk about your brand, so you have to be paying attention. Google is the new résumé. People can say what they want about you and your brand.

According to Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director, Pantone Color InstituteTM, “certain colors begin getting more attention in the fashion industry first.” Lee and her assistant travel to London, Paris, and Milan (among other international and exotic ports) to begin observing evidence of color trends. Although fashion is a large part of it, they must be seeing the colors trending in other places, including the entertainment industry (Hollywood films), the art world, the automotive industry (new car colors), and the technology sector (cell phones, tablets, and digital devices), among others. They look for colors that depict certain lifestyles that are impacting a broad segment of society. They also look at the current economy and apply their expertise in the psychology of color from the standpoint

Leatrice Eiseman Executive Director, Pantone Color InstituteTM

www.colorexpert.com

All Hail The 2016 Pantone® Colors of the Year:13-1529 Rose Quartz 15-3919 Serenity

COOL FINDS »

How is the Pantone® Color of the Year selected?of what will engage the consumer’s eye and give an uplifting message and feel. Color experts have observed that, once people begin to see colors trending in major industries, they begin to want them in their own lives in the form of eyeshadows or lipstick, clothing or shoes, furniture or paint colors. We are all influenced by color, and in particular the Color of the Year. It’s not just how the color stands alone, but it’s also how you are

using it and what you are using it with that makes it be perceived as something fresh and new. Lee “focuses on the macro picture” rather than becoming entrenched

in just one industry, such as fashion, when making the choice of the COY. It’s interesting to note that, as you are reading this right

now, they are already stalking the macro influencers that will inspire the Color of the Year for 2017!

Pantone® Colors of the Year 13-1529 Rose Quartz 15-3919 Serenity C-0 M-14 Y-9 K-0 R-242 G-221 B-222 C-46 M-23 Y-0 K-0 R-137 G-171 B-227

For all the color lovers, fashionistas, designers, tech gurus, and watch collectors,

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06 Winter 2016 COVER STORY

FROM THE MINDS OF YOUNG MILLENNIAL MARKETERSInterviews by Tim Sweeney

What was the “new thing” in marketing just 18 months ago can be laughably outdated today.

For twenty-somethings, that means what they studied in college only a few short years ago

may now be passé. And if millennials are scurrying to keep pace, what about the rest of us?

We sat down with three millennial marketers and asked them what’s old news, new news,

and coming ‘round the bend.

OUR MILLENNIAL MARKETERS

Deanna Lazzaroni, 28Leads a marketing team at Zenefits in Silicon Valley, overseeing content marketing and community programs. Former Manager, Global Content Marketing & Social Media Strategy at LinkedIn; previously at The Coca-Cola Company, BBDO, and Ogilvy. Recognized as a Forbes magazine “30 Under 30” professional in marketing and advertising in 2015.

Caroline Student, 25Digital marketing manager for Great Eastern Energy. Focuses on improving the online user experience through web design, development, SEO strategies, and user engagement. Former Marketing and Project Manager for Madison Avenue Worldwide, a boutique agency in Wisconsin.

Jay Acunzo, 29VP, Platform at NextView Ventures, which invests in Internet and mobile-oriented companies. Host and producer of Traction, a narrative podcast about “awesome entrepreneurs.” Formerly the head of content production and blogging at HubSpot as well as digital media strategist/social media specialist at Google.

Winter 2016 07

Content marketing still

has untapped potential

by moving from where

brands are just blogging

to creating strategic

programs to nurture

prospects with content

throughout the buying

cycle and to deliver real

value to their audiences

at every touch point.

- Deanna Lazzaroni

Q: Has what you studied in college prepared you for your current role, or has it been a dramatic change from what you expected?

Jay: I was an English literature major and never thought I’d do marketing. I wanted to write and create sports media and pursued that wherever I could. The best part of writing or creating any experience, to me, has always been anticipating what the audience will feel and working hard to trigger emotions in them. The fact that marketing lets me do that today, thanks to content marketing, is what attracted me to the field and what keeps me here.

Caroline: Developing written and verbal communication skills in college, as well as quantitative and qualitative research and data analysis skills, has been quite useful. Psychology classes taught me how people think and feel, which helps me think from the customer’s perspective. That said, I never practiced creating a marketing campaign from start to finish—strategizing, designing, creating, and analyzing—and wish I had more hands-on projects and less learning from examples in textbooks.

Deanna: Marketing, advertising, consumer behavior, and psychology classes helped shape my thinking, but nothing has prepared me more than on-the-job training and exploration. Over the past decade, we’ve had to evolve as marketers to adopt new channels, and that evolution was really just beginning when I was in school. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn were new to consumers, and brands had not found their voices on these channels. When I graduated, I saw the opportunity for growth here, which is why I dove into new media and wanted to work with brands hungry to drive change in the way they connect with consumers, especially across social, mobile, and digital. I’ve been fortunate to be able to evolve my thinking to embrace a multichannel, user-centric approach to marketing today.

Q: What aspects of marketing are you surprised that more businesses aren’t implementing?

Jay: I’m constantly trying to learn how someone produced a piece, not just marketed it. I think what folks in other industries do infinitely better than marketers is study the process in the name of results, not just skip to the result. As a sports journalist, I realized that the most successful athletes worshiped the process of getting better.

Nike and Gatorade do a nice job of glamorizing the grind, but marketers often glamorize the end result. A lot of that has to do with how many marketers were dropped into this field of content marketing and asked to produce like a writer, podcaster, designer, etc., but we’re not all formally trained. We bring diverse ways of attacking problems, but we rush through that process and reject the notion of craft. It doesn’t work like that.

Deanna: Content marketing still has untapped potential by moving from where brands are just blogging to creating strategic programs to nurture prospects with content throughout the buying cycle and to deliver real value to their audiences at every touch point. Also, customer marketing is becoming crucial for brands today, not just driving retention and engagement with current customers, but also championing their voices and fostering advocacy that can help recruit the next wave of customers.

The most prolific texting generation in history says they would hire applicants with great writing skills over any other asset. If you’ve read enough emails from colleagues, customers, or maybe even your boss, you’ve likely noticed an increasing disregard for proper punctuation, grammar, and spelling. That will likely have to change for the next generation of marketers to have success in their chosen career field. The proliferation of content marketing means content creators are (and will continue to be) at a premium, and whether the medium is video, blogs, podcasts, or just posting on the company Twitter or Facebook page, all storytelling is rooted in writing. “I was doing more research papers, and a creative writing course would have been helpful in college,” Caroline Student says. “If I were

hiring someone right now, I would definitely hire someone with strong writing skills. It’s extremely important with all the content we are creating, and now that we are in an age of texting and social media, not everyone has those skills.” Jay Acunzo was an English literature major and wrote for as many publications as he could as he pursued a sports journalism career, so he may be biased in the value he places on writing. He wrote for his school newspaper, a local newspaper near his hometown, and then

the Hartford Courant before interning at ESPN in PR and communications.

Even with his own writing skills at his disposal, he’d hire a writer

first. “I’d hire a truly prolific writer,” he says. “The kind

of person that makes you aspire to be that good. After that, I’d hire someone who has done experiment- based, process growth marketing.“

IS GOODE WRYTING AHBOWT TO MAYKE A KUMBACK?

08 Winter 2016 COVER STORY

Caroline: I’m surprised that more companies aren’t doing more research on their customers—how do they think and feel, and what are they looking for? Consumers today don’t want to be sold to; they want to build relationships with brands and feel a connection with a brand’s mission on a personal level.

Q: What’s new one week is old the next. What do you think small- to medium-sized businesses should be focusing on?

Caroline: Mobile. Believe it or not, many companies still don’t have mobile-responsive websites, and that’s only going to become more crucial as mobile users outnumber desktop users.

Deanna: Whether you’re big or small, B-to-B or B-to-C, find ways to intimately get to know your audience—and not just their age, zip code, or job title. Spend time with them online and where they would interact with you. Find out why they chose (or didn’t choose) your product or service, what they do with their free time, and what success in life means for them.

Jay: The only thing I care about is what my audience cares about, what they’re struggling with, the language they’re using, and the channels they’re communicating with. If you really want to keep up with anything, keep up with your customers. Tech and tactics need to plug into a larger strategy, which is informed by customers. Go meet with one customer for 20 minutes and ask what their days are like, then create content to ease their pain.

someone’s feed in tech and spread like wildfire, but they weren’t widespread. We realized that most founding stories weren’t detailed enough because big media companies like to polish them into overnight success stories. And most podcasts are boring in their style, or well-produced but not focused on business. By making those observations, we were able to create a home run project without taking a costly, complicated approach. We looked at where reactions ended in exclamation points, where things felt emotionally charged, and leaned into it harder.

Caroline: I think we’ll see more internal teams and employees creating the most valuable content, as they are the true feet-on-the ground experts.

Q: The amount of content being produced by brands today is staggering. Do you see more of the same going forward, and what is your advice on content strategy?

Deanna: I’d challenge marketers to not give in to the volume game. Let data tell you what’s working and what isn’t, and produce more of what resonates. When something of value creates a quality interaction, you’ll find yourself surrounded by brand advocates. And make it about them, not your brand. People will engage with content that speaks to their needs, challenges, and opportunities, not content about you or your product.

Jay: There’s a longstanding theory started by Michael Porter that, if you want to win in a maturing market, you need to be Budweiser or a craft brewer. BuzzFeed and the New York Times will win the content battle on sheer scope and brand, but niche publications are able to generate meaningful traction by coalescing a small but passionate tribe around them, and that’s where I believe most content will be created. At NextView, our podcast called Traction has done incredibly well because we noticed two things happening on a small scale and decided to own it: first, very detailed, “start-up founding” stories; and second, well-produced, narrative podcasts. Both would periodically cross

Go meet with one

customer for 20

minutes and ask

what their days are

like, then create

content to ease

their pain.

- Jay Acunzo

I think we’ll see more

internal teams and

employees creating the

most valuable content,

as they are the true feet-

on-the ground experts.

- Caroline Student

Q: What will most impact the marketing you will be doing over the next few years?

Caroline: The biggest impact I see is in marketing automation platforms that allow us to adjust our messaging on the fly and send more personalized and relevant communications. Look for ways to make it easier to build, schedule, and analyze campaigns in real time.

09Winter 2016

Q: Do you have a favorite marketing channel or platform at the moment?

Jay: I’m obsessed with podcasting. There’s a ton of white space for you to own outright if you move right now on this medium. It’s so intimate between you and the listener, while also having a larger reach than one-to-one. Podcasting is intimacy that scales in an authentic way.

Q: What do you see as the “next big thing” in marketing?

Caroline: I don’t know if it’s right for every company, but the amount of people using Snapchat is rapidly increasing, and I’m seeing companies advertising on it more and more.

Deanna: I think we’ll see cocreation become even more of a focus for marketing teams. Think about partnerships you may have with other businesses and the collective knowledge you can bring to an audience you serve together through coproduced content. Or partnering with thought leaders in your industry to deliver insights through content that speaks to your audience. And probably the most untapped opportunity is partnering with your

customers to cocreate content on social or community forums. Igniting conversations through the voices of others and involving them in the creation of your marketing will be one of the best ways to drive growth.

Q: What are marketers spending too much

time talking about, but not executing on?

Caroline: I go back to building relationships with customers, which can be tougher for small brands. We’ve been trying to learn what our customers care about, their customer journey, and how and when best to connect with them. Our mission is sustainability, and we think a lot of people care about that. Once they become customers, they are our biggest brand ambassadors.

Jay: Too many marketers are focused on reach and not enough on resonance. Everybody clamors to get in front of people, but very few are concerned about what happens next. I once got into a discussion with a fellow marketer about whether or not we should update a collection of design templates for social media profiles. The landing page promised an “ultimate collection,” but the content behind the

form was mainly just poorly designed Facebook templates. The landing page reached and converted many leads, but the data a few months later showed that these people all churned, because we failed to truly resonate. We didn’t deliver on our promise.

Deanna: Not enough marketers are taking a step back to evaluate what they are doing that may be frustrating a prospect or damaging a customer relationship due to a poor experience. Qualitative and quantitative data help us identify opportunities to optimize the consumer experience; it’s a matter of acting on the insights we get and doing something about it. For example, marketers admire Amazon’s ability to personalize offerings based on user engagement and prior purchase. If brands are collecting data on consumer behaviors (and they are), enhanced personalization is possible and should be a goal for any marketing team. It’s not an easy road, but wouldn’t you rather be delivered a message from a brand that resonates instead of a complete miss? I think we can be doing more to change those not-so-delightful experiences that still exist. n

Caroline: Google Docs and a service called

Smartsheet, an online spreadsheet you can share

with your team. I can also share these with our

outside webmaster and web designer.

Check Out the Modern Day To-Do Lists Favored by Our Millennial Marketers

Deanna: Asana and Trello help organize tasks

and keep track of what’s getting done, and I’m

finding collaborative planning tools are becoming

more and more essential to the success of teams.

Jay: My brain is basically outsourced to Evernote

(a workspace that lives across your phone, tablet,

and computer). Every broad category has its own

folder, and each note is a specific task or idea.

15 Things to Know Before You Hire A Marketing Intern

Scan the QR Code

or find our infographic

online at:

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10 Winter 2016 CASE STUDY

At Denver-based independent ski manufacturer Icelantic, it’s not uncommon for company founder

Ben Anderson to answer the main phone line himself. Anderson began making skis in his parents’ basement more than a decade ago. Now in its 10th year, Icelantic is thriving, thanks to solid products that are made in the USA and building a personal connection with its consumers, the latter of which is evident in the founder’s phone demeanor: “Icelantic. . . this is Ben.” “Nowadays, you have to offer brand attributes people can connect to—a philosophy, a look, a purpose,” says Annelise Loevlie, Icelantic’s CEO and a childhood friend of Anderson. “There are underlying psychological connections that people don’t realize.” Whether it’s by opening its doors and serving up beer and music on the first Friday of every month or throwing a winter concert, Icelantic has found original ways to personally connect with their core audience. “It took us a while—eight years, actually—to recognize that we can’t compete doing things the same way as the industry giants,” Loevlie says. Icelanticskis.com is the home base of these efforts. In fact, the website footer reads, “Icelantic merges skiing and art, forging personal connections, building community, and providing opportunities to engage in nature.” Upon visiting the site, you’ll be invited to enter your email address and join the community. There isn’t much of a sales pitch, despite the fact that Icelantic is selling skis directly to consumers online for the first time this season.

MARKETING CASE STUDY: ICELANTIC SKIS Downhill Brand Building Denver-based Icelantic Skis has thrived in a challenging industry

by creating an honest-to-goodness community of devotees.

A

Winter 2016 11

MARKETING CASE STUDY: ICELANTIC SKIS “This is the first time we have designed the

website specifically as a sales tool, and whenever you create a website, you have to ask what the purpose is,” Loevlie says. “Ours is designed to bring all degrees of our brand together in one space, to make visitors feel like they are a part of the community. You see the blog and our social channels and read the brand story. And now you can also buy our products.” While one marketing employee is tasked with procuring and distributing content, at a company with just four full-time employees (and 15 overall, excluding manufacturing), everyone needs to pitch in, including the brand’s sponsored athletes, who send imagery from locales around the world. A yearly calendar governs the marketing process, largely based on product launches, events, and art unveilings (the ski graphics come from original art by cofounder and artist Travis Parr). “We try to time launches on the new site with different print executions or promotional newsletters with ski publications to help drive traffic,” Loevlie says. Icelantic built their online presence with a steady, organic approach. Every piece of communication the brand produces drives consumers to the website. They collected emails every time they came in contact with a consumer, from on-mountain demo days to online giveaways. To maintain a list of willing subscribers, they’ve never purchased an email list. The email newsletters, which always come from a staff member with a signature at the bottom, are an impactful tool, funneling subscribers to Icelantic’s social media channels and content. Loevlie herself writes a number of the company email communications. “We get hundreds of replies saying thanks for the words,” she says. “The copy is done in a personal tone, like you are talking to your best friend. We want our messaging to be real, so that consumers are hearing directly from us.” With a target market that cares about quality and sustainability, Icelantic uses “Made in the USA”

messaging in their marketing. Also, as an internal guide, they “won’t do anything if it’s not high quality and made in America,” Loevlie says. “It’s a huge part of our messaging.” A paid membership program called First Tracks, promoted via the email newsletter and having its own landing page, offers brand enthusiasts a chance to take ski trips with the staff, access private events, and purchase products at member prices. The program, which is capped at 200 members, sold out one year in eight hours, proving to Loevlie that people desire a communal connection with the brand. Early on, much of the company’s advertising was print focused to gain brand validation in annual ski-magazine buyer’s guides. They now have an added focus with ski media on securing PR in print publications and adding more online advertising to track ROI. Brand partnerships have been effective since the early days, when Icelantic hung two pairs of skis on the walls of Tommyknocker Brewery in nearby Idaho Springs, Colorado, where the group grew up. By offering a chance to win the gear, they

gathered thousands of emails that winter. “You don’t have to have money to partner with a brand,” Loevlie says. “That’s WHY you partner with brands. Doing that early on, we saw the value in it.” Recently, they partnered with Jeep and Oskar Blues Brewery, who last year put the “Road to the Rocks” program on seven million cans of its Dale’s Pale Ale in 36 states, giving consumers a chance to win a grand-prize trip to Icelantic’s “Winter on the Rocks” concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver in January. The first-of-its-kind winter show has quickly become a tradition for many skiers, ski media, and Icelantic dealers. “The overall intention is to touch people in more areas of their lives than just the mountain,” Loevlie says. “It’s a bunch of little, creative things that all add up and connect to a whole.” n

Fast Tracks, a paid membership program,

allows brand enthusiasts a chance to

take ski trips with the staff and purchase

products at member prices. Membership

opportunities sold out in eight hours!

Annelise Loevlie CEO, Icelantic

Icelantic built their online presence with a steady,

organic approach. Every piece of communication

the brand produces drives consumers to the website.

12 Winter 2016 GENERATIONAL

Are Marketing Grads Ready for Real-World Marketing?

ou’re a college freshman. Your

undergraduate degree in marketing is

going to take about four years to complete.

Add another two for the pursuit of a master’s. While

you study, the discipline will continue to change at an

accelerating pace that even your professors will find

challenging to keep up with.

Not until after graduation will you get the full

answer to the question that your years in the

classroom could only partially address: Have you

actually gained the marketing knowledge and the

skill set you will need for a fulfilling career in the field?

THE GOOD NEWSThose at the helm of degree programs at some of

the country’s leading universities for marketing

studies are working hard to make sure that no student

lacks any of the capabilities that employment in

marketing now demands. Conscious of how

profoundly marketing has changed both in concept

and in practice, they are retooling their curricula

yto give every graduate a running start at job

opportunities as they exist now, with new

prerequisites for success.

MARKETPLACE REALITIES 101 Transforming marketing scholarship and teaching

is the stark fact that, outside the walls of academia,

the subject has taken on a vastly different character

from what the schools used to teach in their

traditional marketing studies programs.

Ron Jacobs, cofounder of the Ron Jacobs

and Bob Stone Multichannel Marketing

Communications Certificate Program at DePaul

University, says that marketing no longer is a

top-down exercise in which brand owners and

their “big ideas” control the relationship with

consumers. Now the relationship is bottom-up

in a marketplace where “brands live and die on

what people say” via social media channels that

effectively transfer ownership of the brands

to the end users.

“Consumers have to be catered to” if brands

want to avoid negative reputations, agrees Jeannette

Monaco, Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of

Programs in Business, New York University School of

Professional Studies (NYUSPS). Her colleague in the

division, Clinical Assistant Professor Wendy Stahl,

says that the brand-consumer relationship now is

a “circle” of feedback and response instead of the

“funnel” of one-way messaging it once was.

As a result, says Robin Coulter, head of the

department of marketing in the School of Business,

University of Connecticut, brand owners and

marketers now engage with consumers in the

“co-creation” of products and brands. Being able to

exert market-moving influence is no longer just the

prerogative of “the Ralph Nader’s of the world,” says

Coulter, who also is the president of the American

Marketing Association’s Academic Council.

ENGAGEMENT IS EVERYTHINGAt Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College

of Business, where he directs the Ph.D. program in

marketing, Dr. V. Kumar advises his students that

marketing now has a “mass-to-segment” trajectory in

which marketers can use tools for personalization and

customization to address customers as unique market

segments unto themselves. Just having relationships,

says Kumar, isn’t sufficient—marketing now demands

continuous engagement with customers as well.

Then there is the avalanche of data generated

by almost every contemporary marketing campaign.

“Marketing is now a data-driven science,” says

Lalin Anik, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the

University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Because “big data” can predict preferences and

behaviors, she says, marketers must learn to use it

in a “forward-looking” manner that reflects the norms

of the digital world.

Colleges and universities offering degrees in marketing want the answer to be an unqualified “yes.”

by Patrick Henry

Winter 2016 13

DOMINIQUE HANSSENS School of Management – UCLA Anderson A: The study of customer lifetime value, and its aggregate, customer

equity. As customer relationships become more important in the digital age, marketing focus is shifting toward nurturing that relationship for long-term value creation, as contrasted with the traditional focus on a single purchase transaction.

LALIN ANIK Darden School of Business – University of Virginia A: Digital marketing management and strategy is high up on the list.

Questions around how to manage content over social media, how to think about email, mobile and social marketing are core to marketing education today.

MICHAEL BRADY College of Business – Florida State University A: Data analytics or “big data” as it’s more commonly known. I’d say this

topic has come up through requests from the many companies who are looking for talent that can manage the data and extract relevant information from it. The second is digital or social media marketing. This topic comes from the students themselves and has to do with their interest in social media and its connection to business.

ROBIN COULTER School of Business – University of Connecticut A: We’ve begun to offer Digital Marketing Strategy and Digital Marketing

& Analytics courses. They provide a framework and tools to develop effective digital marketing strategies in pursuit of long-term marketing objectives. This also offers an analytical approach to decision-making. Topics include demand estimation, segmentation, forecasting sales, customer lifetime value assessment, and web/social analytics.

RON JACOBS Continuing and Professional Education – DePaul University A: How to unlock and track the behavior around “customer journeys.”

Students know that prospects are finding and purchasing products in new and changing ways, and they want to learn how to adapt. They want to learn how to find out what is searched for, and how, at each step of the journey, as well as how it differs in B-to-C vs B-to-B. This is a huge area of knowledge for data-driven marketing, and cracking this code has implications for all marketing in the future.

SHAUNA JENNINGS Project Manager, Regional Marketing and Workshops – The Home Depot A: There is an emphasis being placed on analytics and data in the

marketplace. It would be great for our marketing majors to have real-world interaction with SEO, digital, and mobile campaigns; and interpreting and understanding the data and analytics from those.

MEET OUR PANEL OF EDUCATORS

Q: Compared with three years ago, is there one particular topic you are taking a “deeper dive” into with your students either because of the changing marketing landscape, or in response to their requests to broaden their knowledge of the topic?

DR. V. KUMAR J. Mack Robinson College of Business – Georgia State University A: The one topic I am taking a deeper dive into is Engagement. I have

developed a comprehensive framework of Engagement which involves engaging customers, engaging employees and engaging other key stakeholders (a multi-dimensional perspective).

MARTIN MALONEY School of Professional Studies – New York University A: The changes and choices in media have accelerated greatly in the

past three years. There has been equal change in the demographic and psychographic make-up of the US audience. It is critical to do deep dives in these areas to have a correct media–audience match. Given the $300 billion we spend in measured media each year, it is a huge responsibility.

CHARLOTTE H. MASON Terry College of Business – University of Georgia A: Digital marketing. This includes understanding the role that social

media can play to support brands’ and firms’ marketing strategy, online communities, web ads, web analytics, how to integrate online and offline data from disparate sources, and more.

JEANNETTE MONACO School of Professional Studies – New York University A: A trend among our graduate students in Integrated Marketing is a desire to start

their own small businesses. Some already have family businesses and want to grow them through innovation and state-of-the-art marketing techniques. Others have a business concept and a passion to create their own entrepreneurial enterprise. Our Capstone course asks them to create a full business plan and pitch it to industry experts—a la Shark Tank. It’s exciting to see the evolution from concept to complete business plan including industry/market analysis, operations, financial plans and marketing strategy and execution.

SCOTT STIMPFEL School of Professional Studies – New York UniversityA: In addition to Big Data and a focus on quantitative analytics, we are

helping students to understand the importance of telling a brand story. Today’s consumers crave a personal connection to whatever they’re buying. It’s why learning how to tell a great brand story is now an essential part of our Integrated Marketing curriculum at NYUSPS. Learning how to communicate features and benefits in an engaging and resonating way truly changes a consumer’s buying process.

WENDY STAHL School of Professional Studies – New York University A: The impact of social and mobile platforms on marketing tactics. The

social and mobile empowered consumers use these tools for a broad range of functions such as finding information and connecting with brands. Our students will enter the workforce with these tools as a standard part of their marketing toolkit and will be the ones to define best practices for using these in the years to come.

14 Winter 2016 GENERATIONAL

Michael Brady, chair of the Department

of Marketing in Florida State University’s School of

Business, says marketing is still the same in that

“great companies with great products will succeed”

by bringing what they have to offer to the attention

of people who want to buy it.

Such companies, he says, get a straightforward

message from the marketing conversations they have

with consumers: “Tell me where it is, and price it at a

point that I can afford.”

NEVER-ENDING RACE TO KEEP UPKeeping marketing study programs grounded in the basics and current with new developments requires flexibility and ingenuity in curriculum design. Martin Maloney, president of the marketing communications firm of Broadford & Maloney, says that the Managing the Media Mix graduate course he teaches as an adjunct professor at NYUSPS has changed as often as he has presented it (about 30 times in the last 10 years). Maloney constantly scours the 20 marketing newsletters he subscribes to for up-to-date course material. “You can’t teach it out of a textbook,” he says. Charlotte H. Mason has added courses in digital marketing, social media strategy, and data analysis to the Master of Marketing Research program she directs at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. Her students also take part in “strategic simulations,” which present them with business scenarios that they must articulate through all stages of the marketing process. Students compete in teams, receiving continuous feedback on the results they achieve. Mason notes that, because the discipline has become so broad, “it is entirely possible to graduate with a degree in marketing and not be prepared to do anything specific.” To guard against overgeneralization, she has introduced cohesive sets of courses that let students drill down into selected areas of emphasis—

for instance, marketing analytics.

RIGOR AND RELEVANCEKumar believes that marketing studies programs

should always have the kind of “rigor and relevance”

that will enable what is learned in the classroom to

become the foundation of careers.

To provide relevance, he asks C-suite executives

to brief his students on the marketing dilemmas

that keep them awake at night. It is then up to the

students to devise and present practical solutions.

There is plenty of rigor, Kumar says, in the

For Shauna Jennings, having a career in marketing isn’t just about holding down a job—it’s about advancing the interests of the entire profession. She’s a recent (2011) graduate of the marketing studies program at Georgia College and State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing Management. She’s also an activist for marketing education in her role as co-chair of Collegiate Outreach for the American Marketing Association’s Atlanta chapter, which she also serves as a member of the board directors. When Jennings isn’t working as an e-commerce SEO specialist for Home Depot in Atlanta, her outreach assignment connects her with marketing students at 14 different

FROM STUDYING TO ROLE MODELING

Georgia colleges. Many of them, she says, are “shocked” when they discover how much they don’t yet know about the real world of marketing employment, for instance, the differences between marketing on the corporate side versus

practicing it in an agency setting. Jennings thinks colleges do a good job of preparing students academically, but she’d like to see the schools equip them for “life after college” with more concentration in three areas: data analytics (“Teach it early, and get them excited about it”); writing and communication

(“People should know how to write a proper e-mail”); and business culture (“Your boss isn’t someone you friend on Facebook”).

“hands-on computation” of marketing metrics that

his students must perform with increasing levels of

difficulty in their homework assignments, in-class

exercises, and final exams.

As committed to business cases and data mining

as they have become, today’s marketing educators

haven’t lost sight of the human element in the

profession they are grooming their students to enter.

“Our curriculum is customer-centric, where we try to

understand our existing and potential customers, their

desires, wants, and needs,” Anik says. “At the end, all

business problems are human problems.”

Scott Stimpfel, Associate Dean of the Division

of Programs in Business, NYUSPS, thinks that none

are better qualified to teach business problem solving

than those who solve business problems for a living.

He says that this is why students in the division’s

M.S. in Integrated Marketing program “engage with

industry professionals both in the classroom and in

real-world business settings, where they acquire

the knowledge necessary to be highly-skilled,

ethical, and socially-minded marketing professionals

who will contribute to business and society.”

In a similar spirit of humanism, Coulter

encourages her students to minor in non-marketing

subjects that inspire them as individuals: psychology,

journalism, foreign languages, or whatever else

feeds their love of learning. “Students who are

successful are passionate about things besides

marketing,” she says, adding that employers notice

and respond to this kind of intellectual passion

in job seekers.

MASTERY OF “MULTIPLICITIES”Students entering programs like these will be

expected to graduate from them with a

well-rounded portfolio of marketing qualifications

—some of them academically grounded,

others more rooted in interpersonal abilities,

which are just as essential to success in the field.

Winter 2016 15

Anik sums up the professional credentials in

a word: “multiplicities.” Students, she says, must

be able to hold multiple perspectives that will

enable them to understand “the questions and

challenges surrounding finance, technology,

manufacturing, sales, strategy, human resources,

and other functions.”

This is a departure from the model that

academic programs in marketing have traditionally

followed, according to Dominique Hanssens, the

faculty director of the Morrison Family Center

for Marketing Studies and Data Analytics at

UCLA Anderson.

“In the past, marketing students were often

viewed as extroverts with little appreciation for

analytical thinking,” he says. “The requirements to

be a successful marketing executive are now

more analytical in nature. For example, marketing

executives have to be conversant in financial planning

and marketing resource allocation so that they can

demonstrate the returns to marketing to the

financial officers in their firms.”

If there is one skill above all for students to

master, it probably is the ability to locate marketing

strategies in raw numbers. Coulter says that a

colleague of hers calls it “workable wondering”:

not merely reporting what the mass of data says,

but intuiting what it is telling marketers to do. In

data analytics lies the “inner spark” that builds

powerful brands and sends compelling marketing

messages, says Stahl.

John Ellett, a writer for Forbes,

calls them “unicorns”: those rare

professionals who are equally adept

at marketing and technology.

“They are the bridge builders

between CMOs and CIOs and the

Sherpas for brand marketers who

need help navigating the digital

world,” he declares.

Educators recognize

that training students

in the technologies of

marketing is becoming

as important as

indoctrinating them

in its theoretical side.

When it comes to dually

qualified marketing

technologists, says DePaul

University’s Ron Jacobs,

“I cannot hire enough of them.”

What’s essential for

students to learn is that

the days of media

campaigns “with

infinite budgets

and infinite time”

are over. Instead

of “the TV

commercial

that takes

IN SEARCH OF UNICORNS

six months to produce,” says Jacobs,

marketers must rely on digital

channels to reach consumers much

more quickly and personally.

This doesn’t mean that there’s no

place in marketing study programs for

the time-tested technologies of mass

communication. NYU’s Martin Maloney

observes that if it’s not a good thing

to be a 60-year-old

who knows only

old media, “it’s no better

to be a 25-year-old who

knows only new

media.” Students

should be

briefed on how

digitization and

the Internet have

given traditional

media such as

outdoor signage

and radio new leases

on life as marketing vehicles,

Maloney says.

Want to learn more about these

mythical marketing creatures?

Google: “The Rise of the

Unicorns by John Ellett”

for more great reading.

“Soft” skills for building relationships

should complement the structured ones,

the educators agree. Jacobs wants his

students to become “better listeners” with

the “different kind of patience” it takes to

follow consumers through the various stages

of the purchasing journey. Mason sees

writing “direct, succinct, and persuasive”

prose as another baseline ability, along with

making effective oral presentations and

simply knowing how to begin and end a

business conversation.

WELCOME TO OUR WORLDToday’s academic marketing programs are designed

to impart all these skills, and students who acquire

them can look forward to plenty of opportunities

to apply what they have been taught. According to

Kumar, now is a fascinating time to be in marketing,

because the specialty is evolving faster than any

other aspect of business.

“Marketing is in its own world today,” he says.

If they are diligent, students of marketing should

be able to live happily and prosperously in this

exhilarating environment. n

In the past, marketing

students were often

viewed as extroverts

with little appreciation

for analytical thinking.

The requirements to be

a successful marketing

executive are now more

analytical in nature.

16 Winter 2016 MY WORKING DAY

li Proehl graduated in June of 2015 from the University of Denver

with a double major in Marketing and Sociology. Between her junior and senior years she interned near her hometown of San Diego for a company called Colorescience, which creates makeup with built-in sun protection. Proehl, who is now less than a year into her first professional position as a Digital Marketing Coordinator for Kinetek Sports in San Diego, performed a number of odd marketing jobs during her

internship. “I researched competitor brands, ran contests and posted on social media, did some customer service, and created packages for makeup bloggers,” she says. “I would tell companies to make internships well-rounded, allowing us to help in different areas. It was great to do different things. I realized what I want to pursue moving forward.” Proehl found it valuable to be included in meetings, even if she didn’t say much, as it was a chance to see the steps that were taken to get to an end goal. She also learned that, in the real world, you don’t always get detailed direction. “In the first week they didn’t really know what to do with me. They didn’t really have a plan of how to utilize me,” the former collegiate lacrosse player says. “My recommendation would be to

have a mentor who might spend just an hour or two each week to offer a general idea of what projects are coming up and the tasks that need to be completed. I was often saying, ‘Okay, I finished that. What do I do now?’” Tariq Ward obtained his internship in Syracuse University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) through the school’s job listings website. Ward, who will graduate from Syracuse in May 2016 with a double major in marketing and business

management, looked closely at whether the job description matched his skill set and aligned with the type of role he’d like in the future. His internship responsibilities include promoting events for the office’s six programs, developing marketing techniques for acquisition and retention of first-year students, and serving as an ambassador between OMA and the campus and general community. Ward believes many students seek out brand-name companies for internships, thinking it will appeal to future employers and that these companies may have the resources to pay interns. “It was important to me to find a situation where I wasn’t retrieving coffee, passing out mail, or shredding

documents,” he says. “An internship with even the most prominent company can be ineffective if responsibilities aren’t given to the intern.” Understanding that, at some companies, giving interns a great deal of accountability is a risky proposition, Ward thinks it’s important that the internship description matches closely what the everyday duties will actually be. Although he looked for an internship to help develop certain skills for the

future, Ward doesn’t believe an internship needs to exactly match the student’s career goal. “In a conversation with former Nickelodeon president Herb Scannell, I was told that he and many of his hiring managers appreciate diversity in skills and often look at an applicant’s experience outside of the job description,” Ward says. Like Proehl, he believes interns bring more to the table than companies might realize. “They can provide fresh perspective and insight on modern practices learned during recent college courses,” he says. “A college intern isn’t just there for their résumé,” Proehl adds. “A lot of them know what they want to do. They are capable people and their goal is to learn.”

My Working Day

Ali Proehl 2015 graduate of the University of Denver with a double major in Marketing and Sociology.

The ideal internship as told by interns.

“ An internship with even the most prominent company can be ineffective if responsibilities aren’t given to the intern.”

A

Tariq WardGraduating from Syracuse University in May 2016 with a double major in Marketing and Business.

CONNECT WITH YOUNG TALENT TODAY!For posting or viewing internship opportunities, try these sites:

• Internships.com • InternMatch.com • YouTern.com • LinkedIn.com • FindSpark.com • Idealist.com

WHERE TO FIND INTERNS

According to 12-year recruiting veteran Alan

Weatherbee, president of his own PR and advertising recruiting firm, Weatherbee Talent Group, “Reaching college students where they are is the name of the game these days. One of those places is on Glassdoor, which is appealing to students because the site makes it easy to research companies and read employee reviews. Like LinkedIn, Glassdoor allows companies to build a branded platform. Unfortunately, many companies fail to brand their internship programs on both sites, missing an opportunity to highlight whether it can lead to full-time opportunities, if it’s paid, and what the experience will be like. Similarly, many companies have nothing on their websites geared toward interns. Unlike most seasoned professionals, interns are coming into your company blind to the culture, and this is a chance to lay it all out for them. A number of universities do a great job with virtual career fairs as well. Like in marketing itself, creating content in the form of testimonials that deliver insight about your internship program is important. There’s plenty of demand on both sides, and the good news is that, as long as people find out where the supply is, it’s not as difficult as finding a job.”

15 Things To Know Before You Hire

A Marketing InternView our Infographic at:

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2016 Salary and Title Trends for Marketers and Creatives:

National Average Projected Salary Ranges for 2016:Interactive Creative Director $104K - $193K

User Experience (UX) Specialist $86K - $132K

User Interface (UI) Developer $87K - $132K

Infographics Designer $58K - $83K

Video Producer $65K - $95K

Multimedia Designer $61K - $91K

Mobile Developer $95K - $140K

Content Strategist $78K - $109K

Emerging Roles in the Creative World:Creative Technologist Technology-focused and understands the creative process. Is good at prototyping early, facilitating prototype testing, and implementing changes. Responsible for building mobile and digital experiences.

Customer Experience Designer Responsible for creating satisfying or compelling experiences for users of a product and reshaping customer experiences to maximize conversions. Has an expert understanding of touchpoints across the entire customer journey.

Marketing Automation Manager Administers marketing campaigns; tests and analyzes workflow, lead generation, lead nurturing and lead scoring; and identifies tactics for improvement. Is comfortable with customer relationship management (CRM) software and possess web development and digital design skills (HTML at a minimum).

National Average Starting Salaries (varies by city/state, corporate/agency):

Graphic Designer (1- 3 years exp) $38,750 - $56,750

Production Coordinator $43,000 - $57,250

Web Designer (1- 5 years exp) $55,000 - $85,000

Copywriter (1- 3 years exp) $42,750 - $60,000

Blogger $45,000 - $67,250

Content Marketing Manager $68,000 - $94,500

Download the 2016 Salary Guide for

Creative and Marketing Professionals TODAY!

Visit creativegroup.com or roberthalf.com/creativegroup/

2016-salary-center

Source: The Creative Group™ 2016 Salary Guide for Creative and Marketing Professionals The Creative Group survey of more than 400 advertising and marketing executives in the United States. Creativegroup.com

Direct Mail Marketing:Direct mail advertising gives

a business a 13 to 1 ROI

Custom Web2Print Portals:24/7/365 Online Ordering

Kitting & Fulfillment:

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Cross Media Marketing:Combine Digital Media with Print

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