2/23 Weekly Update #22: I'm Feeling...

Dear Reader,

There is a catchy pop song by one Taylor Swift called "22", with the famous tagline: "I don't know about you / but I'm feeling 22 / everything will be alright if / you keep me next to you."
The entire song is about feeling young and free, despite any obstacles or burdens a person may have. In times like these, such a song is comforting. Though ISM doesn't have any big events coming up immediately, on the horizon lurks Final Presentation Night, where we must each give a 30-40 minute speech on our journey this year along with present our boards for about 1.5 hours. It is the culmination of this year. And it is May 15.

May 15 comes at the end of a two-week testing period for AP exams. During those 2 weeks, I will probably experience vast amounts of stress. So as a result, I'm attempting to do as much work as I can now to avoid having to do more work than necessary during those two weeks.

This past week, I had the privilege of going on another mentor visit. During this visit, I met Slingshot LLC's Senior Media Planner, Production Supervisor, and my mentor's team that works with him on a certain client account. The highlight of my day was definitely getting to attend a team meeting where a new ad was being discussed. Though probably a very routine meeting for everyone else in attendance, I was amazed by the way each person contributed to the discussion. The team was clearly comfortable with one another, and thus also excellent at communicating. When trying to figure out the best placement for the ads, what to put on each part of the ad, and part of the wording that would go on the ad, the team looked at it from the consumer’s point of view. This isn’t any new concept: every ad agency does this. However, what stood out to me was they way that they not only looked at it from the consumer’s point of view, but the way they manipulated it from the consumer’s point of view. They brought up possibilities that I would’ve never thought of, and bounced their ideas off of each other to create the best possible outcome.


Until next time,
Eileen Bau

 

2/16 Weekly Update #21: Blackjack

Dear Reader,

If you are not familiar with card games, this title probably doesn't make sense. However, 21 is the magical number in the game Blackjack (in which you attempt to make a sum of 21 from your cards- and luck- to win).

I feel like Blackjack is a pretty accurate description of what I'm doing right now. In Blackjack, you start out with two cards. Based off of the values on these cards, you can ask the dealer for another card or pass. The goal is to get the value of the cards to add up as closely as possible to 21 without busting over it. With ISM, that's how it feels sometimes with the workload. You take on as much as possible to guarantee maximum quality without going over your limit. Otherwise, it's a bust, because then the quality of your work isn't very good.

This past week, I have been ever more aware of the fact that I have a limit. Though ISM hasn't been too demanding lately, I am still on a tight self-imposed timeline for my Final Product. Everything that I'm doing for it is wholly new to me, and I have to do it well and in a timely fashion.

The redeeming fact about all of this is that it's fun for me. I like being challenged, as much as I may complain about it. Additionally, for my Final Product, it's all pure marketing and advertising work, which is something that I actually enjoy, unlike slogging through calculus homework (however, I understand math is important and thus calculus is a necessary evil). This has been a quiet, but busy week. Next week, I'll meet again with my mentor and get even more of an experience into this strange, fascinating world of advertising.

Regards,
Eileen Bau

2/9 Weekly Update #20: Venti

Dear Reader,

There are 3 sizes of drinks at Starbucks. You can get a Tall, Grande, or Venti, aka Small, Medium, and Large. However, this system makes no sense. In no universe does small mean tall. Grande is literally "big" in Spanish. However, the most ridiculous one is Venti. Venti means 20 in Latin. Hello, yes, I'd like a size 20 coffee please. Yet, it works. I'd like to think Starbucks does this on purpose. From a marketing point of view, it just sounds so much more empowering to say "venti" than "large", which often comes with negative connotation (thanks to our health-conscious society). Additionally, saying "tall" and knowing that you purchased a "tall" drink could boost consumer satisfaction, because "tall" obviously sounds like you got so much more than if you said "small".

This past week, I have been working on my Final Product. I had my second mentor visit, and received approval to finally disclose who my mentor is.

My mentor is Scott Eagle, an Account Supervisor at Slingshot LLC, an advertising agency. When I went for my second visit for him, we basically hashed out a plan for my final product, which is going to be an advertising campaign for a small business. The steps (not in any particular order) include:
Competitive Research (category trends) (martial arts or rec sports)
Stakeholder interviews
Developing a Creative Brief
Analyzing the business situation (micro/macro environment)
Insights/Research (consumer trends)

And many more. Tomorrow, I will give a 25 minute speech over my ISM journey so far. Wish me luck.
Until next time,

Eileen Bau

2/2 Weekly Update #19: Suffrage

Dear Reader,

Did you know that the 19th amendment was the women's suffrage amendment? Probably. (That's the fact of the week, and it has nothing to do with the US History course I'm taking at the moment, at all). Women were one of the most underrepresented groups in history. Nowadays, it's impossible to walk around a city and not see advertisements geared towards women. Women represent such an important target market because they not only have their own purchasing power, they also influence the buying decision of the entire household. Additionally, women tend to respond to marketing and advertising techniques in different ways that men do, which makes for interesting studies and even more interesting ad designs. However, before womanhood, every girl must go through being a teenager. Although many have got the art of marketing to women down to a T, there are not many who can say the same about teenagers. Often labeled as one of the hardest groups to market to, ads towards teens can end up disastrous or way off target. This is something that (as a teenager), I am especially interested in.

This past week, I finished my Original Work. It was a packaging study over Band-Aids marketed specifically at teenagers. I won't go into too much details because you can find it in this blog under the "research" tab, but basically I interviewed a small group of teenagers in order to gather qualitative data about how they reacted to package design. This means that I was more interested in subjective consumer taste rather than in objective statistics like ideal font size or something like that.

These next couple weeks are going to be less hectic than this week was, but it's actually going to be the calm before the storm. Final Product is looming ahead, along with more things like 30-minute speech preparation. Wish me luck.

Until next week,
Eileen Bau