A friend of mine said needed me to be her press photographer at the 2012 SESAC Pop Music Awards. SESAC honors song writers and publishers who have made a splash in Rock, Pop, and Urban music. I was very exited to attend this event, like most projects I take on my excitement wasn’t accompanied with nervousness but anticipation.

After lots of texting and bugging my photography and pr friends I found out that I needed to dress in comfortable clothes and be ready to elbow my way between others to get the shot. I found this to be true! 

Below are some of the media I produced as a result of multi-tasking with photography, video, social media and anything else I could share with.

1 min highlight real behind the scenes for SuchABossLady.com:

My first red carpet photo shots:

Some of my video stills and behind the scenes shot away from the red carpet it self:

And finally my new life sharing obsession VINE:

1. When seeking a position I will not limit myself to entry planning positions. It’s OK to start in media, creative or accounts and have an end goal of planning.

The survey says that 67% of planners started off in other areas of marketing (mainly accounts ,creative and media). I know this to be true because I ask every Senior planner I’ve sipped coffee with where they began. I have yet to meet a senior or director who has ran the race wearing the same shoes the whole time. They let me know that working in other areas of the agency gave them the experience and understanding of how accounts and creative function together to create great work that actually evokes change in the intended target, hence the purpose of a planner.

Another important observation that I already had an inkling of is how planners are introduced to their jobs. A whopping 40% of planners got their job through someone they know contacting them and to my surprise a very low 5% got it through interning and even lower (as I wasn’t surprised) 4% got it through a website posting. So if you’re not acquainted with someone within the company your chances of landing the position are well below 10%.

I’ve trusted in the “It’s not only what you know but who you know” saying for quite sometime and it definitely has gotten me interviews. But now I see that the effort I’ve put into scouring the internet sending cover letters to www.adAgency.com/Careers is like trying to sale vacuums door to door in 2013; Yes the person at the door smiles and may even give me a glass of water but I don’t get past that front door!

2. I will focus my efforts on finding a position by meeting face to face with decision makers, either indirectly through networking events or by planned introductions. Filling online apps alone don’t get me in.

I need to go full force with industry socialite hob-knobbery if I want to be effective and efficient in my search. More hours have been spent searching Linkedin, Indeed, and Craigslist for a posting rather than studying the PEOPLE who are making the posts. It may seem quite stalker-like but It brings greater return to find the job posting and then go to the companies website and social media pages to get an understanding of who they are and more importantly the people they hire. From there I hunt for any opportunity to meet a key person and speak to them face to face. Just that venture alone should demonstrate my ability to plan for specific a target right?

“Miranda I see the Planning Director from . . . can you introduce me?”

I’m moving my magnifying glass from the job sites to eventbrite and the facebook pages of agencies. I’ll attend more industry events where I can meet the people who are offering these without the moat and castle walls of the internet and HR screening process. I just walk up while they are drinking craft beer and eating Spanakopita and hope positivity pushes forward.

3. Only 3% of people in planning look like me. I will work to find out how I can break those walls down for myself and everyone else in my position.

One character building challenge to my journey is that I’m African American. And I found out quite early that my entry into the advertising industry would be difficult from my very first internship (The Marcus Graham Project that works to increase diversity in the industry).  According to this survey and many others, once I get a position in an agency I will be apart of the rare 3% of Black account planners.

I have no tactic or strategy to use this to my advantage except to keep in heart the extra drive and purpose my pursuit of success this fact gives me. Black people (global survey not just African Americans) even fall below the “Other” choice on this survey. With that said I want to make sure that I do my best to increase that percent. I also wouldn’t mind doing it in a place where my presence is valued in general to all efforts and not just multi-cultural marketing. I’ve interned for a multi-cultural agency and it holds great value but I would like to prove myself on all sides of the fence.

4. I will step up as a consultant on branding and engagement to those who are truly unfamiliar with it. Therefore building my tangible library of experiences.

Apart from agency life I’ve also realized that account planning is a role that could function quite well in the realm of freelance. Questions about my education usually stop at the name of the school and the rest center around my actual experience and application of skills. I notice that many people start businesses or promote causes with the thinking “If I build it they will come or care“, as a planner I know that’s not the *case*. Seeing as I made this spiffy website I should use my free time to consult  businesses and make sure they actually mean something to their target audiences. In turn I will be honing my marketing skills and making the money to keep the wifi on.

So with that said all my thoughts have splattered on to this post and are dripping down to this one strategy. (Yes it’ simple but sometimes it helps to write things out so that you can follow through with them in the end).

I’m going TO advance my account planning career BY growing my network of industry professionals and sharing my experiences, capabilities and desire for planning in the most opportune fashion.

In 2013 American Family Insurance introduced it’s first campaign that celebrates African American culture beyond just February. The campaign centers around the subject of Black Film and drives content, conversation and engagement over a 6 month period.

The main elements of this campaign are

• a video that discusses the film industry’s, subject matter and accountability from the point of view of African Americans. This was done as a round-table using notable filmmakers, directors and actors. The video was segmented into 9 parts and shared each week between February and April 2013.
• A contest that awards one person with the honor of premiering their short film at 2013 American Black Film Festival in Miami on June 21st and the video will be posted online for the public to view on June 22nd.

My Contribution

The selected Theme/position of this Black history campaign was defined in a POV I wrote, researched and supported with my own findings. My presentation showed which BHM campaign themes already existed in the market among all industries and specifically among American Family’s insurance company competitors.

The exact words of my key insights were

“ There has been a shift from February focused campaigns to year-round campaigns/programs that add emphasis during February.”

And also “[the themes of] Bridging the Present to the future” and “Looking Forward” are the least exhausted territories.”.

After my research deck was passed upward through the planning department and working into creative briefings the concept of Through A Black Lens was formed for American Family Insurance.

I’m very proud to see what rose from the nets out of my initial casting out to sea. The planning department had already kept a record of BHM campaigns from the previous year and I was charged with finding the trends, themes and unbeaten path among them.

Kevin is making a seat for himself at the top just like many of his predecessors (Chris Rock & Eddie Murphy) by branching into different businesses and reaching more general markets. But what is refreshing about his celebrity status is that he is not only making us laugh on stage he is reaching us as the face of many advertisements

I’m sure other prominent comedians have been called on to be the liaison between brands and young multicultural audiences but Kevin has taken a step up. Not only does the African American community identify with him but so do all millennials this is because he is taking the stage during an awesome time; where urban comedians are just as well known in the black community as in the general market (we can see this by his celebrated hosting of the 2012 MTV VMAs).Between 2011 and 2012 Kevin Hart as flooded my tv, youtube, and radio commercials with his charismatic quirky presence.

Check out some of the campaigns he’s been in: MTV Awards, Ford, Ebay, Xbox, and most recently Verizon Wireless

MTV Awards 2012

Ford Explorer 2011

Xbox 360 2011

Ebay 2012

Verizon Wireless 2012

Description of Project & Goal:

After traveling to Chicago to attend one of the largest touring sneaker enthusiast events in the country my group and I felt it was lack luster. As attendees the atmosphere and engagement of the event was well below our expectations.

We decided that we needed to give our own city (St. Louis) the awesome event that we had been experiencing vicariously through the internet from the major costal cities. Sneaker collectors in St. Louis have never had any attention paid to them and we set out to change that with P.U.T.S.
 

Methodology:

Because this was the first time an event of it’s kind happened in St. Louis I had to make a contrast of what would work best in our market. I met with my team and detailed the relationship between three things:
- Target: Attitudes and habits of our audience
- Category: Possibilities and best practices we’ve seen in the sneaker enthusiast category
- Brand: The position of our brand and extent of our capabilities.

Results:

- The first Pump Up The Sneakers (P.U.T.S.) event was sponsored by a national sneaker brand, and three local shoe boutiques. Over 150 guests attended.
- P.U.T.S. has reoccurred annually and has just passed year three with over 230 guests in attendance and multiple local sponsors.
- The event has grown in to a sub-brand of Made Monarchs and has been featured in local news publications and created continued engagement online.

– Steve Stoute

I’ve lived my life (of only 24 years) always showing my work and letting the quality speak for itself. For some reason how good you are isn’t analyzed through your past projects or skill sets, but through what you say to catch the decision maker’s ear. When it comes to the hiring process I understand the fact that they can’t analyze every applicant because everyone will look good on paper. It seems only the charismatic dragons make it to where they want to be in the industry.

Here was the first time I created an elevator pitch for my application to the Marcus Graham Project in Dallas, Tx:

I was accepted and spent the summer of 2011 working with great agencies such as RAPP, The Marketing Arm, W+K, and TPN inc. I was also selected to travel on a consumer research tour across the country. I’m not sure how much weight this video held but looking back I’m not completely satisfied with it. My choppy speech and odd gaze make it seem as if I’m reading a teleprompter, but I’m NOT! That’s just how hard I planned for the 30 second time limit; I memorized my pitch word for word. The result was rather polished on my canon t2i with some use of After Effects but My message seems so contrived and robotic lol.

I promise I’m not a robot I just work so hard on configuring messages that I don’t always come across as relaxed and conversational.

As my hunt for a position goes on I’ve gotten more adapt to giving the intended message but in a more conversational tone. Being nervous, uncomfortable, and to practiced makes things seem fabricated. From here on I’m going to loosen up the bow-tie and let my personality flow more freely.

The main exchanges they detail on their website are Fundraising, Businesses accepting payments and Musicians selling music. The most talked about application that has integrated Chirpify’s API is “Tweet-a-Beer” by the Tenfour agency (Portland). Below is a video detailing their successful launch during SXSW 2012. This makes me wonder what types of campaigns I can create using Chirpify. . .