Emilie Jeneson

Course Evaluation

Email: jene0951@vandals.uidaho.edu

Phone Number: 208.720.8796

During my thinking process about how I was going to evaluate the course, one saying that I hear quite often was a constant in my mind. ‘If only I knew then what I know now.’ I don’t exactly like that saying because I think: if only, if only…what? If I knew what I know now about IMC in the beginning of the course, obviously I would have learned nothing. Looking back at my first IMC topic brief I can’t believe the difference of strength in my writing and understanding of advertising.

This course was extremely challenging and it would be an understatement to say that I struggled my way through it. I enjoyed the creativity freedom of the course and made every effort that I could to take it upon myself to learn the process of IMC. I would say that my experience this semester was unlike any other I have had in my education background. It broke me out of the redundant ‘structure’ most courses I have ever taken offer. I am not going to lie, without this backbone I felt extremely lost…almost like I didn’t have one. I’ve realized that even more as this course is coming to an end. Although throughout the semester I felt lost, confused and like giving up-I am thankful that I had all of those experiences. I told myself suck it up and pretended I really was working in an entry-level position at a successful advertising agency. 

The course materials were all extremely helpful in helping me with my rise to the top of understanding of the IMC planning process. The textbook was one that I would not have been able to survive without. The brands exercises were extremely helpful with many of the journal and draft processes and was useful and up-to-date. The only thing that I would have to say about the book is that it is difficult to maneuver and seems cluttered. I enjoyed working through the Journal process especially because I have experience with keeping a blog and writing often for practice. I can clearly see now why it was important to research different agencies for journal exercises but at the time I found them extremely daunting and repetitive. However, I did enjoyed having the blog as part of this course because it was a refreshing, useful tool for completing coursework. I am really organized and meticulous so it was hard for me to get used to finding important documents and worksheets that assisted us through our drafts. I think that if the course blog left out the really important documents and only included the extra creative thinking assignments (or put in a different category) it would be easier to access and locate specific links. 

It would be fun to have a bigger section about internships in the blog journals. I created one of my blogs about advertising internship opportunities available for students which was a fun exercise for me. I think that because of the level of this course, it could be really beneficial for students to have more knowledge about internships, especially in advertising. If there were any other suggestions for the blog it would be to emphasize how much all of the extra resources on the blog help with each section of the IMC process (Mindmaping, Scamper, TedTalks). 

As I mentioned, I started this course with a basic understanding of advertising and now stand light years ahead of my starting point in August. This was the first actual advertising class that I have taken. The only other class I’ve had is International Marketing, which is where I got the basis of advertising. My teacher did not present much of a challenge to his students. I assume that is because he is a Spanish business teacher lecturing with a strong accent to a large percentage of students who didn’t care about target markets or media strategies. The one problem that I had was that he didn’t give the students who were taking it seriously a chance to excel and learn exponential amounts about advertising. I feel like this semester, I have made up for lost time or better yet-lost knowledge. Through the entire process of Integrated Marketing planning and program design process, I can say that I fully understand how to identify a target market through research and segmentation and then create an advertising campaign that doesn’t appeal to the company, but successfully appeals to the specific target market of that company. I have seen the IMC process in my mind as a large circle. Because of my struggles with defining my business in my IMC plan, I could not seem to get a grasp on that certain concept. It was throwing my entire plan off balance and my IMC process wasn’t a round circle, but a crimped oval-shape. When I finally perfected my business definition, everything else was easier.  

I enjoyed creating draft three much more than all of the others. Maybe it was because I understood what I was doing but most of the reason was because of the creative strategy section. Although I was relieved to be done with the third and final IMC draft, I came up with many ideas that I wanted to expand on for my plan. I wish that I could have gone into more depth with my creative examples.

I believe that because of my dedication and willingness to thoroughly and successfully learn the process of IMC planning, I have earned an ‘A’. I know that there are many different perceptions of what an ‘A’ means in the grading world, but I would say it is a grade received by a student who has gone to great lengths to understand all concepts expected by the end of the course. 

I have illustrated through my 3 drafts how much I have excelled and become much more aware of advertising, how it functions in our society and most of all, the process that advertising agencies use to create successful, effective and influential advertising for their clients’ target market.  

I am thankful for the opportunities that I have had to grow in this class and look forward now, more than ever to pursue advertising. 

Assignment: Position yourself as: a student, a person with a distinct person, how I would like others to view me and as a job applicant

•  As a student-I am a very balanced student who is able is focused on school and achieving good grades. 
• As a person with a distinct personality-I have a distinct personality because I am the only me that exists in the world. I am unique and unlike any other individual
• As you want friends, professors, parents and lovers to view you-She is an extremely caring, passionate and giving and someone who I can always rely on.
• As a job applicant (Internship for a visual display artist)-I am extremely qualified because of my background in art and passion for creativity.

I found this challenge particularly hard because I am do not really analyze myself often. I had to dig deeper and figure out exactly how I would want the people I am positioning myself to see me. 

Assignment: Explore what it would take to work as an intern for Burson Marsteller and the process of applying.

The process of applying for an internship at BM is something that I would absolutely love to experience because of how much practice I would get before being hired for an entry-level position. Having an internship would not only increase my chances of being hired after I graduate, but give me meaningful information about what it takes to work in such a successful agency, how it is organized and what makes it so successful. I would be extremely intimidated by the process of applying for an internship with BM because of the different requirements including the essay, resume, and press release. I think that I were willing to work for it and perfect the application materials, even if I weren’t to be looked at or hired, would help with tools for the application process after graduating.  

Assignment: Explore a few different entries on the BM blog

“About Harold Burson”

This blog post highlights all of the accomplishments that he has made over the past 50 years. This blog seems to be a huge PR tool because it is helping the agency to look better and song more reliable. It is interesting to get more of a background on Harold Burson as well as how his life revolves around Burson-Marsteller. He illustrates how his life has led to the place that it’s at today and who he is known as in the industry as well as what he has done for multinational corporations, political figures and the awards he has received since being in the field of PR. 

“Public Relations and Advertising: The Choice is Not Either/Or”

This blog entry describes how BM has changed over the years and how they are have combined advertising with PR to make their marketing for the client better. Burson talks about how they have been able to increase their cash flow especially because of the timing that they realized that they needed to combine the two rather than having them be two separate services. This seems to be something that Ogvily does not do-or if they do I did not read about it. I think that this is a very logical way to be more cost efficient. Burson explains that PR really more valuable in the marketing mix and was proved to increase cash flow. 

“A Time of Renewal”

This blog post was published in May of 2007. Burson talks about the large amount of ‘newly-minted public relations practitioners” that are joining the work force of comminations. There is an all time high of students studying communications in colleges. I really enjoyed reading this particular post on the blog because Burson talks about what exactly people entering the field should know, what is the most valuable, and what he tells interns at BM. He seems to be extremely personable and helpful for that huge population of college grads that start in entry-level public relation jobs. 

Assignment: Think about ways you have used the SCAMPER strategy in your lifetime. 

Using scamper in my life, I have successfully found my really good friends that I have met in college. Although making friends and deciding which people are true friends and ones that aren’t a constant in your life, is hard to compare to an advertising tactic. I think problem solving in general is a great way to use scamper. I can think of many different problems I have had in the past and I think SCAMPER would have been really useful 

• Product/service company (in reality)
• Product/service company (perceived by target audience)
• Budget summary
• Target Segment

I think that this draft is going to be a little bit easier because I have a good idea of what I need to fix and how to fix my issues on the the third draft.