The Student Ad Summit was fantastic. My only qualm is I never attended before! A major hands down to the volunteers who devoted so much time to the event, you all did an excellent job. In case you couldn’t make the event or are curious about my experience, here’s a blow-by-blow recap of the day.
Breakout session 1 – Lisa McEllistrem, VP/Management Supervisor, Periscope
“The Changing Roles of Marketers: The Super AE”
Key Points:
- Periscope – 240 employees, tagline = “We wrap more talent, more tightly, around our clients’ brands.”
- Account executives need to be an advocate for both their client and their agency
- Be inquisitive, have an insatiable curiosity and stay on top of the curve
- Don’t be afraid to bring big ideas to the table, you are valuable
- Don’t write a creative brief in 30 minutes, they take time
- Come at problems at a different angle, advertising is about building relationships, not just putting ads on tv
- Favorite tweeters: @TEDnews, @gapingvoid, @jtwinsor, @cliffbot
Breakout session 2 – John Jarvis, Managing Partner/Chief Creative Officer, The Lacek Group
Great Power, Great Responsibility: Becoming an Agency CEO
Key Points:
- John’s had 10 jobs in 27 years – don’t worry about your first job being perfect, you will move
- Read Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company – learn to love the world of business
- The Lacek Group specializes in Loyalty Marketing, owned by Ogilivy
- Don’t be a motormouth, develop your listening skills
- Be able to think like a client, interact with them as must as possible
- Remember, at the end of the day it’s just advertising
Breakout session 3 – Jodi Grundyson, Director of Brand & Retail Strategy, Sara Nelson, Design Director, KNOCK, inc.
People Do Judge Book by its Cover: Branding & Packaging – *My favorite presentation! I have major appreciation for great design.
Key Points:
- KNOCK is a branding and design firm, they’ve created awesome packaging for a variety of consumer goods and have worked extensively with Target
- Create brand stories
- Subtlety is nice
- Let your clients be the experts they are
Keynote Speakers: Bob Ballard, VP/Management Supervisor & Charlie Callahan, VP/Executive Creative Director, Periscope
Key Points:
- Be a simplifier not a complicator
- We (advertisers) solve business problems, if you want art get a loft
- Manage the jobs that aren’t hot so you can manage the ones that are
- Don’t shove things around (when making changes), make them better
- Focus on the important, don’t get distracted by things that aren’t
Cool people I met during lunch and networking roundtables:
- Christopher Pollard, Owner, Whoop Design
- Craig Pladson, Interactive Account Director, Colle+McVoy
- Tony Saucier, Associate Acct. Director/Social Media Strategist, OLSON
- Tina Ilstrup, Account Executive, D.Trio
- Matt Nyquist, Account Executive, OLSON
Periscope Agency Tour
The Summit wrapped up with agency tours and a portfolio review session. I was lucky enough to score an agency tour at Periscope. The thing that sets them apart from all the other agencies I’ve visited is the ability to do almost all their work in-house. They have a full photo studio and printing center. On our tour the photo team was doing a shoot involving grilled fish so the whole place smelt like salmon. Periscope also has lots of cute dogs, definitely a fun atmosphere to work in.
Final Thoughts
Despite the reality of seeing hundreds of other cutthroat students trying to land a job, just like I am, overall the Ad Summit was uplifting. Sometimes I question if advertising is for me but when I attend events like this and get excited by great creative and friendly professionals I know advertising is where I want to be. Despite the bad job market nearly every professional I’ve met has been friendly and willing to help. That says a lot about the Twin Cities ad community.
Nice recap, Tara! Although the pushy/cutthroat nature of 200 ad students was kind of a turn off for me, but it sounds like you ended up meeting a ton of great people!
There were some downright rude people but I figure that karma will come back to them!
I think we were at a few of the networking tables together! Nice recap… Definitely was a really intesne day, but unbelievably enlightening!