Category — TU-AMA

Woo! That’s all I have been saying since Monday. By May 2nd I would’ve attended the last class of my college career. It’s a bittersweet moment but I ready to take on the life of a working professional. I’ll be pushing prescriptions (I mean providing physicians with health care solutions) in a matter of two months as pharmaceutical sales rep for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

BUT…before I go on with this post. My apologies! I know I slacked a bit (maybe a lot) on giving you the inside scoop on working as an intern at Tierney Communications, a cool and dynamic ad agency in Center City . My final semester kicked my butt.  Yet, I know the past four years have shaped me into the woman I want to be–wildly sophisticated and utterly successful. With that said, I am back, and with graduation 22 days away, I will still be a TU-AMA thinker! You’re going to need someone to tell you how all of these (now abstract) marketing concepts play out in the real world. No worries, I am here!

To start, I did get an email from a reader! Sorry for not delivering prompt feedback but to answer the question: What is it really like to work at Tierney (i.e. people, work environment, atmosphere, etc.)?

It’s fun! It’s the only internship I’ve had where I could wear jeans at least two days out of the week. Employees really are recognized and awarded for their contributions. Co-workers across departments learn and know your name. There’s a company softball team (let’s not talk about its record). You can decorate your work space. Every Friday at 4:00 p.m. the media department kicks off the weekend with a mini 5-minute cubicle party (Don’t ask). There’s always the occasional office party to build esprit de corps (a word every strategist should know). The coffee machine isn’t bad and on any random day, there’s free food–typically caesar salads, sandwiches and fruit. And most important, the agency is filled with professionals who have extensive and amazing backgrounds and experience in media, creative design, strategic planning, marketing and advertising.

Even as my internship experience winds down, there is still so much that I am learning as an intern. I’ve been able to sit in on staff meetings, complete competitive analysis for clients, interact face-to-face with clients and watch Tierney employees participate in a marketing strategy case competition. I can say I’ve learned the most from this internship opportunity.

With that said, if there is one thing you should do RIGHT NOW to add value to your entire college career (and degree) : GET AN INTERNSHIP!!!

I kicked off the new year under the banner: “Elevate in ‘08.” Meaning that this year is all about strengthening the areas of weakness in my professional and personal life as well as sustaining and building upon my strengths. It’s about taking my life and career to the next level.

To start, I’ve scored a semester-long internship at Tierney Communications as an account management intern (that’s one slash mark on the strengthening my professional side.Yes!). But the new gig will also be your opportunity to see the daily inter-workings of one of Philadelphia’s largest full-service marketing and advertising agencies. You’re thinking, how? Easy…you’ll come with me (virtually, that is) because what’s the point of moving to the next level if you can’t take some people with you. Remember that success is shared!

So, for the next four months, we’ll both become ad agency insiders. I will serve as your all-access pass, sharing quirky work stories, recapping lunch dates with advertising professionals, and giving you an overall better picture of what it is like to transition into a professional career in advertising and marketing. As we venture together, please leave comments or questions that you have for the pros.

So, come with me behind the velvet rope of the advertising industry.

Your fellow Thinker,

Malaika

Since our new web site launched in late August 2007 (just over 5 months ago), it has officially experienced over 16,000 hits.  With that, I’d like to say thanks to everyone who makes it a point to visit our site frequently. We try to provide relevant content for our members and - perhaps - these statistics are indicative of that goal’s achievement.

Cheers!

This is a list I’ve been building for awhile of must read books pertaining to business, marketing, and other important things. Most of them were recommended to me by others, whether it be professors, colleagues, or co-workers. A few I added to the list myself. So read…it makes you smarter. That is all. [Read more →]

Being a personal evangelist for the Microsoft family of products (the entire AMA web presence was built and is maintained on a Windows machine…), I just wanted to introduce everyone to Microsoft Popfly (if Apple made it, everyone would have heard about it by now, I’m sure). Popfly is the fun and easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, and Web pages. It’s made up of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups and a social network where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users.

So what can you do with this? If you’re interested in building your own web page or creating some really nifty mashups (web app that combines the functionality of two or more web sites…i.e. Facebook and MySpace), you can do it all without writing a single line of code. You can throw all of your Facebook friend info on the same page of all your Halo 3 stats. Then click and drag to connect all your friends and their Halo 3 gamer stats. You use “blocks” that you click-and-drag onto your web page; you can then send data between the blocks and so on. You can also add your own HTML code if desired. Spend a few hours with it and you’ll be amazed at all the creations you can put together. All of this is done through a browser-based Silverlight application (you will need to download Microsoft Silverlight - it’s just like Flash!!!), so you don’t need any new software programs.

Why am I telling you this? Marketers are creative by nature, so you should enjoy this. Also, whenever something new pops up (no pun intended), marketing departments feel the need to use it…even if it doesn’t make any real sense. I expect Popfly to have such an effect, although I think this could make a lot of sense. Enjoy.

A special thanks to Bill Gates and all the wonderful people at Microsoft for actually innovating technology, unlike a certain aforementioned company. Go Microsoft!!!

http://www.popfly.ms/Home.aspx

Welcome to Think. - the official blog of the Temple University American Marketing Association. The idea here is to provide the large marketing community of the Fox School of Business with a specifi, open outlet for ideas and thoughts about our beloved discipline. Please use this tool to have some fun and post your random thoughts or notions about anything at all - TU-AMA, current marketing news, questions , thoughts on school projects, your job experiences, etc.

So stop and reading and start posting! But remember - no cussing or Bubel will have to drop the BANhammer!

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