My chat with The University of Georgia‘s students was a success! You can review my fun deck below, and then read through my written event recap!
*Hover over the image above to click through the deck!
A Quick UGA Rundown
𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗦𝗧: We chatted about…
🧠 My life at UGA. After 4 years of being there, I left no stone unturned. College is a big playground, so the best thing to do is explore and trailblaze. You have SO many resources at your fingertips!
Some of my highlights included:
- Going to the Cannes Film Festival Study Abroad
- Being a Resident Assistant
- Being a part of the Grady Journalism school, which is where I dove into being a Grady Ambassador and a Peabody Awards Board Member
🧠 My life after UGA. My vibe hasn’t changed. I STILL leave no stone unturned, but I’ve kicked my self-awareness journey into high gear, and have become more intentional about what I say YES to. The older and more seasoned you get, saying NO will get you further than saying yes.
Some post-college highlights include
- My internship at Uber! It was honestly the best way to kick off my professional career!
- My Startup Bus experience (a traveling business hackathon)
- Lots of traveling! My study abroad experiences helped spark my love for travel. Since then, I’ve been abroad to places like Japan and South America, and local hot spots like Austin, Nashville, and The Grand Canyon!
Life as a Creative Strategist
𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗡: I jumped into the world of Creative Strategy and Creative Marketing! I chatted about what the heck I do, plus shared some brands that I think are doing amazing things in their space.
What is Creative Strategy?
I like to say that I’m a mix between a Creative Director, Copywriter, and Executive Producer. I source good ideas, create ideas, and pitch those ideas. Here’s the rundown:
- STEP 1: A brand comes to us and asks us to make something cool that will get Morning Brew fans to buy or use their product. They do this by submitting a document called an RFP.
- STEP 2: I get assigned this project!! I immediately ask our sales team to give me the inside scoop on the brand. What do they like, what don’t they like, and why do they like Morning Brew?
- STEP 3: I do a deep dive into the brand. I look at things like their marketing voice, past campaigns, past partnerships, etc.
- STEP 4: I put together a brainstorm with other creative people on my team. We throw lots of ideas out there to figure out what kind of marketing campaign would work for the brand and the problems they’re trying to solve.
- STEP 5: I put together a cohesive marketing campaign in a document called a Program Brief. Here is where the seller, account manager, and production team review the concept. They all need to understand the campaign.
- STEP 6: I put together a flashy pitch deck that our sales team presents to the brand walking them through the campaign.
- STEP 7: If the brand is really excited and wants to buy this marketing campaign, the sales team sets up a meeting that includes the sales team, the account manager, and either someone from the brands marketing team or the brand’s agency to answer any other questions or concerns the client might have about the campaign.
- STEP 8: The brand buys my campaign and our production team makes it!!
Why Did I Choose Creative Strategy?
I followed my curiosity. In college, I wanted to be a film director. But then I started gravitating towards marketing. Then I really wanted to work for a tech company as a UI/UX designer.
Then I found out that there was a such thing as creative marketing and they were in charge of putting together really cool brand campaigns.
I got a job doing UX/UI for email marketing, but I didn’t forget about creative marketing. I spent some time doing that, but when I was ready to look for a new job I didn’t forget about creative marketing.
I stumbled on the Creative Strategy role after talking to a lot of different people about their jobs. It was called something different depending on where people worked, so I depended largely on the job description to guide me as well. I always try to do jobs that revolve around creativity, strategy, and marketing. So this fits perfectly!
I also made a note of the things I really liked and the things people came to for.
What I liked:
- Creative Marketing
- Making content that’s entertaining, enjoyable, and informative
- Media & Entertainment
- Creating fun, unexpected, and crazy ideas
- Talking about those ideas
- Collaborating with people to make those crazy ideas a reality
People came to me for:
- Advice / Strategy
- Writing/Copywriting help
- Marketing & Design help
- Creative Operations (i.e. making PowerPoints, project management, etc.)
What Kind of Skills Does a Creative Strategist Need?
Creativity: I’m obsessed with breaking the rules in the industry. The advertising and marketing spaces have been stuffy for a very long time, so I appreciate brands who break the rules and let creativity win!
Curiosity: You have to be interested in knowing about a lot of different things. The more you know, the more creative you can get with your marketing campaigns!
Communication: Learning how to communicate will be extremely important. A lot of challenges during the creative process are due to a communication breakdown. Learning people’s workstyles and communication styles will always put you ahead of the game!
IRL Event Highlights
🎈The Best Moment: I described what the behind-the-scenes feature was on an old DVD. Idk if the students knew what I was talking about, but I hope I’ve inspired them to find the nearest DVD and DVD player, and figure it out because the BTS DVD content used to be 🔥. I mean where else could you watch the movie AND listen to the actors/directors talk about WHY they did certain things in certain scenes!!
Then I proceeded to show them Netflix‘s Tudum because Netflix Editorial is KILLIN’ the branding/creative/marketing game. Plus, this is the closest thing this generation will get to having BTS DVD content.
🎈Runner-Up: The students probably think I go to Happy Hours and Cocktail parties all the time because I showed them some of the creative concepts I’ve pitched and a good bit had something to do with a Happy Hour or Dating. LOL 😂
Final Career Advice
𝗕𝗨𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘’𝗦 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘: I answered a ton of career questions like…
😳 How do you spot red flags in an interview so that you don’t waste your time?
😳 How do you know when it’s time to transition to a new job?
😳 How do you know what type of marketing you want to do?
I’ll answer those questions above on this blog at some point as well, but for now, I dropped in some extra career advice for those who couldn’t be there in person with us!
Career Advice by Deja White