Managing The Commercial Communications Process (Week 2)
If you have not seen Week 1 of Managing the Commercial Communications Process, please find my post on Belbin Types here. Week 2 has been on continuation of this and how agencies begin as well as an overall in-depth introduction into details about the course.
The main 5 objectives the module will cover are:
- Understand Marketing Communications Agencies
- Specific roles in Marketing Comms and Marketing Industries
- How individuals operate within those job roles
- Understand the Marketing Comms industry in the 21st century
- How to plan and run a Marketing Communications Campaign
"Why is this important to me?"
CW1 - Ad Venture Brief (Group)
It was then revealed that we would have to create our own teams and launch a brand new Marketing Agency to meet a set creative brief. All agencies must have an agreed culture in order to be successful. This also where the Belbin Test (from last week) comes in. The concept allows team members to delegate specific roles to one another to ensure individual's strengths are being maximised well within the business.
My agency consists of: Myself (Erica Wenham), Jasmin Hannington, Arran Williams and Alex Frost and we are all currently studying for our Bachelors (Hons) Degree in Public Relations. Therefore, we all think on the same wavelength and are motivated to meet set goals and objectives. Although we are very similar in that respect, any team will always have members which are better than one task rather than another. For example, I can manage my time extremely well and strive hard to meet deadlines whereas other members may be less time-efficient. A few examples of key skills needed to successfully work in an agency environment are;
- Confident in what you believe
- Lateral (linking ideas) thinkers
- Can apply intelligence
- Great communicators
- Can thrive under pressure (without exploding)
- Articulate about beliefs and ideas
- Passionate (about communications
- Commercially aware
- Can justify what you say and why you are saying it
- Team players
- Teanacious
Meet The ICU Team:
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| Erica Wenham |
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| Jasmin Hannington |
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| Alex Frost |
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| Arran Williams |
ICU have been set the task of preparing a Brand Report and Pitch Presentation in regards to the Edcom Ad Venture project. Ad Venture is the first-pan European competition which gives university students the experience what it is like to work in a real life advertising agency. After presentation to personal university tutors, 3 international teams will be chosen to have the opportunity to present their campaign during the Edcom Annual Conference in Antwerp and the lucky final team will get to spend a week in Cannes for the Cannes International Advertising Festival.
Personally, I am really looking forward to getting started! As I am a kinesthetic learner (learning by doing things), I feel that CW1 on Ad Venture will really help to gain an insight into the agency world and learn more about campaign brainstorming, team work and more.
The Ad Venture brief will be revealed at a later stage. Keep a lookout!
CW2 - Brand/Agency Review (Individual)
CW2 will require individual research into a specific organisation and it's brand. One sector will be analysed into further, whether this may be Advertising, PR, Digital, Media etc. As my Degree is primarily related to Public Relations, it is recommend that is the industry I will research into. CW2 content will be an in-depth analysis of the brand (the client) and the PR (the agency) relationship. Vic also pointed out key points which are important to include within the report;
- What do you know about the (PR) sector? How is it performing?
- What do you know about the client?
- How does the agency aid the success of the client?
CW3 - Live Brief (Group)
Finally, CW3 will be the closing assignment for this year's module. Similarly to Ad Venture, our chosen agency groups will be set a real-life brief which we will have to brainstorm new, innovative and specific potential campaign ideas for. The brand will be revealed toward the end of the academic year to allow each group to have a substantial period of time to create their pitch.
The final result will then allow each group to present their ideas to a live marketing agency. CW3 is an amazing opportunity to gain experience in pitching and have an insight into the professional world of marketing and advertising. It can also help to improve presentation and public speaking skills as well potentially increasing networking opportunities.The overall winners of the brief may also be viable to gain a work placement or internship with the agency at a later stage.
The Live Brief will be revealed towards the end of the academic year. Keep a lookout!
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