The Life of a Summer Intern at: RTC

Today is the first Monday in two months that I’ve been able to sleep past 6 am, and I’m a little sad about it.  My internship with RTC, a marketing agency in Washington, DC, just ended and I am already having some serious FOMO (fear of missing out). A relationship marketing agency with a wide range of clients and an awesome group of people, I learned so much and made so many connections in the short time I was there. I had heard of RTC my freshman year when our adviser, Professor Harms, put me in contact with their HR person, however I decided not to pursue an internship that summer. Then, RTC came back onto my radar when they presented at an AMA meeting last semester (See, those meetings are better for more than free food) and I was blown away by how great it sounded. I then got back in touch with their HR person and when I went in to interview with my soon-to-be boss, I felt so much more comfortable, because by hearing her speak, I knew so much more about the company and we had plenty to talk about.  I was part of the Insights and Innovation team, which evaluates and plans marketing strategies for clients. I worked on a wide range of projects, from client-specific consumer research, to compiling a creative competitive analysis, to creating infographics about applying new technologies to marketing to serve as education tools. From all this, I learned so much. Here are just a few things:

Write, write, write!
As a marketer, you need to be able to write. In marketing, and especially in an agency, you need to learn how to communicate your point of view in the most succinct way possible and sell your idea before you lose people’s attention. This is something I plan to work on this year by writing as much as possible, whether that be in a daily journal or blog, or offering to do the writing sections in group projects. In a lot of business schools’ curriculum, there isn’t much focus placed on writing, but if you get good at it now, it will save you a lot of hassle and red pen when you get a real job.

Speak up
If you have a special skill that could add additional value to your work, speak up and let your boss know! I was placed on a project to do research about mobile strategy with another intern. We were initially supposed to just create an outline, and then send it up to the creative team to make it into an infographic, but I asked if I could give it a shot instead, and I was able to use my graphic design skills to pull the create a much more visually pleasing way to present the information. Had I not let my boss know, I would have gotten the opportunity to use multiple skills and have a better deliverable in the end.

Get out of your cubicle
One of the things that made my internship the most fun was the people that I worked with. Although you want to be a dedicated worker, you also want to make sure to connect with the people around you. Make small talk with the people in the kitchen and take the time to get to know them. I was so excited to be around such experienced marketers and wanted to know how they got to where they are now. Most people are very interested in giving you career advice or just sharing their own stories with you if you take the time to ask questions. I learned a lot from the people above me and feel like I made some great connections that will benefit me in the future.


I could go on for way longer about all the great experiences I had at RTC and I really am sad to be leaving because I feel like there is so much more for me to learn. Plus, I'll really miss the Pad Thai from the place across the street...
Hopefully I'll return to RTC in the future to take advantage of those opportunities!

"Sidevertising": Revolutionizing Sports Marketing

Whether or not you enjoyed the athletic massacre that was the UEFA Euro 2012 final, there is something that every marketer can appreciate about the world’s most popular sport: sidevertising. For a whole ninety minutes – or more, if it’s a good match – companies who run advertisements on the sideline barriers (“sidevertising”) have the unwavering attention of millions of viewers every match, and in the case of the UEFA Final, over 300 million.

But spectators watching the final on T.V. (or online) on Sunday missed more than just an evenly-matched game; they missed out on one of the most revolutionary technological advancements in the field of sports advertising: Digital Billboard Replacements.

Now, if we assume that no two consumers are exactly alike, then no two consumers should receive the exact same advertisement, right? Sure, but the bitter truth of marketing is that such a level of personalization is virtually unattainable. Digital Billboard Replacement is a creative compromise: it allows broadcasting networks to show advertisements that change based on the country in which viewers are watching the match. (To see an example, check out this video of the 2011 FA Cup Semi-Final – see the Beko ad at 0:16). How does it work? Finnish developer Supponor applies a layer of special film on the billboards that broadcast cameras can specifically target. Advertisers then use that hardware to customize advertisements for different viewerships.

Using DBR, advertisers can now send the same message in different languages, or in the case of multi-national companies, advertise different products in their relative countries of commerce. And since any billboard can be retrofitted with Supponor’s technology, DBR will inevitably redefine sports advertising as we know it. It is technology’s next step toward the advertopia that is completely-personalized marketing.

So why did DBR take the bench on Sunday instead of making its largest appearance yet? I am assuming a simple answer: it hasn’t been tested enough to guarantee error-free execution for an event of that broadcasting magnitude. I can only imagine how quickly DBR would have gotten the red card had it failed after networks had collected millions of dollars in advertising revenue.

But apparently, the future is bright; Supponor and Sports Revolution claim that we are just a few short months away from a fully-functioning system. Can you imagine the implications?! What if DBR were able to customize messaging for the nearly 5 billion viewers of the 2016 Olympics? Or if viewers could pre-register for specific types of advertisements?

Whatever the future specifically holds, I don’t see DBR sitting on the sidelines for long. I see it revolutionizing them.

How do you see DBR changing advertising in the future?

Hawaii Anyone?

Now that it is the summer and we're finally out of school for about 3 months, why not travel? And by travel, I don't mean hop in the car to visit the Baltimore Zoo, or go to Times Square for the 3rd time in a row, how about Hawaii?

I know... heading to Hawaii can be quite difficult.
One, it's far. And two, it can be quite inconvenient.

Well, Hawaiian Airlines has launched a new campaign to negate the possible stereotypes people may have about travel to Hawaii. The campaign is targeting people on the East Coast specifically, an area where only 2.4% of tourists came from. Less than three percent? I think I'd do the same thing the airline was doing. You have highly influential people spending money to travel to anywhere as long as the country is in Europe or Asia, yet only 2.4% of your sales come from this side of the country.

One of the things Hawaiian Airlines has decided to do is open a new route from New York City to Honolulu. This could be big. New York City is a whole different entity on its own. It attracts people from not only New York, but the states surrounding it such as New Jersey, upper Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts. New Yorkers lives are so fast paced that Hawaii could be the perfect get away. Not to mention that JFK Airport is the 6th largest airport in the United States according to Listosaur #justsayin.

In this New York promotional campaign, they brought Hawaii to New York. The distributed leis, played traditional Hawaiian music, had hula dancers... the works.

The digital version of the campaign contains "witty and effective copy", nothing like Burger King's Crispy Chicken Commercial.

Because the airline is small compared to American giants such as Southwest, United, Airtran and Delta, Hawaiian Airlines has to be strategic as to which routes they use, and New York may be the best fit. Although, they are on the rise, their marketing campaigns in the last few years being effective to the point that they took out one of their competitors, Aloha Airlines.

For those of you interested in visiting, Hawaiian Airlines offers trips from a few places such as Boston and Raleigh, NC, along with many other choices.
If I could give suggestions of places to add routes, I would definitely add our local IAD (Dulles) and Atlanta's Airport. The airport in Atlanta has the most traffic of all airports in the US, and Dulles is.. Dulles.

Hawaiian Airlines also offers benefits to their flyers such as the FFP (Frequent Flyer Program), online and in store products as well as ways to easily rack up points.

I definitely have wanted to get up and go somewhere, Hawaii being on my list. Knowing that the airline is doing more to give people from all areas of the states the opportunity to visit them will pay off in the long run.

Obama Spends Big Bucks for Online Advertising

In an effort to triumph the political battleground, Barack Obama has spent a record breaking amount on online advertising. Obama spent spent nearly $19 million since the launch of his presidential campaign in 2011 through March 2012 (CNN). Unofficial Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Obama's opponent has only spent a little over $5 million in the same time (ClickZ). In fact, Obama has spent twice as much as the Republican National Committee and all of the GOP presidential hopefuls combined (ClickZ).

Experts applaud Obama's online presence for targeting specific voters. Furthermore, online advertising is one of the best ways to gauge level of success by tabulating number of hits and duration of time spent on a specific ad. Digital advertising will allow Obama to direct his message to specific groups, such as Hispanics and Catholics, and swing states that have historically swayed between parties.

One of Obama's current (and most creative) digital campaigns is his "Pet Lovers for Obama" ad and associated Facebook page. Users can go like the page and submit photos of their beloved critters rocking Obama collars and gear. As of June, the page has over 33,000 likes and countless photo uploads and comments. Obama's marketing strategists garner quintessential user interaction with the people through this digital media. Further, Obama strikes an emotional connection with voters by sharing his love for his pet as the same love you have for yours.

Both presidential candidates use television and print advertisements as well, but as the world becomes ever so virtual, so does the political arena. Watch out for more digital marketing as the presidential race begins to heat up in the upcoming months!

To learn more about the candidate's use of digital advertising and overall marketing specifics, please
go to: CNN Obama outspends Romney on online ads