About the Integrated Marketing Communication author(s)

Recently in the Integrated Marketing Communication Category

Emerson College's entire campus may be located on a small block around Bolyston Street and Tremont Street, but as an Integrated Marketing Communication student, I've learned firsthand that content and positioning are far more important than size. Even as a graduate student commuting from 45 minutes away in the suburbs, I have made the most of the social, artistic, and professional opportunities Emerson's campus has presented.

Emerson graduate students come from a wide variety of cultural and professional backgrounds, and are immediately placed into a group-oriented workplace environment with each other. Emerson's campus provides the ideal place for students to meet, bond, and learn about their peers. I have cultivated my best friendships at Emerson over food and drinks at local restaurants and bars located right next to the Walker Building, where most of Emerson's graduate classes are held. One of my best recent memories is sitting with my proud classmates, having just completed our Marketing Management course, watching the epic Boston Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls triple overtime game at one of these bars. I'll never forget watching my friends from places like Taiwan, India, China and Germany, cheer madly whenever Ray Allen sank a three-pointer for the "Celts".

Entertainment options are also never in short supply at Emerson. The Emerson Stage performs multiple Broadway-level productions throughout the year at the Tufte Performance and Production Center, which is a simple walk through the hallway from class. I highly recommend that every incoming student takes in one of these productions at least one time, and with prices for Emerson students as low as $5 per ticket, you won't find a better theater value in Boston.

I am an enormous fan of standup comedy, and Emerson is located right by Boston's best comedy hot spots. I saw my favorite standup comedian, Stephen Lynch, at the newly renovated Wilbur Theatre this past spring, and A-List stars like Janeane Garofalo, Jamie Kennedy and Rob Schneider stop by the Wilbur regularly. Boston's only comedy club with shows seven days a week is also located next to the Walker Building. I was actually lucky enough to perform in front of my fellow students at this club this past summer during open mic night, which is another fantastic memory I have been given through my time at Emerson.

Emerson College is committed to students receiving the best possible work placement opportunities, and this was evident during my two visits to the Internship Fair the school holds every semester. I was able to personally pass along my resume to top media agencies, as well as multinational corporations. Emerson also regularly holds information sessions in their Career Services Center, not only to alert students about firms that are recruiting throughout the city, but to give practical advice on how to present your resume and put together your creative portfolio.

I have been a student at Emerson for only 10 months, sometimes for only hours per week, and I've cultivated lasting friendships, had tremendous live event experiences, and been presented viable roads to success in my chosen profession. It really is possible to live your entire life on one city block.

I am excited to share with you my summer internship experience with Skyscape, Inc, a Massachusetts based company that develops medical applications used on mobile devices such as iPhone, Blackberry, Palm etc. I was part of the E-commerce team which allowed me to handle projects related to both driving traffic to and getting conversions on the website. These projects included Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), email marketing, web analytics, reseller and affiliate marketing, and usability testing.

As a member of the team, I managed the Google paid search campaign and also created a campaign for Bing. Through working on these projects, I had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with both Google Adwords and Microsoft Adcenter tools. While managing paid search campaigns is no rocket science; however, when there are over 500 products spanning 35 specialties it can become a little challenging. I also had the chance to become familiar with the webanalytics tool, Webtrendz. The amount of data available is both amazing and overwhelming. The extensive data includes: number of users visiting the website, their geographical location, where are they coming from (search engines / affiliate websites), duration of their visits, pages they visited, how they take their coffee etc. Just kidding about the last one!

However, as much as what Skyscape, Inc does and my role as their intern is exciting, what I really want to share with you are two huge practical application pieces that I learned this summer:

1.People who matter understand numbers:
After working on these projects, I have a greater appreciation for how important data analysis is in marketing; The people who are making decisions understand and are motivated by numbers. Thus, it is very important for us, as marketers, to speak their language.

2.Emerson provides us with great resources, make the most of it:
This summer I needed to take advantage of the Usability testing facility at Emerson as a part of my project at Skyscape. Not only was Jon "Satch" Satriale, the technology manager at Emerson, incredibly gracious and helpful, but the fact that this resource is available to us at Emerson is amazing.

I had a theory that Skyscape, Inc could improve sales by making changes on their website, but I was unable to support my theory without real world data; which the the Usability testing facility afforded me the luxury of providing. The main objective of the usability testing was to evaluate the effectiveness of the product pages and the navigation system on the website. The participants that included doctors, nurses and medical students were asked to navigate through the Skyscape website. The session was audio and video recorded and as the participants were navigating through the website they were asked to speak out loud what they were thinking. We were able to figure out which parts of the product pages attract user's attention, what information user looks for while evaluating the products, which navigation scheme does the user use to find the product and much more. Based on these findings we were able to provide recommendations to improve the product pages and also improvise the navigation schemes on the website.

I had a wonderful experience with Skyscape, Inc and learned a lot about how I want to forge ahead in this exciting field of online marketing.

Sara Morgan discusses her path to receiving a Lagrant Foundation scholarship.

We all know the biggest (and scariest) decision in pursuing a graduate degree can be deciding how to fund it...or just the thought of the loans that will need to be repaid in the end. One of the most frequent questions I get from students is, "Are there assistantships and financial aid available?" The funny thing is, most students don't ask about or think to seek aid outside of the college. Trust me, it's out there. I am speaking from experience.

My first year in the program, I wasn't resourceful. I didn't even think to look for scholarships or grants because I assumed they weren't worth my time, but boy did I miss out. Halfway through my first year, though, I finally realized there must be a way to offset some of the loan debt I was accumulating. So I did my research. I found a scholarship and the description sounded like they were talking about ME! I found this scholarship right under my nose, on Emerson's financial aid website. I decided to go through the process, not even knowing how much the scholarship was for. To my surprise I not only won the scholarship, but it was worth $10,000!

When prospective students ask me how I made friends and adjusted to Emerson, I tell them to attend orientation. I met most of my close friends at Emerson on the day of International Student Orientation (scheduled for January 14 for international students starting school in Spring 2009). From there, I met their close friends, and their friends' friends, until I had a pretty substantial social circle. Orientation for graduate students entering Emerson in Spring 2009 will happen on January 15. See the schedule for complete details. I definitely recommend attending!

Show of hands, who loves group project work? If you are a fan of group projects (i.e., writing papers and giving presentations with at least one other person) then IMC is the program for you! I'll admit, some group projects can be more challenging (in many ways) than others, but this particular group and this particular project was truly a delightful exception!

Every class that I have taken at Emerson has resulted in some form of a group project and I have never enjoyed it more than this past semester. Thanks to my fabulous media management group members: Trinette Faint, Casandra Zobal and Bre McGahey, final group project crunch time has been full of laughter, long hours, cute puppy pictures and lots of candy.

There seems to be a lot of speculation surrounding what matters most in a graduate application. I usually try not to be swayed by other people's opinions when it comes to competitive situations. I know it sounds like some misplaced loftiness, but it's actually a way of keeping focused and getting on with the work. I try to keep in mind that other applicants' opinions are a reflection of their experience and their experience only. Things may turn out to be drastically different for me or any other applicant. Who knows how I compare to the rest of the pile? And then of course there are always those characters who try to generate rumors just to make other people nervous. They overgeneralize like it is their job, use far too many superlatives, and usually apply their negative experience to everyone else in their circle. I have had to nod and smile at a lot of those people during my academic career!

As part of the IMC program, I got to moderate a focus group. We have a two-room focus group facility. The focus room is connected by a double-sided mirror to a production studio, which has some really great features. In the production room, you can change camera angles, send sound and images, and even record eye movement of focus group participants. The last of these is something I have not done yet but certainly will in future research projects while I'm here.

I am an "International Student," but if you asked me where I'm from I would take a very deep breath and begin to try answering a question that I really can't. My parents are Romanian—so I'm Romanian, right? Well, I was actually born in Israel, so maybe I'm half-Romanian, but I have never really lived in either Romania or Israel. I grew up in Asia my whole life, following my father on his working visa. I lived in Yangon, Myanmar, for 13 years and then finished high school in Jakarta, Indonesia. I also lived for small periods of time in Thailand and Singapore. So basically, I do not know where I'm from.

The thing is that if you spoke to me in person, you would never know that I am from "all over." I have to be honest: sometimes I have just told people I'm from whichever state I choose—Connecticut, for example. This is because, before Emerson, the five years I spent in the United States for undergraduate school and work were in smaller schools and towns that were not very diverse. The most common answer to my explanation of where I am from was usually "Dude, why are you here?"

Last Wednesday, all of the Integrated Marketing Communication students participated in our very first IMC Symposium. Thanks to our awesome program director, Professor Cathy Waters, this was a great event that brought current and new students together for insight into program activities, what happened over the past year, and what is to come!

The Symposium opened with an e-commerce presentation by Robert Graham, a professional in the marketing communication industry. Following the presentation, all of the IMC students and professors participated in a group activity in which we had to come up with interactive media ideas for a new product. A few of the groups were selected to share their ideas with everyone. The rest of the Symposium included student internship experiences, a presentation on a capstone project and a presentation by those who were selected to represent Emerson at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Last weekend, I learned that Halloween in Boston is not a weekend extravaganza but a Friday night deal only. Warning: Do not try dress up in costume Saturday night and roam around Boston... unless you want to encounter a lot of staring. Okay, maybe it was my costume--it was a combination of a little too much with almost not enough is all I will say. "Halloween" on Friday was good,though. It wasn't quite Salem, but around Beacon Hill, several streets were closed off for the trick or treaters. Houses were transformed into haunted mansions, music was playing, parents and residents were socializing in the streets. It was a happy and haunted Halloween!

Now, I respect and understand the historical implications behind Halloween. I am half Romanian and have even visited Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania, but on a costume level, creativity and originality always wins over fright, wouldn't you say? Popular costumes I enjoyed this Halloween were Jabbawockeez, Juno, American Gladiators, and even Sarah Palin. To me these far outweigh any bloodthirsty zombie or gruesome witch, although the spooks still are appreciated.