Monthly Archives: April 2017

Weekly Reflection 6

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This week has been fairly quiet but I cannot believe I’ve finished at Tracy Locke.

As stated in a previous post I presented to the team about my life in Scotland, university, politics, healthcare and cultures and traditions. When thinking about the SPRs this most definitely related to Trust and Respect. Part of it states that as student teachers we should be: “Demonstrating a commitment to motivating and inspiring learners.” Although I was not teaching to school pupils, I was teaching adults about Scotland and how different it is to America. After my presentation so many people said they wanted to visit the country and i believed my presentation inspired them to do this. People also asked me questions to do with the presentation but also things I hadn’t included such as bands and musicians, which I believe motivated the listeners to dig deeper into what they knew and wanted to know about Scotland.

This week I have also been doing research for the Catherine Violet Hubbard foundation. This is a charity set up in Connecticut after the SandyHook Elementary School shooting in 2012. One of Tracy Locke’s employee’s daughter lost her life in the attack and the charity has been set up for her. A week before the attack the mother overheard her daughter talking to a butterfly with Catherine saying “tell all your friends that I’m kind“. From this they have set up an animal sanctuary which organises educational and fun visits for school pupils in her honour. This charity was also set up due to there being such negative energy in the town. Most people campaigned for gun laws to be tightened, understandably, but the people who set up the CVH foundation wanted a positive impact for the town and set up the animal sanctuary.

I have been doing some research of Cannes Lion Award winners for Meg in the Connecticut office so they can see what work other non-profit organisations have done to win the awards and how the CVH foundation can do this too.

I have done some work for people in the Connecticut office while I’ve been here after I met them a couple of weeks ago and I feel like I am meeting the Professional Commitment standard. Part of it states that we should be: “Engaging with all aspects of professional practice and working collegiately.” This type of work has allowed me to work and learn collaboratively with people form different teams and offices and is something which I feel will benefit me as a teacher as collaborative work is vital for the career.

Finally, today I listened in on a meeting and presentation with Hugh, the CEO. creating a legacy not “fixing” the problem.

The group was originally called “Diversity Action Group”. However, they wanted to change it and take the word diversity out and make it descriptive of the change. After some brainstorming the team decided they would call the group TL ALL as it incorporates Tracy Locke and the word all means everyone.

We then worked in teams to come up with ideas for specific days in the year. I worked with 4 others to help decide what ideas we could come up with for International Women’s Day and came up with ideas such as each women in TL mentoring a girl from a local school and supporting young female entrepreneurs. This work was good as it allowed me to collaborate with people to come up with new ideas which is something I will most definitely do as a teacher. It also allowed me to work with people I hadn’t met before so helped with confidence and communication.

This has been yet another great week and I cannot believe it is all over!

Some Light Reading

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As previously stated I have wanted to do some research into how advertising is affecting children and young people. I have been doing work for this industry for 5 weeks so I know that the point in advertising is to make people want to buy the product and do it in a way that will make them really want to buy the item or buy it on whim because the offer is in front of them at the time.

We are affected by advertising every single day. From the moment we wake up and turn on the television to the magazine we read before going to bed (Lusted, 2009) and this is why I have done some research on how it can affect children and how food advertising has an effect on them.

Jordan and Romer state that the issue we face now is not whether food advertising causes harm to children but it is how to safeguard children and young people from its “negative influence”.

Additionally, they state that to solve the issue of advertising negatively influencing children ranges from educating young people about media literacy and the positive impact healthy eating will have on  their bodies to protect them from exposure to unhealthy advertising; to promoting healthy diets and physical activity through advertising and social media.  This allows me to understand that as a teacher I should be ensuring that children know the importance of healthy eating and the effects that an unhealthy lifestyle can have.

Calvert and Wilson (2011) state that “children’s food habits are acquired in early life (Birch 2009) and the structure of what children watch in advertising is not written onto a blank slate in terms of reception by the child; rather it is assimilated into an already set of established set of preferences and choices.”

Calvert and Wilson also suggests that children go for the unhealthy food options as it more often than not will contain a free toy. This is an important marketing ploy from companies that will encourage children to eat their food for the toy and keep coming back so they can have the whole collection.

I feel like this post from the reading I’ve done has quite a negative outlook on advertising. Without advertising companies would not be able to make their money and encourage consumers to shop with them.

However, there are arguments that advertising can have a positive effect on children too. Adverts with children playing sports and having fun will encourage children to exercise and keep fit and healthy (Nurmi, 2013).

Positive adverts do not just affect children. Positive outcomes can also include public service advertisements. Many public service announcements talk about about health, safety and national security which allow people to remain safe and healthy in life (Morely, 2017).

References:

Calvert and Wilson (2011) The Handbook of Children, Media and Development. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

Lusted (2009) Advertising to Children. Edina: ABDO Publishing Company

Jordan and Romer (2014) Media and the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents. New York: Oxford University Press

Morely (2017) The Positive Effects of Advertising. Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/positive-effects-advertising-24688.html (Accessed on: 18th April 2017)

Numri (2013) The Many Angles to Advertisements. Available at: https://blogs.longwood.edu/comm410/2013/03/22/positive-and-negative-affects-ads-have-on-children/ (Accessed on 18th April 2017)

Bringing Scotland to Dallas

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It’s Monday again… but it’s my last Monday with Tracy Locke! I seriously cannot believe I only have a matter of days left here.

Today I did a presentation about my life in Scotland which it seemed like everyone really enjoyed! It was so good to be able to tell them about my life in Scotland and at university and teach them about a variety of things such as education, politics and Scottish culture. I also answered questions that they had. It was so funny seeing their reactions to the fact that we have free health care and university tuition in Scotland as that has never been a thing here and something that they are very envious of!

I really enjoyed doing this and it has helped me professionally. I have been involved in public speaking opportunities since I was quite young throughout high school and a number of opportunities with church but it is something I haven’t done for while. This is something I will have to when I am a teacher at things such as CPD events and staff meetings so this was a very good learning opportunity for me.

From making the presentation I have enhanced my computing skills and from delivering it I have improved my self confidence which I had put at a 2 on my self audit. I have always enjoyed public speaking so I’m glad I was given this opportunity.

I then sat in on a group meeting with the PH team called “status” where the group find out how the work of the previous week has come along and what needs more development. This allowed me to see how many different areas of marketing and advertising there is for just one team in the company and how much work gets done in one week.

This afternoon I am going to be doing a bit of research for some healthcare brands that the company has and then some more work with the Pizza Hut team.

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Reflection 5

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One week to go! I’m so gutted I’ve got such a little amount of time left here.

I have spent the past couple of days helping out with some research for a couple of members of the Samsung team. The sales of tablets, not just with Samsung, have been decreasing over the years. Additionally, the amount of people watching television on an actual television has decreased more and more each year. In particular with young people- aka: people my age. They asked me to do some research and find out why this could be the case.

So to do this, I spent some time googling articles and gaining professionals views. But, I felt that asking people my age was something that would be more beneficial. I asked a couple of groups of friends on group chats if they had a tablet, if so what do they use it for, if they have a television and if they watch live tv and if they watch Netflix what device would this be done on?

In addition to this I put up a couple of twitter polls which each got over 100
votes which I believe is a good number to gain a good insight of how young people watch on-demand tv and if they actually watch TV live on a television or do so in a different way.

 

 

I sent this to the two members and the response I got made me feel happy that I’d managed to help them. I met with Aaron who told me the work and research I’d done was utterly fantastic. He’d said that in the past they had hired interns who wouldn’t have produced the standard of work I had so this was a complete confidence boost for myself! I am so glad that the work I had done for them is something that would benefit them for their future work, too.

As stated in my previous post I also did some research for the Pizza Hut team about loyalty schemes which has been able to help other members of the team with their work on developing a loyalty/reward scheme for Pizza Hut customers.

This week I’ve learnt a lot about why we should have loyalty schemes are in marketing and advertising and how this is potentially why PH is falling behind other fast food brands and other pizza companies. I’ve also been able to develop my computer skills. I’ve learn how to research in a fast and effective manner while looking for the correct information.

With regards to the standards I’ve continued to meet the SPRs. In particular professional commitment. I have continued to allow myself to develop my collaborative working techniques as I have been working with a variety of people from the team I’m working on and other teams in order to reach specific research outcomes.

Additionally, I am continuing to meet the standard of integrity by being honest in my work and demonstrating courage through working in this environment that I previously had no knowledge on.

I really cannot believe next week is my last week here. I am going to be presenting to the team and potentially more members of the company about Scotland which I am very much looking forward to. Here’s to next week!

 

Remaining Loyal

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I have spent the last two days looking at a lot of American company’s loyalty and reward programs to help out the PH team. PH itself does not actually have a loyalty program, but is something that they are working on, so this work will allow them to see what other companies are doing in order to keep their customers and thank them for buying products and food from them. I looked at pizza competitors such as Domino’s but I also looked at quite different food companies such as Qdoba which serves Mexican cuisine to see how they reward their customers for remaming loyal to them. Although it is not pizza, it is fast food which means it is a competitor to PH.

A few of us are taking part in this work from the PH team along with Mary Kotyuk, Group Strategy Director who specialises in shopping activation along with three other members of the PH team.  I’ve enjoyed working on this task as it has meant I have worked collaboratively with my colleagues and been able to ask questions when I’ve needed to.

A brief was given to the team which has allowed me to learn about how other companies keep their clients and it has made me realise that some companies are more successful than others due to the loyalty programs that they have. If someone knows they have to spend a certain amount to gain specific points to earn something free they are very likely to spend the money and keep buying from that specific company. Who doesn’t like free things?!

The brief also gave some really interesting facts that prove how psychological advertising can be on the consumer:

“DID YOU KNOW?

Recognisable logos can trigger responses in the same part of the brain that that controls the relational emotions. For example, if you love your iPhone, seeing the Apple logo can actually ignite the same happiness and warmth that running into an old friend stimulates.

WHY IS THIS RELEVANT?

A logo to a company is like a face to a person – sometimes we struggle to remember names, but we rarely forget a face. This is exactly what the PH Reward program logo should do for Pizza Hut.”

This links back to one of my previous posts about how advertising affects children, and also adults. Companies know that this affect will happen to people so aim to have they logo in as many places as possible.

I also helped the team proof more menus that are going out today. They required at least three people to do this as it is extremely important that there are no mistakes on them for them being officially published to go out into Pizza Hut restaurants across the country.

 

Week 4

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This placement is going by so quickly and I can’t believe I only have two weeks left! This week has been by far the most exciting because I was given the opportunity to travel and visit another two of Tracy Locke’s North American offices. However, it has made me realize that I would only want to travel every so often rather than every week like a lot of Tracy Locke workers have to do. It really takes it out of you!

Monday was quite a quiet day in the office for me in Dallas. I did some work for Mary and listened in on phone calls regarding the work that she does for the company.

I have documented the rest of my week in previous posts on my blog. I really have had such an exciting week and I am so lucky to be getting all of these opportunities while I am with Tracy Locke.

I have again learnt so much about different clients this week such as Heineken who are a worldwide company but they advertising is all done by a small office in Connecticut.

 

This week, again, has allowed me to improve my self confidence skills. To get from Connecticut to New York I got a car and then arrived at the office. Stephen wasn’t going to arrive until two hours after me which meant I had to get up to the office and introduce myself to a huge number of people I hadn’t ever met before. Of course, it was not as scary as I though it would be and I am actually glad I had to do this as my confidence has really improved greatly.

This week has also allowed me to continue to develop my personal and professional attitudes. I was always friendly and polite when meeting all of these new people while telling them a bit about me and the placement that I am doing which I believe are good attributes to have in these professional situations.

I have again learnt so much this week about many more clients and been able to sit in on different meetings where I have learnt more about how advertising works and how much time and effort is put into this industry.

The only downside of this week has been that I am a rubbish traveller. I get quite bad motion sickness so I am feeling utterly exhausted today!

Here’s to the next two weeks!

Thursday in Wilton

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I’ve come back to the Wilton office today to look into more work that this office does for a huge number of clients. Wilton is such a small place and Tracy Locke having an office here that does such important work is interesting.

The first thing I did was sit in on a meeting regarding PFIZER’s strategy. PFIZER provide a number of medicines and vaccinations worldwide and this meeting was about how two companies in America could advertise and sell two types of vaccines in these stores. There was a lot of people from different areas of the company in the meeting: strategy, account, creative and finance. the meeting focused on the cross purchasing between two brands of vaccination.

One store was Walgreens (from researching last week for Mary I found out last year that they have partnered with Boots in the UK). This is a place where customers go in to buy products for their health so it would be relatively normal for them to get a shot there too (they have to pay for it. I just can’t get my head around not having the NHS).

The second was a grocery store, so not normally a place where you would get a vaccination. I certainly couldn’t imagine doing my weekly shop in Tesco and then getting an injection while I was there! The aim is to be encouraging people to get their vaccinations at places such as Kroger who has a quote that is “connecting food to pharmacy”. However,  From a Pfizer perspective they don’t mind where people get the shot just as long as they get it.

 

There is a quote that will be used to advertise the vaccines which is about empowering people to take care of their health. However, it is hard from a creative stand point as the quote and copy (font) needs to all be in the one line. This allowed me to see one of the challenges that the advertising industry can be faced with.

There has been a lot of anxiety about the future of health care which has increased over the past few months which may discourage people from getting their vaccines, so the job of advertising here is to ensure that people get their vaccines and get the follow-ups.

Again, the aim is to empower shoppers to take the next step to owning their wellness at key life stage rather than age:  (it begins with self, us (couple), kids, family and self, self) milestones.

I enjoyed this meeting as it was about a particular set of products that I hadn’t ever actually known much about (out of choice, I guess. I hate injections).

After this, I sat in on an internal review with Heineken about using music in their ads. There were a few different designs which are going to be presented to the client tomorrow.

I then sat in on a meeting with more of the heineken team  who are working with one of their other beer companies who are working partnership with WWF.

The final thing I did today was listen in on a phone conference about a beer brand fro college football sponsored by the ESPN sports channel. Tracy Lock will be working with other agencies for this which is good as it allows the work load to be less stressful.

The past few days have been so good and have allowed me to learn so much more about advertising and how different people work with different clients. I just can’t believe I only have tomorrow then 10 more days left with Tracy Locke. I am so thankful for the fantastic opportunities I have been given and all the amazing people I have met.

 

I want to be part of it. New York, New York.

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Of course after I’d done my work for the day in the office I had to do some sightseeing. This is me in Times Square.

Today I have been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to go to New York City and visit the Tracy Locke office there on Madison Avenue (as previously stated this is known as TLNY).

This have given me a good opportunity to, yet again, to meet more new people and tell them a bit about me and why I am here. A lot of people have been really intrigued that I am actually training to be a primary school teacher and they believe that this placement is a fantastic idea.

I did some work in Wilton this morning where I listened to some conference calls with Mary regarding one of their Chicago clients and arrived in New York at about 2pm.

This afternoon I attended meetings with Stephen regarding finance and accounting, and in particular, for Sony about a few projects that they want TL to do over the next year. Again, this was a good learning experience for myself as it meant I saw the “more boring” side of advertising (according to Stephen!) but also one of the most important parts as without money advertising just wouldn’t exist.

Something I’ve noticed while being in the three offices is the different lay outs. The Dallas office has a huge variety of cubed off areas for teams of people to sit in and also has two floors. When I went into the Wilton office yesterday the different lay out was the first thing I noticed. The office is just one floor but it is like a maze. It is huge. The desks here are in longer, more open areas with a lot more open space. Finally, the New York office also has the long tables but the separate offices and conference rooms all have glass walls meaning that anyone can see in them. I like this as it allows the office to feel more open and have an “open door” kind of vibe.

Madison Avenue is the home of advertising in America and where the TLNY office is based

I think this is an important aspect to have in the classroom too. I truly believe that the layout
of my classroom is going to have a huge influence on how the pupils learn and how they enjoy their learning. And the way it is laid out should be inclusive for each pupil. This is the same with Tracy Locke. As this is a sociable company all the layouts allow people to talk and ask questions (asking questions is something I have been doing a lot since I got here!)

Samsung’s advert in Grand Central Station advertising their new galaxy phone.

Tracy Locke has a variety of clients and their work is everywhere. When walking around  New York I saw work for Samsung and T-Mobile. It was really good to be able to see these advertisements and know that it was actually done by people I know and have met over the past few weeks.

 

 

T-Mobile’s spot in Times Square.

I am, again, so thankful for all the opportunities this placement is giving me and I am continuing to learn more than I ever thought I could.

 

 

 

Bye for now Dallas!

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This morning Mary and I travelled to New York from Dallas and then up to Wilton in Connecticut to attend meetings in this office to learn about the work that Tracy Locke does for other clients and will head back to Dallas on Thursday evening.

The first thing I was shown was a photo shoot for Heineken for a new type of glass that is going to be released. A lot of shots were taken and finely edited which allowed me to see just how much work goes into getting just one photo for an advert.

After this I sat in an internal review for Red Stripe’s radio adverts and their scripts. There is a meeting with the client tomorrow where they will decide which advert they like best and choose to be put onto national radio stations. There was about five different scripts which had been created. This allowed me to see just how much time and effort workers here put into this. I will be back in Wilton on Thursday so I am looking forward to finding out which advert the client will choose.

I then attended a short meeting about a new Portuguese client who want their new bottles to be advertised. I feel like this was good for me to see as I know how TL will set out their plans when given a brief from a client.Finally, I went to a meeting regarding the design of a banner for Strongbow. Most people in the group decided they weren’t too keen on the design which means that more work will be done on this piece.

Today has been great as I feel it has allowed me to meet even more new people and find out about more clients that Tracy Locke has in other offices across the country. I have also noticed I have come out of my shell a lot more when meeting new people which is great as I have a lot more confidence which I have gained from my experience thus far in Dallas.

As previously stated, Tracy Locke has four offices in North America: Dallas, Wilton, Chicago and New York (known as TLNY) which I will be visiting tomorrow with Stephen Miller (one of the managing partners), and of course, adding in some sightseeing!

It’s Monday Again…

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This morning I sat in on a phone call with Mary in her office who was in a conference call regarding a specific client and their design strategy which is very close to being finished and put out into stores across the country.  Their aim is to make shopping more “emotional” rather than just functional which will allow this type of shopping to be fun and desirable.

Mary’s office. There’s always a nice atmosphere and a nice view if you stand at the window

While on the call each person was connected to a PowerPoint from the client who would control when the slides would move in order to prompt discussion about a specific topic. This was good to have as it meant everyone in the call was able to see the same thing even though they were not together and then talk about exactly what was on the screen without the discussion trailing off and changing.

In order to see what the products and shelf designs would look like in reality a “Virtual store fly-through video” was shown. This would, therefore, allow the client to see how the products would look and what improvements could be made before the products and shelves were put together and out to stores across the country.

After this call we connected to people in the Wilton office where Mary and I will be visiting tomorrow. The phone call discussed what had been talked about on the conference call and what work would be done to finish the deck and products.

A photo of the DART train I took while I was going to buy my lunch today

This was another good learning opportunity for me as it allowed me to see how a set of products have developed and the way that they will be advertised. It also allowed me to see how each colleague showed their professionalism. At the beginning of the call a few people had conversations asking about weekends etc before moving on to the task in hand.

A lot of us have also been proofing menus this afternoon. A lot of menus need to be checked before going out to PH so we have been kept busy.

I am traveling to Wilton in Connecticut tomorrow which I am very excited about and will write about tomorrow.