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Learning from Life is over (?!?!)(section 4)

I cant’t believe my six weeks with Tracy Locke is over. It really has flown by and I am so thankful for all the fantastic opportunities I have been given while working here. I have met so many new people and visited places that I never thought I would and I am really so, so thankful.

Feelings before: before this placement I was both nervous and excited. Like I have said in previous posts, this is (was) an industry I didn’t know much or anything about which was something I thought would hold me back. I was also nervous about meeting so many new people.

Feelings during: I am happy to say that these were very silly things to be nervous about as I have been made to feel so welcomed by so many nice people! While I have been on placement I really have learnt so much about advertising and marketing and how this industry is run. There are so many different areas such as digital, creative and strategic. This is just to name a few but each area has so many people working for it and each and everyone is important in helping us make that decision while standing in the aisle at the supermarket.

Originally when I have seen adverts for companies, such as Pizza Hut, I had assumed that it was them who would make the adverts, menus etc. However, it is agencies who do this work for them and make the adverts amazing (the latest controversial Pepsi advert was made without an advertising company and look what happened there…)

Feelings after: I mainly just can’t believe it’s over so quickly and that I have spent 6 weeks here. I have learnt so much while being here and the knowledge I have gained could definitely be something I could base a class project or a number of lessons on. I could have different groups in my class and assign them to specific teams, like digital and creative, and make the outcome of the lesson be to make an advert.

I have been able to work on my professionalism while being here too but I have been able to see professionalism in a different context. There is quite a different dress code here as people can wear jeans in the office which is something we wouldn’t do in the classroom, but this does not make anyone any less professional.

Additionally, I have been able to work on my professional language through speaking to a variety of people and also through email. Email is the main use of communication here so you must be able to give a good first impression and have a professional attitude to any work that you are given.

Being here at Tracy Locke has also allowed me to work on skills within collaborative working. For each client (e.g. Pizza Hut, Samsung, Johnson and Johnson etc.) there is a team of people who do the work them which means although people in the team have different roles, they all have to work together and communicate so that a goal can be reached. Additionally, members of the team may work with other people in the company (e.g. strategic directors) if the work they’re doing requires more help.

Have I met goals/audit?: I believe that I really have! In my audit of skills in one of my first posts I stated that my self confidence was at a 2 out of 3. I believe that being here I can now put this at a 1. I have met so many new people that I have felt completely comfortable talking to and I managed to do a presentation in front of the team which they all really enjoyed.

I also rated my computer skills at a 2. While being here I have used a computer every single day and used programs such as word, excel and Keynote which has allowed me to become a lot more “computer confident” and something I will do more often when I’m home.

I wanted to see how advertising affected children and I found a lot of this through reading which I have referred to in previous posts and I will most definitely be able to apply all of this new knowledge to HWB lessons regarding advertising and the effects it can have on us as consumers.

I unfortunately did not get the chance to work directly with the Marcus Graham project due to timing but my attendance in the diversity meeting allowed me to have a good understanding about the current issue in advertising of a severe lack of diversity within its employees.

Now it’s time for a bit of travelling! I am going to Los Angeles this weekend to visit some family friends and then on Tuesday I am going to Ann Arbor in Michigan where I am going to spend a few days in Huron Valley elementary school which will be a fantastic experience as I will be able to compare the education system’s to Scotland’s.

Section 3

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•Investigate aspects of the values and culture of the placement provider and the impact on their stakeholders.

The advertising and marketing industry has been traditionally unattractive to people of colour and has not been encouraging of women to senior positions.

The values of Tracy Locke (TL) are entirely contrary to this and as a company have done more in both of these areas than many in the advertising and marketing industry. For instance, the industry average statistic for women in senior creative positions is 11.5%, whereas TL’s is 35%.

Similarly, TL’s annual intern programme has to consist of 1/3 of placements from diverse ethnic backgrounds. TL also operates high standards and values for all employees offering more favourable maternity and paternity packages, clear guidelines on performance review and pay rises and more personal time off than many other companies in its industry.

Lastly, TL is a company that believes business success should also equate to individual success. a successful year will always result in a financial bonuses for all employees, which will encourage employees to work hard all year round.

In an environment where diversity, gender, ethnicity and sexuality is at the top of many businesses agenda, TL progress in these respects, making it highly attractive to potential clients which leads to incremental revenue. Similarly, it ensures that TL can attract the best talent in the North American advertising industry which leads to optimal creative output.

Lastly and inevitably, companies with positive values receive equally positive attention in their industry, press and media. This has a positive halo effective on TL’s stakeholders.

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!

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.

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.

Being a Shopping Activator

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I’ve been doing some work for Mary Kotyuk for the past couple of days. Her role in Tracy Locke is the Group Strategy Director who looks into “Shopper Activation”.

This area of the company looks into a variety of different things from “behind the scenes” such for company’s and actually going into the store and reviewing how products are advertised when people are walking around the shop. This is called a Store Walk where someone will take photos of specific displays and aisles and report back to the team they’re working on and talk about what is good and what can be improved. This work also requires travel to the clients and other TL offices to allow each person to communicate their findings.

Part of the work I have done for her over the past couple of days is look at a variety of companys’ strategic priorities and initiatives from the past year and what they have planned for this year. Additionally, I’ve looked at what type of competition they have with other stores looked at each individual SWOT analysis to help see where improvements can be made and what their strengths are. This required a lot of research about what the company sells/intends to sell and what their aims for the year are. It also meant deciding what information I found was the most relevant and necessary. Each page of the deck is for a specific company so it must be kept short and snappy in order for people here at Tracy Locke to know what they are looking for for each client. This sounds quite a simple task but it has taken a lot of time to ensure all the correct information is collated.

I sat in on a meeting this morning with a variety of other people in the company, including Stephen Miller who is one of the managing partners in the company, who were speaking about how much money that should be spent on each client and their advertisements. While discussing this the “Golden Circle” was mentioned. It contains 3 sections:

What we do

How we do it

Why we do it

This is the motive followed by TL when making advertisements for the company when designing for clients and allows the process involved to be simple and allow a good outcome. If you’d like to read more about the Golden Circle here is a good link. It has been written by Simon Sinek who has also taken part in TED talks on the subject.

http://enviableworkplace.com/executive-summary-golden-circle-simon-sinek/

Although it may not sound like much, I have been pretty busy these past couple of days which has been good! From working with Mary I have been able to see how another role in the advertising world is done and this type of advertising requires a lot of work to be published.

Advertising is a Competition

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Yesterday I was shown how competitors affect how we (Tracy Locke) decide how to advertise products and goods. I spent my day looking at emails from two competitors from the year so far. This meant I looked at 51 emails in total. After this, I screenshot each email and put each offer onto a Keynote presentation. This then allows people who work for the company to see how other pizza chains advertise their products in a quick and easy way.

There were a variety of differences between the two companies emails. One competitor’s emails had more than one offer in an individual email which meant that the consumer had a choice when choosing that company’s pizza. Additionally, this company included a different way of ordering in each email such as phoning, downloading the company’s app or even just adding a link to browse the menu. This would, therefore, encourage consumers to download app or by browsing the menu it would hopefully encourage them to order from that company.

In comparison, the other competitor’s emails were very minimal. It contained only one offer, and very rarely included a side offer. However, over the three months this company sent more emails than the other competitor I looked at (this company sent 31 emails while the other only sent 27). So, there was a lack of offers but more emails which means that consumers would see these emails more often and it may, therefore, encourage them to order from this company more frequently.

This was an interesting task to undertake as it allowed me to see that emails I would normally just disregard have a huge impact on the companies, their advertising and their sales. It also allowed me to use my skills in ICT to make a presentation that will allow people here to see how competitors set out their emails, how frequently they’re sent and what offers are used frequently which will allow them to improve the emails for our clients.

Day Two: 28 Floors Up

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This morning I sat in on a a phone conference with members of the Franchisor/Equity team: Michael (account director), Pam (account supervisor) and Kim (account coordinator). The conference was with Cleveland Menus who print Pizza Hut’s counter menus and handheld menus. All staff members maintained a professional manner during the phone call. Afterwards, it was discussed what would be done during the day today to help meet the needs of Pizza Hut.

I was then shown a Campaign Request Form (CRF) for HutLovers (those who are signed up to PH’s mailing and SMS list). This really showed me the power of advertising. I found out that an email is sent at 8AM with two seperate subject lines. An email with subject line A is sent to 600,000 members and an email with subject line B is sent to another 600,000 members. At 12 o’clock it is reviewed which subject line had the most opened emails then the one with the most is sent to the remaining 5 million members to ensure the most sales are made that day.

Before this, all emails are checked by Quality Assurance (QA) at both Tracy Locke and Pizza Hut. This is done to be able to see how the email will appear on a variety of devices such as mobile phones, iPads, laptops and how different email providers (such as apple and office) will display the message.

I also helped Kayla with some of her work for

HutLovers. I looked through all the email promotions from the year so far and put each banner onto a KeyNote presentation which she will use for her future work.

I was given a tour of the 29th floor in the office from Mark Van Dinuen (director of studio services). This floor includes clients such as Samsung and Audi and have a variety of products which remain top secret between the client and Tracy Locke until the release day. I was shown how the pictures that are taken re edited in great depth and nothing will be published until it is perfect for the client to use to advertise their product(s). This highlighted the importance of staying professional both in and out of the office as the information about new products is almost “confidential”. I feel that being trustworthy is a key aspect in professionalism which is obviously something I must consider when I am in the classroom when it comes to things such as child protection.

I feel that so far I have gone into this placement with a positive attitude and mindset which has helped me enjoy my time here so much.

I am only 3 days into my placement and I can already see that I am learning more than I possibly thought I could at such a fast pace. I am looking forward to be able to apply all these new skills to my studies and work in the near future.

3..2..1.. Blastoff!

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We were lucky enough to have Simon from Dundee Science centre come into our workshop and talk to us about Space. Simon’s passion and enthusiasm for our solar system and beyond was extremely motivational and has sparked an interest for me to research about how space can be taught in our schools.

Space is something which I have never really studied and this lecture inspired me to look into the subject in more depth for my own professional development. I believe that studying space in the primary curriculum is a fantastic opportunity to plan for cross curricular lessons. Space can be used in art and design, drama, history and, most importantly, maths!

Space is something which has been studied for thousands of years and will be for thousands more due to its sheer size. It is important to consider Ma’s concept of “multiple perspectives” when studying the solar systems and its relationship with maths. When Ma refers to multiple perspectives she wants people to understand that there are different routes to an answer. This links greatly into the teaching and understanding of space due to such a huge variety of people visiting the moon etc and finding out life changing facts and reaching their answers in different ways.

There is a huge link between maths and space and there is a wide variety of things that pupils can be taught to link them together. When people associate space with mathematics I assume that they feel the same way as I do. Confused. I always just think that maths in this context is about extremely confusing equations and really long numbers.

This is not necessarily the case. When I teach space in the classroom I will remind myself that I am not an astronaut and neither are my pupils (yet!) Pupils in the upper stages can be taught about speed, distance and time and this could be related to astronauts going out of the earth and to the moon/space. Younger years could possibly be taught about the names of the planets and ways to remember them.

The NASA website has a lot of good lesson plans which are extremely helpful and child friendly which can be found here: http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/math-activities/en/

Therefore, there are huge links between mathematics and space and this is something which can be made enjoyable in the primary classroom.

The Sound of Maths

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Our most recent workshop with Anna was all about music. Music is a subject which I did not really enjoy in school but I would love in my free time. I have a burning passion for musical theatre and the art of performance is something that I love. The picture above shows me playing Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray in 2012 which I enjoyed so much.

We learnt a lot in Anna’s workshop which I did not know about as my knowledge of music is fairly limited. However, what we were shown was that music and maths walk hand in hand to make the music enjoyable.

The link between maths and music is so important and in this workshop we were shown many different ways where we use maths in this creative subject. One activity we did was clapping to a beat. One person in the group clapped a basic beat while the rest of the group were split into four groups. We were to listen to the beat that the student was clapping while looking at a line on the board and clapping when it was yellow. For this we really had to concentrate and listen to the beat to ensure we did not ruin the sound. But, most importantly, we had to count up to 8 which was not difficult for us but this could be a tricky challenge for young children.

I feel like this is a very good activity to do with school pupils and I will definitely use it when teaching music to my classes. It will be good for pupils of any age in primary school as it allows them to understand the importance of keeping a rhythm. In the early stages of school this will help pupils with their counting as it can be done out loud and also allow them to understand basic rhythm, while the older pupils can use this is a warm up activity to remind them of the importance of keeping a beat and rhythm.

We also had fun in this workshop by getting to use the xylophones and glockenspiels and I feel that having a practical element to the lesson was essential as some of the things we were taught were confusing but being able to apply what we were taught to a fun activity made it a lot more understandable and fun.

Music is a good point to look at to see Ma’s idea of longitudinal coherence in practice. This is when the teacher knows that their pupils have a good understanding of the current subject that they’re learning about. I think this links in well with applying mathematics to music lessons as the teacher can ask the children to count or use their timetables when making a beat.

Therefore, I think that music and maths work perfectly together and the use of maths in this context allows us to have a much sounder of music and the theory behind it.

The Only One Who Wins at the Bookies is the Bookmaker

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Our most recent workshop was about probability and chance. This is most definitely something which we see every single day and affects people in both positive and negative ways.

So, what is probability? Probability is defined as “the study of chance” in one of our key texts: “Alex’s adventure in Numberland.”

Gambling is strongly connected to maths and is all about chance and luck and helps us see that Ma’s idea of “interconnectedness” is always apparent and important. There are so many aspects of maths in gambling such as money, probability and percentages (in particular; the amount actually paid out in comparison to what was paid in).

Here, in gambling and chance, all three topics that I previously stated need each other to allow people to win (or more than likely lose!) Think of it this way:

“How much cash should I put in to this game? How likely am I to actually win with this amount of money? What percentage of that have I won?”

There are also aspects in gambling which are linked to “multiple perspectives”. This is about having different ways to reach an answer. In the workshop we were shown an example of a made up restaurant. It had 2 choices of starter, 3 choices of main, 2 choices for dessert and we had to figure out how many different possible combinations we were. I managed to see multiple perspectives put into life here. The way I would have done it was long and confusing: I just wrote out a letter for each option and kept writing and writing until I had run out. But, another student used a “branch” type system and reached the answer a lot quicker than I did. Therefore, showed me that even as student teachers we are on our way to achieving a PUFM.

Unfortunately (in my opinion), gambling is something which affects many people’s lives on a daily basis and it, more often than not, involves money. Let’s look at fruit machines. These are something which are seen in almost every pub and casino that people go into and the aesthetic appeal of most of these machines encourage people to waste their money and use them. The first fruit machine was invented by Charles Fey from California in 1887. (Slot Machine History, 2010) and since then their popularity has continued to grow.

However, it’s not all fun and games. If you were to win on a slot machine there is only a 70% pay-out rate. (If you could win £10 you would actually only win £7).

This leads me on to talking about probability. For example, imagine we had a slot machine with three reels (the “screens” to see the symbols) and 15 symbols. To find the number of combinations we have to multiply the symbols by the number of symbols on the remaining reels. So, for a three reel machine that has 15 symbols per reel we have to do 15x15x15 which equals 3375 combinations of slot symbols.

If a jackpot offered on this machine pays on 7 7 7 and only one 7 symbol is on each reel, then the probability of hitting this jackpot is 1/15 x 1/15 x 1/15 or one in 3375.

When it comes to teaching probability there is much simpler way to do this: flip a coin. There is 50% or one in two chance of guessing heads of tails.

With regards to my professional development probability and chance will be taught. But, this workshop has also made me realise the importance and seriousness of gambling and that it is fun but can lead to debts and problems in later life.

References

Bellos, A. (2010). Alex’s Adventures in Numberland (Chapter nine). London: Bloomsbury.
Slot Machine History. 2010. Available at http://slotmachineshistory.com/charles-fey.htm(Accessed on: 28th October 2016)

#keepdancing

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We recently had a workshop on dance and it was something which I thoroughly enjoyed. Between the ages of eight and 15 I took part in a couple of different dance groups. I started off as a highland dancer which was something I loved taking part in and is something I would really like to start doing again at some point. I then danced at a local dance school with a ‘street dance’ kind of style. However, I did not enjoy this as much and stopped dancing.

I then started musi dance-dreaming cal theatre which is still a huge love of mine. I feel as though I’m a much stronger singer than I am a dancer so I think this is why is preferred this kind of performance and expressive art.

So, when I saw that we had a workshop on dance I had mixed emotions. I just mainly did not know what to expect from it. However, I loved every second of it. We mainly explored different aspects of contemporary dance which was slightly out of my comfort zone and this was something which I really liked. We were shown different techniques of dance and shown the importance of using levels of height.

After this workshop I realised how much I actually enjoyed expressing myself through dance and it is something I cannot wait to teach when I’m on placement and when I have my own dance class. I want the children to understand that if they’re not feeling so confident that it is okay and I want them to enjoy themselves.

For placement I have been given a primary 6/7 class and with my knowledge of the CfE Experiences and Outcomes for Dance as a subject I feel that I could make an enjoyable lesson for the pupils to take part in.

CfE Outcomes : “Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express my ideas, thoughts and feelings through creative work in dance” EXA 0-09a / EXA 1-09a / EXA 2-09a and ” I can explore and choose movements to create and present dance, developing my skills and techniques” EXA 2-08a

Learning Intentions: By the end of the lesson I will have worked with my group to create a short dance sequence to express our ideas and thoughts on a specific topic using different movements and levels.

Success Criteria: To create a short routine, with or without music, using different forms of travel, rhythm and levels and highlighting the theme of the lesson.

Assessment: To assess if the pupils have achieved the success criteria I will ask each group to perform their routine and make use of peer evaluation.

How I will achieve this: I will include activities within the lesson that involve the exploration of different forms of travel across the room and activities which allow the pupils to understand the use of different levels and how important this is in the presentation of their routine. Finally, I will include an activity that makes the children use different parts of their body to make a beating noise (e.g. stamping their feet and clapping their hands at a certain speed and a certain beat)

Therefore, I want my dance lessons to be an enjoyable experience for all my pupils. I want them to feel they have the confidence to express themselves through this art and to keep dancing.