Week 16-Where to start?

Week of 4/19-4/23

Tuesday 9:30a-1:30p=4 hours

Thursday 10:00-1:30=3.5 hours

Hours left for credit 67.25-7.5=59.75 hours

This week is all about the presentation. I am starting to get my Powerpoint together over Augmented Reality. I do not know how to use Powerpoint that well so it is kind of challenging. I am going to watch pacesetter, on the OU website. I will be able to get some good tips there. I really want this to go right, the more I impress, the better for future opportunities.

All this week I collected pics, and searched you tube for videos that I might want to use in this presentation. My goal for this presentation, is to get Visual Image on the forefront of our local market, as the first to start using this type of advertising. I think that this will start great viral campaigns for the product and draw awareness to the product, through the use of this interactive form of marketing in their media mix.

Week 15, Getting back to basics

Week 4/12-4/16

Tuesday 8:30a-3:30p=7 hours

Thursday 10:00-12:30=4 hours

Friday 8:30-11:00=2.5 hours

Hours left for credit 80.75-13.5=67.25 hours

I am still working on ad research I have gotten back to basics and I am just doing more specific searches on the web. Even though I have already met with Chelsea on the topic, and have already gone through my findings, I was just trying to find more information, because things now have slowed down.

I was also just doing some general news research to find out what is happening in the Advertising Industry. I have found a couple of new websites with articles on the subject. Doing the kind of stuff whileI have been doing for VI, has really gotten me interested in finding out what is happening in the field. I feel that as an intern, what they look for is any new insight in the industry from the students that come through here. This does two things show them my interest, and also allows me to pass on knowledge that they otherwise might have passed in their daily duties.

Everybody is always busy in the agency, so being able to do simple things as send them articles that I found is always a help, because I am sure they never have time to find the info themselves. In my goal to gain notoriety and further experience, what this has lead to was a good find in something called Augmented Reality, and its use in campaigns within the industry. I showed the Creative Director, Steve Sturges, and Production Artist, Preston Herring about it and they loved it. Preston commented to me later, "good find." I felt really enthusiastic about the find, so much in fact that I wanted to let everyone else know about it. I started showing the others, and even the internship coordinator, chelsea about AR. Chelsea, later approached me, and asked me to start prepping a presentation on it, due in two weeks.

This is my chance to shine, Here I go!

Week 14, Back to It.

Week of 4/5-4/9, 2010

Tuesday 8:30-12:45=4.25 hours

Thursday 8:30-12:30=4 hours

Hours left for credit 89-8.25=80.75 hours

Well I am back at it, just doing more research. I was not able to find much on different types of ad forums, so I may be hitting a dead end. In this day and age with websites all over the place, social media, blogs, and so on I find it hard to believe that adforum.com is the only forum, worth while, there must be another one out there that has not been able to gain much exposure on the top search engines. As a far reach in order to find something, I went to the University of Oklahoma Library, and asked the Librarian for some search tips. She told me to go through all the e-databases found on their website, and search trade articles to see if i can find anything. So that is my next step, now I just have to read through articles and see if I can find anything, relating to the subject at hand...Here goes ad forum research trial number two.

Side note, on Tuesday I received my final editing revisions for Advanced Academics. Allison didn't have me change much, just a few commas, some spacing issues, and I was finished. Last night she sent me an email, saying that all the revisions looked great, and that I did a great job on the project. Positive recognition is always pleasing, and I aim to keep moving in the same direction.

Week 13, Dead Ends!

Week of 3/29-4/2, 2010

Tuesday 8:30-10:15=1.75 hours

Hours left for credit 96.75-1.75=95 hours

Today I am only here for a little a couple of hours because I have a doctors' appointment, and have to leave early. I had planned to meet with Chelsea to discuss what I have found on my research, but the plans have changed. There is a meeting on mobile media. Ron Cariker, of 7 Media Group came and spoke to us about how mobile media, more importantly cell phones, is changing the face of advertising. He presented the importance and dynamics of this changing face. The smartphone has created another advertising portal, and now the issue is the ethics with tapping into people's phones to advertise through geolocation marketing. He also went through all the steps and protocol in a mobile marketing campaign. All in all I was very impressed with the presentation, because we have discussed about this type of advertising in class, but I had yet to meet anyone that actually specialized in this type of marketing.

Thursday 8:30-12.30=4 hours

Friday 9:00-11:00= 2 hours

Hours left for credit 95-6=89 hours

Thursday and Friday I worked on more of the advertising forum research. Thursday I spoke with Chelsea and we went over what I had found so far. The only website I found that Chelsea felt was worthwhile is adfroum.com. When we spoke she informed me that wanted me to go further into research, and find out why some of our competitors are members of this site and so on, but I couldn't find much, I will just keep plugging away.

Week 12, Fresh Start!

Week of 3/22-3/26, 2010

Tuesday 8:30-12:30=4 hours

Thursday 9:00-11:45=2.75 hours

Friday 8:30-11:00=3 hours

Hours left for credit 106-9.25=96.75

Today is a fresh start for me, I am done with the Advanced Academics project, and I have not gotten any feedback yet, everything seemed to be fine. It is a fresh start becuase I am getting ready to start on my new project. Office Manager, Chelsea Herring is now in charge of the interns, because Deb is gone on maternity leave. Chelsea started me out on a new project. For this project I am doing some research on Advertising forums. I am looking for any sites where people may go to talk about any advertising at all, especially our competitors. The objective is to find out what people are discussing in the industry, and if there is anything we can learn, from these forums.

I have started this project, with not much luck, I have found some popular websites that show creatives and have people commenting on the creatives. I really need to find something that goes a little more in depth than just comments on pics or videos, to get some insight from other professionals in the industry.

Week 11, Spring Break, Finally!

March 15-19, 2010

Monday 12.30-5.30=5 hours

Tuesday 9-5.30 (30 min lunch)=8 hours

Wednesday 8.30-4,30 (30 min lunch)=7.5 hours

Thursday 12.30-5.30= 5 hours

Friday 8.30-5.00 (30min Lunch)=8 hours

Total for the week =33.5

Hours left for credit=139.5-33.5=106

It's Spring Break this week so I am making up some hours, this week I came in everyday. I finally finished up my Advanced Academics outlines. That was a long project, I would say the worst part about it though, is the document finishing. Formatting is a key part in the final outcome. It took me so long to get the whole document to all have the same formatting. The whole document was 23 pages, but since I made three outlines, one for each county, when I combined them the format was all wrong. On top of that the outlines had tables in them, so when you copy an paste to all different formats, all the tables shifted and it was a mess cleaning everything up. I could have spent days formatting, re-formatting, then re-formatting, the re-format, I kept changing things around, but Allison said just stick to one and run with it, because Janet the Accounts Service Manager will look over it, and may want it all re-formatted totally different anyway. Allison said that in her last project she spent three hours at home, re-formatting her document, and it drove her crazy.

This is another lesson learned about the Accounts Services, I could toil over something trivial and circumstantial, but in the end, somebody above me may want me to re-do all of it anyway. That's the business ladder, I guess thats what they call swimming with the sharks, and climbing the ladder. It's not so much about what you want, it's all bout what somebody else wants. It's just my job to figure that out, and try to meet those needs.

So the latter part of the week Advanced Academics, is sending out some marketing packages to their main customers, its a little portable lunch cooler with some flyers. The thought behind the cooler is that you can take your cooler to outside events, or to the beach, while still attending class at Advanced Academics. Meaning you can be laying on the beach, getting a tan, eating your lunch with the Advanced Academics cooler, and taking your classes online. I helped prepare the packages, just doing some busy work, till the next project comes up.

That's it for this week, I didn't realize how worn out I feel at the end of the day. Since I have been coming in some full days, going at it all day non-stop really drains me. The best part is that it is a good draining. The worst part is that I don't even get to enjoy my last Spring Break weekend, because I have projects that I have to work on for school, due on monday. I'll be back next week!

Week 10, Almost there!

March 8-12, 2010

Tuesday 9.30-1.30=4 hours

Hours left for credit 143.5-4=139.5

So as I said in last week's blog I am working on my other outlines in Alachua County, and in Lee County, Florida. I was having trouble finding the ame info as in the other outline on the census bureau website, but I finally got it figured out. I should be able to knock these outlines out pretty quickly, or at least faster than the Broward County Outline.

I did not come to my internship on Thursday or Friday of this week. Thursday I had an appointment that prevented me from coming up, and Friday I had a midterm. Next week on Spring Break I am going to be coming in more hours to get these outlines finished and to get started on some new work. I am almost done with this task, I can't wait to start a new challenge.