What's New on the National Advertising Scene?

Three national rep firms spent about 20 minutes each with our group discussing what they predicted for the upcoming year.

Alloy Media and Marketing

This company represents a lot of government branches, like the Coast Guard, Bank of America, K-Mart, AT&T and (new this year) Walgreens. They did have two large accounts, McDonald's and Wal-Mart, not renew contracts this year, but they believe that they will be back next year. An interesting fact about this company is that they developed the hit book and television series "Gossip Girls." They also worked on the development of "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."

Campus Media

Significant Accounts: Sprint, Blimpie's, and Carl Jr.'s

This company is expanding and in the beginning stages of working with magazines. There are also job opportunities here. The company is looking for young graduates to fill open positions.

This company prepares a PSA pro bono for a non-profit group each year for college campuses to use. I passed this information on to Lauren so she can look into it for KNWD.

College Media Network

MTV recently purchased this company. They placed over 2000 ads this semester and are ahead from last year due to several major accounts and acquisitions. MTV is moving into the college media market, as well as utilizing MTV U.

Brittany Byrd

How to Rebirth Yearbooks

How to Rebirth Yearbooks
Kenna Griffin, Oklahoma City University

This was by far my favorite session. Kenna is amazing! I have so many ideas on how to make sure every copy of the Potpourri is distributed this year. I really want to have a distribution party when the yearbook comes in. I plan to have such an event it will put any SAB event to shame. It is definitely going to be a big deal! Again I was reminded how lucky we are to have the yearbook fee included in the price of tuition.

Lela Coker

Niche Marketing

Niche Marketing
Linda Puntney, Kansas State University

First, let me say how thankful I am that our students pay for the yearbook in their tuition and we do not have to rely on selling it ourselves. I thought this session would give us pointers for distributing the yearbook in the spring, but instead we discussed selling the yearbook. Puntney talked about promoting the yearbook before it comes out. A lot of schools have trouble getting students to buy a yearbook, which affects their budget. I am glad we do not have to stress about yearbook sells. I am, however, going to spend more time planning our distribution in the spring. It is important that as many students as possible pick up the yearbook.

Lela Coker

Networking at the Saw IV Blood Drive.

Seats were in high demand last night in the "teachers' lounge," so I offered a stranger a chair at my table. This person turned out to be Jim Bilello, President and Founder of US Marketing (http://www.usmarketing.bz/jim_bio.htm). Bilello, who represents Lionsgate, was at the conference representing and promoting the "Saw IV" movie to college media leaders. In fact, his PR specialty is very segment-specific: teen and college students. He also has a second demographic specialization, Hispanic marketing, but his focus at this event was to get the word out on "Saw IV" (opening wide at a theatre in near you on Friday, October 26).

I asked Bilello what PR professionals look for in the college graduates they hire, and his immediate answer was CREATIVITY. Everyone is looking for bright people with bright ideas. He said that school projects, whether for class or for extra-curricular activities, can demonstrate strength in conceiving and expressing ideas and strategies. He also said that you should be open-minded about internship opportunities -- often in PR and media, interns work hard for little money.

Bilello also said that college seniors should not just be using Facebook and MySpace for social networking but also start looking at Linked In and other professional networking sites. (Keep in mind that things acceptable and encouraged on Facebook may be frowned upon at Linked In.)

This afternoon I took Brittany over to Bilello's vendor stand. Brittany had raved about the Saw movies to me even before we left for D.C., so I thought she would want to check out the current installment of the horror series' PR campaign: a Saw IV blood drive. (Cool? Eww? Can't decide.) In addition to being a Saw fan, Brittany is also the lone public relations major on this trip, and she spent several minutes getting advice from Bilello about jobs and internships. I was proud to see her networking -- making contacts at this conference could open the door to a job or internship in the future.

Dr. Lee

Soggy Musings of Day Two in a Dimly-Lit Starbucks

Yesterday after our sessions had ended, a few of us wandered into the Church of Scientology. Needless to say, this could be one for the grandchildren. However, since this blog is principally for our sessions, this story shall have to wait for another post.

The first session of the morning was by far the most enlightening look into the current state of the recording arts industry that I've encountered since Lars Ulrich's legal assault on his Napsterite fans. Samantha Murphy's 10am "P2P: An Artist's Perspective" was quite inspiring in that many of the points she brought up were entirely relevant and at times eye-opening. Murphy, the host of one of the oldest artist-driven podcasts on the 'Net, is entirely free of record label influence and has turned down a recording contract. She is turning her website smtvmusic.com into a legal filesharing website for college students to experience new music from both signed and unsigned artists who have pledged their support of this project. The basic message of her session is that we as broadcasters need to fight to keep the Internet free so that artists can continue to release their art.

The 11am "Ins and Outs of Resumes" session was jam-packed with those eager to make their resumes better and more noticeable. In a fiercely-competitive job market, having a resume that lists your flexibility and willingness to venture into any avenue of journalism is a must as the profession continues its dramatic change. Basically, showing off your strengths can become a plus when you're being considered for a job.

The noon "Truth About Jobs and Internships" session dealt with your options in searching for either a job or internship. It was hit hard on us that experience when looking for both internships and jobs are an absolute must; I'm still unsure if I want to continue toward a Broadcasting degree or if I want to switch to News-Editorial, for I enjoy writing immensely but I also enjoy certain aspects of broadcast production as well. However, I think I'll go for internships in both areas just in case. In this session I learned that for print internships/jobs, campus experience isn't the only experience you should have. Time to get cracking ^_^

The 1pm "Sum of All Fears" session was quite informative, as it dealt with listener reactions to the September 11 attacks and the 2004 Hurricane season. Ned Waugaman from Arbitron (the radio equivalent to the Nielsen television ratings) stated that in general, listeners were very pleased with the radio coverage of the September 11 attacks and radio was the preferred source of information during the 2004 hurricane season.

More soon
-Richelle Stephens

P2P: An Artist's Perspective

I was actually really excited to attend this session. Not only was the speaker, Samantha Murphy, a singer/songwriter, but also she has interviewed one of my favorite musicians, Elvis Perkins. Importunely, this session was not printed in the original booklet, which is why only about 8 people showed up. Murphy had a very interesting view on artist and their promotional need.

Murphy has created not only her own podcast, but also a website (SMtvMusic.com) that is a legal alternative to file sharing. This site is made for the "poor" college student to be able to listen to new artist without paying the huge corporate record companies. Basically what she is doing is providing free publicity for bands that she believes are talented enough to be in the public eye.

She had some very good ideas, but I did agree with her on some of her ideas. For instance, her views on record companies are that the larger companies steal from their artist, which they do. A band makes about $2 or maybe a little more off their CD. Larger companies are also more prone to control their artist. I know bands that had to change most of their songs and clothes in order to comply with the label's standards. However, there are record companies who are doing it right. I brought up the point of Saddle Creek Records, a closely-knit record company out of Omaha, NE. Getting a Saddle Creek artist at KNWD is like Christmas for me. The label is mainly artist run and is most likely one of the fairest labels out in today's society.

I think it is good to have someone like Murphy in that industry that is in it to truly benefit the artist and also college students.


Mary Manno

Influencing the influencers.

PR & marketing aplenty at the College Media conference.


Free promotional items collected by me in one sweep through the vendor area:

pens: 10
highlighters: 3 (2 regular + 1 mini)
pen-highlighter combos: 2
notepads: 4
sticky notes: 1
pieces of candy: not sure (consumed immediately)

Free promotional items I took a pass on:

Yo-Yo (required joining a mailing list for a grad program)
troll doll
"Do not disturb" sign for hanging on dormitory dorm doorknob
key chain with compartment for carrying condoms
movie poster featuring actress in bikini
t-shirt promoting movie starring actress in bikini
undergarments promoting movie starring actress in bikini


Dr. Lee

Intro to Underwriting

In all honesty, this session made me a little sad. One of the instructors talked about how strict they were on their staff. After one excused absence at the station (as in missing their shift without notifying a manager ahead of time) they received a warning. The second time they lost their shift, because 700 students were on a waiting list to fill that spot. I wish somehow students would get that excited about KNWD! I cannot even imagine a waiting list that long! I did take note that deejays were dismissed for missing their shifts, since it can be a problem at our station.

The main thing discussed in this session was how to create an effective media kit to send out to advertisers. The main thing to remember is to keep it simple and client-centered. We also learned about effective times to contact certain businesses in order to make an ad sell.

Mary Manno

First impressions of our nation's capitol ... a day late

As this was my first visit to Washington D.C., I couldn't help but peer out of the window of the airplane when we began our descent into Reagan National. The brake lights of afternoon traffic pockmarked the soaked streets of our nation's capital...unfortunately we would encounter traffic of our own. We happened to board the Metro subway right as Washington's corporate bees left their metaphorical hive. Apparently masses of people crammed into tiny subway cars bring out the worst of people in this city. Regardless, this has been quite an educationally valuable trip (more on the visual spectacle later) as we attended our first sessions today.


At 9 a.m., I attended the "Whither Magazines" session with National Geographic magazine's Keith Bellows, who discussed the future of magazines. He essentially stated that reinvention must occur if magazines are to survive. Writers must become more well-rounded in terms of what they can do for the publication; they must be willing to write for the print and online mediums. They must be willing to produce narratives that engross the reader.

At the 10 a.m. "Intro to Underwriting" session with NPR's J.C. Patrick, we explored the basics of radio kits to present to potential advertising clients. Radio kits should be personal and user-friendly to the prospective and should sell a benefit -- not a feature -- to the prospective client.

At the 11 a.m. 'Breaking into Magazines" session, we learned that query letters really help gain the attention of magazines to your story, as many submissions lack a query letter and magazines have little time to sort through them all. The session was focused heavily on the query letter. We also learned that if we wanted to start submitting now, it's all right to state that we're still writing for our school's newspaper.

The 12 p.m. "College Press 101" was a basic outline of significant court cases involving student journalists with follow-up on how it affects us today. The SPLC's Adam Goldstein was very knowledgeable of his craft, as he deals with the bulk of calls from student journalists to the SPLC; he said that he deals with at least 1,000 calls per year, which surprised me a bit.

Perhaps the most energetic session of the day was hosted by Jason Levine. The 1 p.m. session by the self-proclaimed evangelist for Adobe software was filled with exhibitions of his "prowess". Oohs and aahs serenaded his glowing ponytailed and mutton-chopped aura after he made a seagull disappear from a video clip in the Adobe After Effects program. I was personally engrossed in the new software that enables users to make their videos suitable for broadcast on everything from cell phones to YouTube.

More on the sights and sounds of D.C. in a later post. My fingers hurt.

--Richelle Stephens

Niche Marketing

This session was informative but didn't exactly apply to our situation with the yearbook. The session focused on marketing your yearbook and boosting your sales. At NSU, yearbook fees are included in student fees so we don't have a problem selling the books but we do have a problem with distribution. The session was basically a brainstorming/sharing of ideas session.

I left the session with some ideas to improve our distribution. It was suggested that we use the resources that are available to us. We need to utilize NSU22, The Current Sauce, and KNWD to help inform students about distribution dates. We could also use an event to increase distribution. We should have a yearbook signing party, for example, or set up a tent in front of Keyser with drinks and a light snack to attract students to pick up their yearbook.

An interesting thought: yearbook was the first Facebook.

Brittany Byrd