Monday, October 31, 2011

Presentation: check!

Second agency meeting of the year and we had to present our research so far about our clients.

To be honest, I thought we had to make a presentation. I wanted to go above and beyond so, I decided that I wouldn't just make a presentation, I would make a Prezi. I have never made a Prezi before. All I knew was it ended up looking really cool at the end. So, I divided in, with absolutely no idea what the finished product was going to look like, what information I was going to add, let alone even how to compile the presentation.

Before I dive into an explanation about my Prezi building experience, let me just vent for a second about people finding research and then sending it punctually. This doesn't happen very often, by the way. In fact, during this project, I think one person actually got back to me on time. To be fair, one person sent me an email telling me she had forgotten but, was going to send me her part within an hour; which she followed through on. And her info was actually really useful, which I appreciated. Its definitely more difficult to make a presentation with other people's vague, half completed research than with descriptive, in-depth research. I ended up having to some of it myself, which really made me ten times more stressed.

So here I am, sick, stressed-out about completing this presentation on time, worried and upset about not getting everyone's part on time and trying to figure out Prezi. This presentation program is definitely a keeper but, at the same time, its hard to get started, unless you have practice; which I did not. The best advice I can give is just to play around with it, relentlessly trying images, fonts, frames, order, everything. I must have made at least 10 versions of my presentation before I settled on the one we showed to the agency.

Fast-forward Wednesday night. In front of the agency. Our group was the first to present. To put it bluntly, we rocked it. Turns out, a presentation was not necessary, let alone a well-crafted Prezi. Needless to say, no group could come close to the standard we raised.

I felt so accomplished because my group loved the presentation and the fact that we were the best group. Now, the only problem is going to be coming up with something to top that.

Monday, October 24, 2011

And so it begins...

We had our first group meeting last Thursday for our client. Everything went smoothly; we all got on the same page and divvied up the research work between us. There was also mention of a due date for that work. That due date was today, 12:00. The work was to be sent to me. Because I have to make our presentation for the agency meeting Wednesday. Guess who still has yet to receive research from members of her group. Me!

I guess I can't be too frustrated. I don't claim to have the best memory. In fact, I have to make lists of everything I need to get done, in order, everyday. And when I say everything, I mean everything; shopping lists, eating dinner, working out, the order in which I will complete my homework. It sounds super crazy, and half the time it makes me more exhausted than anything else. But, hey, at least work is getting done!

Anyway, here I am, waiting for emails before I can start this presentation. I feel a late night panic attack looming in my future....

Meeting #1

This was a general body meeting of the entire agency. It was pretty relaxed and, I'm proud to say, embarrassment and mistake free. The executive board went over everything they expected from us and who was assigned to which client.

And my client is....

Drum roll please......

A hospital! (whose name I have decided I'm going to omit, for the remainder of the time I'll be giving code names for anything regarding this project)

We will be working on a new project they are planning to unveil which caters to expecting mothers giving birth. Since they are still in the formulation stage of the project, we will be helping in everything from promotional materials to research to naming and marketing. I'm so thrilled and blessed to be given this opportunity to exercise my skills.

Here goes... everything!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Long time no see!

Sorry about that; I've been really busy lately with midterms. And, to be honest, I forgot all about this blog... But, I'm back now and I'm going to attempt to be more consistent.

So recently, the most significant thing that has happened to me in relation to advertising is my acceptance into the student run advertising agency here on campus. It's called Hooper Stanford Baldwin Thomas, HSBT for short, after the streets surrounding Grady. I was so thrilled to be apart of the agency but, at the same time, I'm extremely anxious. I don't want to disgrace the agency or the client. To be honest I'm not really worried about embarrassing myself or, typically, making mistakes. Mistakes are a chance for me to learn and grow, I'd just rather not sacrifice the clients time and money to do it. As far as embarrassing myself, its pretty similar to making mistakes, I'll only let that embarrassing situation happen once before I figure out how I should have handled things. Still, if this was a perfect world, I wouldn't have to deal with either misfortune. I'd saunter into the meetings and problem solve, strategize, and organize like a pro.