Something that I have really appreciated throughout my program at George Brown was how accessible it is to be able to connect with people within the industry.
Question #1: How is the work environment different in the public vs private sector?
I think the work environment is different between the private sector vs public because with private, it is better for job creation especially for students looking to get into a new industry.
However, public sector work environment could be better as the public sector is not affected by recessions. It's all dependant on what you are looking for and comfortable with.
Question #2: Changing behaviours is not an easy process. What resistance do you think marketers face when trying to change behaviour?
Marketers face resistance when something new is created. People are afraid of change so there must be a seamless transition for customers when marketers are looking to introduce something new to the industry. People do not want to change all at once, so resistance that marketers face when trying to change behaviour is not being completely on board right from the beginning, and needing time to adapt.
Question #3: What are the pros and cons of working at a larger agency and a smaller agency
Pro of larger agency: Making strong connections in field, already established with lots of clients
Con of larger agency: Fast paced, less one on one connection with people in your company
Pro of smaller agency: could be slower paced, easier to learn if you are new to industry
Con of smaller agency: less clients, less established, not as many opportunities
Question #4: Reflecting on the presentations in weeks 2 and 3, what else did you learn that could help with networking and your job search?
Speaker #1: Caroline Berryman
This past Monday January 18th, my class had the amazing opportunity to meet Caroline Berryman. Caroline is a graduate from the University of Western which I loved that she was a fellow Western alum. She graduated from Western and furthered her studies at York University with a master’s in Marketing Communications. She additionally has a professional marketing designation from the International Institute of Marketing Professionals.
Throughout her presentation, I loved hearing about her 13 years in marketing and additionally her transition into a more social marketing role. I was great to learn more about sections of marketing that I haven’t been exposed to yet such as her public sector role. Some points I thought were important was bringing up that through marketing, you must ensure the customer experience is positive. You must work harder to gain loyalty and you must stay relevant. As we are still in Covid, it was interesting to hear more about how she has had to shift in regard to marketing and interacting with people. The next important section of the presentation was the importance of partnerships. It is important as you can share resources such as time and budgets, increase audience share such as social media and collaborate on big ideas. You can also tap into both social media channels and followers benefiting everyone involved. Lastly, I loved hearing about social marketing and seeing a case study of an educational campaign that is able to influence positive behavioural changes, benefit individuals and communities and sell ideas vs products. It was so interesting to be able to see the opportunity of enforcing traveller safety, see stats on it, be able to see the plan executed on it and lastly see the campaign really come together through the visual elements.
As I am reflecting on her career path, I think it’s great to see how adaptable this industry is and how she has been able to go into many different fields within marketing that were all so different from each other. A good point she made was that you should not be limited by the title of the job. As this industry is changing, it is important to know how to pivot your knowledge and also yourself and be able to adapt it to whatever is happening at that moment. As she said in her presentation, the planning process has changed so marketers need to be more innovative, flexible to unknown external factors and know that outreach and engagement has changed so you really need to understand different digital tactics in this industry.
Speaker #2: Cathy McKnight
Cathy McKnight is VP strategy and consultant at The Content Advisory. Throughout her presentation she went through more background about herself and her company, how she works with clients, how she got to where she is now, what she learned along the way as well as a case study. It was very interesting to learn more about her company and see her clients that she represents as it ranges from LinkedIn, Facebook, Staples, Microsoft and so on. Additionally, it was super informative to hear about her core services which were Content Strategy and Services, Content Studio and Retained Advisory and lastly, Creative Planning. I think one important thing to note is how she explained her work journey. She started off in Marketing, Public Relations and Government Relations. That really interested me as I am starting off my career in Public Relations. She then moved into Project Management as an SAP Consultant, leading later into a Web Consultant and Consulting Team Lead. She lastly progressed into the Founder of the Digital Clarity Group where she then became VP Strategy of Consulting and Chief Solver of Problems at her current company, The Content Advisory.
Some important tips she told our class was to look for jobs that align with your values. I thought that was important because she explained that you really need to know yourself and know what you need from the organization and why you want to work there. Additionally, she made a great point about evaluating how much a company’s name matters to you. Does it matter to you to be able to name drop a leading firm? Or are you comfortable working for a less known company and having to explain it to people?
Lastly, we got to look at a case study for their client, Facebook. We were able to look at their engagement and learn what, why, and how. We also got to look at how they got help with their alignment of digital experiences and the three primary recommendations that The Content Advisory created.
As I am reflecting on her career path, I really appreciated how she has worked at so many different company’s and has been able to gain insight from so many different positions. I really will take her point of making sure the company aligns with your values, and make sure to focus on it in the future with my personal career path.
Question #5: What questions did you prepare for the speakers?
Questions for Caroline:
1. What advice do you wish you could give your younger self as you started your marketing career/ what do you wish you would have known about your position and industry before you started?
2. What steps do you think we should be taking to secure a job in marketing as marketing students?
3. What is your favourite and least favourite thing about your role in marketing?
Questions for Cathy
1) Within the last few jobs, which position was your favourite and why?
2) Do you have any advice on how to make connections within the industry?
3) What has been your favourite client to work with?
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