IMC Hawks Blog

Blog

  • Time to Soar

    For those of you students who really struggled deciding what to major in, then you will definitely relate to this blog. After five years and three colleges, the transferring and the decision-making is over and the day that I can receive my degree is finally nearing. College has been a complete rollercoaster ride for me and parts of it I wish I could do over, but one decision I know that was the right one was choosing to major in Communication Studies.

    I started out attending a community college in Greensboro, North Carolina and planned to study nursing there. Due to family instances I had to move to Greenville, NC to live with my sister and attended the community college there. At this point, I realized that nursing was not for me and  I just wanted to transfer to a University. UNCW had always been my top choice of universities to attend since graduating in 2009. After 2 years of attending community college, I applied and was accepted into my dream college (best day ever).

    Not knowing much about what Communication Studies entailed, I transferred in as pre-Com Studies major in hopes to have finally found my niche in college, and I did exactly that but not right away. I will never forget the first day sitting in COM 105 with Dr. Weber. His passion, and tears, for this major was very moving and motivational. I knew then that this department consisted of professors who really loved what they were doing, their students, and making positive changes in the world through communication.

    Not only has been deciding what I wanted to major in and transferring been a hectic variable of college, but also the fact that I work, a lot. Every job I have worked in during college has been 45 + hours a week which left me with very little time to get involved and do extracurricular activities within the university. At the end of last summer and the beginning of my last year, I quit my job and decided to take full advantage of my last year in college. I am broke and barely getting by but it’s worth it because I know that it will pay off in the long run and I am NOT waiting tables for the rest of my life!

    My senior year was very different from most of my peers. I just got out of COM 200 last semester so this past semester has really just been me getting a feel of what I want to do when I graduate. I have predominately taken Advertising and PR classes with Dr. Persuit and Chin and have learned so much from both professors about the “real world”. Advertising II has been the most beneficial class that I have taken in my college career. Dr. Persuit allows her students to fully take on clients as we will in the future and I have gained so much as an individual working in group settings. I highly recommend taking this class for self-growth and independent work.

    All in all, I am so thankful for the opportunity to have attended UNCW and to earn a Bachelor’s degree. Many people are not as blessed with the chance to earn an education. So for that, if you are a student working endless hours a week to pay for your education or if your parents are able to provide, stay grateful and embrace every opportunity college has to offer. No one can take your education away, it truly is a gift of self-worth and self-gain.

    Peace out Seahawks,

    Bri McWhirter

  • Meant to be a Seahawk

    Today is my last day of classes here at UNCW. I did not actually think this day would ever come. For a while, I didn’t even know that I would be attending school at UNCW or in North Carolina at all. I transferred from Dallas, Texas as a Junior. When I mention that, almost everyone asks, “Why UNCW?” So I’ll go ahead and fill you in on how I got here.

    Right after High School, I wanted so badly to attend Baylor University, a more expensive, private school in Texas. Shortly after orientation at BU, they notified me that they had promised too much scholarship money and they were going to have to decrease my scholarship. This was the first crazy, unexpected event in my life after High School. The thought of getting into an extreme amount of debt my first year frightened me to death. My father pleaded with me to attend community college for one or two years, and then he would do his best to send me anywhere I chose.

    After a year or so at a community college outside of Dallas, my dad asked me, “You need to start thinking about where you’re going to transfer.” I was only joking and trying to ruffle his feathers when I replied, “What if I want to go to school all the way in North Carolina?” I did not know it then, but this sarcastic comment would change my life.

    I began looking into UNCW, but it still did not feel like a legitimate option for my future. I only knew of Wilmington because of the movie and television industry – and I thought it was pretty. My parents never said no to sending me there, but I think they honestly felt like it was a phase I would snap out of after a few weeks.

    One day in my mass communications course, we had a panel of women that work in the field of communication speak to us. Afterward, I went to thank them for coming. After speaking briefly with one woman, Keturi Beatty, I asked her where she received her undergraduate degree. She told me I had most likely never heard of it – it’s a school called UNC Wilmington. I could not believe it. That day she gave me her business card (she wrote “Go Seahawks!” on the back). I connected with her over the next few months, and she got me in contact with the one and only David Weber. Connecting with her was the next crazy turn my life took – because now UNCW felt like a real option.

    I was able to convince my mom to bring me out to Wilmington to visit UNCW, and we both fell in love with the campus. I learned a great deal about the Communication Studies Department from Dr. Weber, and the rest is history.

    UNCW and especially the COM Studies department means so much to me. I have learned to think, research, explore, work hard, and how to be a true team member. The COM department feels like one big giant family – that likes to talk a lot. My professors have given me the opportunities and the tools to succeed in my courses and in my experiences after graduation.  When friends ask if I have homework, I tell them no. I tell them I have things I need to get done, because I don’t see the work in my COM classes as homework or chores – they are opportunities to learn and create something I can be proud of.

    Why do I love to tell that story in such detail? Because UNCW has changed my life in so many ways, and this time two years ago – I didn’t even know I would be here. Life can take so many crazy turns when you least expect it, but each and every one of them happens for a reason. Before even I knew it, I was meant to be a Seahawk. I will never tire of telling that story, because it helps me appreciate and value my experiences from UNCW that might not have happened without one special conversation with a fellow Seahawk all the way in Dallas, Texas.

    Rachel Gracy

    UNCW Class of 2014

  • The Beginning to The Rest of My Life

    I never thought this day would come—literally.

    College was not an easy task. I call it a task because of the formal definition of the word.

    Task:   a :  a usually assigned piece of work often to be finished within a certain time

    b :  something hard or unpleasant that has to be done

     

    I assigned both definitions to my college experience because both apply equally. It has been a long, unrelenting four years of trials, triumphs, and trying to pass each class by the skin of my teeth. Let me make one thing clear: I did not enjoy the college experience. It’s not that UNCW isn’t a tremendous school with unlimited opportunities (like ETEAL…), but I made the conscious choice not to take advantage of any of them.

    Let me rephrase: I took advantage of ONE of them. At the end of my freshman year, I spent a week at a ranch in Honduras providing medical care to underprivileged communities. Once my plane landed back in Texas, I turned on my phone to be bombarded with emails from almost every important UNCW faculty and staff member there is. Apparently, when a student gets a 1.4 GPA that’s when the university starts to notice. I was placed on academic probation because of my poor grades, and I was placed on house arrest by my parents for the next six months.

    Unlike most college students who screw up their first semester and learn from their mistakes, my mistakes continued and are still continuing as I write this today. Fall of 2012 I almost got kicked out of UNCW and considered attempting to transfer schools, if I could even get accepted anywhere else. Just last semester I begged my father to let me drop out and join the military. Even these past six months, I experienced terrifying and unhealthy situations that had me grateful to still be alive and loved by as many people as I am. I have never been able to balance school and my personal life, allowing the poor decisions I make outside of the classroom to severely affect my grades.  I’m struggling to pass all my classes this semester in order to graduate in 12 days. As a senior, that is the most stressful and terrifying of all the things I’ve encountered.

    These past four years I have felt more lost than I ever felt before, and as a 21 year old senior graduating (hopefully), I would like to say that I have a sense of direction for what I want to do, but I don’t. Honestly, I don’t even know if I want a job in public relations, advertising, or anything that my Communication Studies major has a “focus” in. I have no idea what I’m doing and it terrifies me and excites me all at the same time. I hate plans, and schedules, and deadlines and calendars.  It’s been a struggle for me ever since I was young. I have never quite felt connected to the school or my classes, causing me to be uninterested and indifferent towards my grades, attendance, and effort. My mind is always elsewhere, creating and imagining worlds of possibilities that I wish to explore as soon as I can get out of here. I sit in class and wonder if it’s all worth it, not just school, but everything. Graduating from a good school, getting a good paying job, buying a home, raising a family, is this all that there is? Am I wrong for not wanting any of it, but rather to live eccentrically day by day chasing my true dreams (as corny as it sounds)? I feel different than everyone else, so is that wrong?

    I love my parents for the education they have provided for me, and I fully believe I’ve learned a lot in the past few years of school, but I stand firm on my opinion that I am much more than my education. I am much more than my solitary struggle of a college experience.  I look back at the mistakes I made and the people I hurt and I wonder if I will ever find what I’m supposed to be doing, if I’ll ever make a difference, or if I’ll ever truly know who I am. And thinking about these things always makes me come to one realization: I need to do something worth doing.

    I want to experience culture and spirituality and values of other counties. I want to go back to try to help at least one woman from my own Middle Eastern heritage get an education, because it will never be as easy of an opportunity for them as it was for me. I want to live in a van and wake up to a different sunrise every morning. I want to sell all my belongings and work on organic farms for a few months. I want to repay my parents for all their pain and suffering and tuition costs. I want to do everything and anything.

    I don’t know how long I have on Gods vast and wonderful earth, and if I have the choice to be free, I’m going to take it.

    I want to be everything I can be.

    But right now, I just want to graduate.

     

    This post is not intended to offend my fellow student, professors, my department, or my university in any way or to diminish the aspirations of my classmates to work in the fields associated with our department. I love and appreciate the work you all put into our education. Thank you for putting up with me these past few years, I would have never been able to do it without you.

    Crystan Weaver

  • Cheers to Senior Year

    “UNCW.”

    What was the first thing you thought of when you read that? If it wasn’t “teal” you probably aren’t a true Seahawk.

    All of us here at UNCW know that everything is teal. By senior year, some might even say they are “tealed out.” I, however, have managed to go my entire time at UNCW with only ONE teal shirt. Is that even possible? Did I just set a record?

    And thinking about my time here at UNCW, all I can ask is, “How did it go by SO fast?” Graduation is in 12 days?! Slow down!”

    My time at UNCW didn’t just begin freshman year of college, it actually began freshman year of high school. In 2006, I became part of the inaugural class at Isaac Bear Early College High School. An accelerated high school here in Wilmington that is partnered with UNCW. During freshman and sophomore year, students complete high school curriculum so that junior and senior year they can become full time students at the university. So since 2008 I have been a full time student at the “dub” – walking up and down Chancellors, studying at “Club Randall”, hanging out at “Wagsgiving”.

    Six years! A lot of things have changed in six years… I’m no longer terrified of public speaking, I know the difference between communication and communications, and very shortly I will have two degrees and minor. But many things haven’t changed  either… parking on campus is still a pain, we still don’t have a football team, and I’m still a procrastinator.

    Yet somewhere in the midst of those six years the question stopped being “So what major are you?” to “So what are you going to do when you graduate?” And while I don’t know exactly what lies ahead after graduation, I do know that I have a great resume, and I know how to write a good cover letter, and I know that COM 400 has pushed me to reflect upon and articulate all the skills and experiences UNCW has given me.

    Senior year has been the best experience so far. It has been the first year I actually couldn’t wait til the night before to start and finish an assignment, the first year I actually worked in every single class I took, and the first year I felt truly accomplished.

    Do you want to have an awesome senior year too? Do you want to be pushed? Build your resume? Really learn some valuable skills? Here’s my senior year line up in the Department of Communication Studies:

    Fall Semester

    Public Relations II: In this class you and your team develop a public relations proposal for a client. That includes writing and sending out surveys, creating flyers and brochures, and developing other clever tactics and strategies. The clients in this class change every semester, when I took it, I worked with PCOM Advising and Professors Chin and Bulger. They even implemented the CBT we made for them! Other than working with a client you also learn about the media outlets here in town, how to react in a press conference, and how to shoot B-Roll.

    Integrated Marketing II: Another client based class; this one has been one of my favorites! You simultaneously learn about the relationship between marketing and consumer behavior and then apply that to the strategic plan you create for your client. My group worked with UNCW’s CREST Research Park. We researched the competition, we looked at how to cater to a niche market, and we even got experience working on search engine optimization.

    CMM: The man who developed this theory actually teaches the class! How often do you get to take advantage of an opportunity like that? Dr. Cronen teaches the idea of circular questioning. The method essentially boils down to this: meaning is created, the meaning that you have cultivated regarding something might be different from the one I created about the same thing, so how do we know we are on the same page? Circular questioning helps with that clarification and I have even found the method useful during client interviews in other classes.

    Media Law and Ethics: As a Political Science major as well, this class was already of interest to me, but if you are looking to go into a field that involves any kind of reporting or journalistic endeavor, this class is a must. It can help teach you how to stay out of hot water as you gather information for, and broadcast, your news stories. The professor who teaches this course has a lot of working experience in the field, he is a great resource for questions!

    Spring Semester

    Sports Writing: What else could you ask for when your homework is to go to games and watch your favorite teams play on television? In addition to the fun discussion of the class, Professor Laverty of the English Department, challenges your writing to be both engaging and concise. How do you write about a game that readers already know the outcome of? “Make it sing,” he says.

    Advertising II: Another great applied learning class. This time, client groups stimulate the setting of a real ad agency – broken into divisions like account executives, copyrighters, and art directors. This semester I have been working with ETEAL. We’ve worked on creating a new logo for them and are also running an Instagram contest! (By the way there’s still time to submit! Find out more here!)

    Capstone: Let me be honest. At the beginning of the school year, my resume needed work. Not merely just in the document itself, but because I needed to do some work to put on it. So I did – and with the guidance of COM 400, I have resume that actually showcases my strengths, skills, and projects. How fortune we are in this major to have a class designed specifically to help you prepare for interviews, create a portfolio,  and teach you the do’s and don’ts of networking. Take advantage!

    DIS: This semester, I took part in a Directed Independent Study with Dr. Persuit and Dr. Bolduc. Three students focused on integrated marketing and two student in video production joined together to found UNCW’s first student run Integrated Marketing Firm, Pier601 Creative. A firm that allows students, who are seriously interested in the field, to produce outstanding work for clients in the Wilmington community. Rising seniors should contact either professor if you think you may be a good fit for being part of this experience!

    Bottom line, everything rewarding comes from working. Those client projects you do… yes, they’re A LOT of work, but you also learn a lot of skills that you easily relate to any employer.

    Get involved in the department. Don’t let your class schedule confine the times you are on campus. Find some interests and go to meetings! Look into CSS, LPH, AD Chapter, or TealTV.

    As my capstone teacher likes to often remind us, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? – Mary Oliver”. So ask yourselves what are you going to do with your time at UNCW and/or in the COM Department? Are you going to just get a degree or are you going to get an experience? You get to decide. I decided on the latter, and I am so thankful for the teachers who pushed me and the classmates who supported me.

    Cheers to all of us who have come this far, and to all of those who will follow!

    Savannah Valade
    UNC Wilmington 2014
    Political Science Major
    Communication Studies Major
    Journalism Minor
    Lambda Pi Eta
    Pier601 Creative

  • “All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise.”

    For four years the class of 2014 have waited to reach this moment and in exactly 12 days we will have made it as undergraduates. Some of you will have noticed the title is a lyric from The Beatles’ song “Blackbird”. No, we seniors probably won’t be fighting the important battles that this song alludes to, but we will be facing challenges— the challenges of finding jobs, a new life, and even ourselves.

    Yes, the four-year “beach party” is coming to an end and although I don’t have anything planned I feel confident in my next steps. I attribute this confidence to the UNCW Communication Studies Department. Not only have I found my passion in this major, but also I have gained life skills and knowledge. So instead of reminiscing on my wonderful four-year “beach party” (as some would call it), I want to give some major-related advice to those of you who are lucky enough to have another year here.

    Things I did that you should do:

    Take as many upper level classes (300-400 levels) as you can.
    Seriously, do it! Forget about the “it is going to be tons of work” and just do it! Not only will you gain knowledge, but also you will gain experience. Some classes I personally got a lot out of were strategic writing (even though it is a 200 level), the ad classes, PR II, and IMC II. The work I completed in these classes pushed me to assess problems and find solutions in ways I didn’t know I could. Not only did I walk away with portfolio artifacts, but I felt what I had done really helped the clients I worked with.

    Find a mentor.
    I applied to be a part of Project Protégé this year. (A program associated with CSS.) It was one of the best things I could have done. Even though it was only a couple of months long, I had a wonderful mentor who I could ask advice from and talk about the industry with. My only regret is I wish I had done it earlier.

    Take classes outside of your immediate focus.
    My focus is IMC, PR and advertising. Since I have known that was my interest from day one I took many of those classes, but this past fall I took decided to take Dr. Weber’s WWII Rhetoric: American Identity course. It was one of the most enjoyable and interesting classes I have taken at UNCW. Therefore, I recommend taking a couple of classes outside of your focus; it really helps broaden your horizons.

    Be Curious.
    After taking a media and integrated marketing communication class, I started becoming curious about these subjects. So whenever a professor would mention something in class that I thought was interesting I would write it down and Google it later. Through this I found Mashable, my go to tech news website, and Girl Talk the best mashup artist ever! Yes, I sound like a nerd, but the knowledge you gain from being curious helps you in ways you couldn’t imagine.

    In addition to this list I must thank a couple of people, first my parents (for reasons obvious to all graduates). Second the organizations that gave me the opportunity to contribute to their team as an intern, the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival and UNCW Alumni Relations. My experience with them was enjoyable and the skills I learned invaluable. And the last mention is to my Pier601 Creative co-founders, for making my last semester at UNC Wonderful even more wonderful. It has been a pleasure getting to know and work with such a creative, talented and personable bunch. Thank you Dr. Persuit for giving me the opportunity to participate in this group DIS. The experience, knowledge, and guidance you have given me throughout the many classes I have taken can’t be returned in my gratitude. So thank you!

    IMG_0604

    To all future IMCHawk bloggers, take this blog as a challenge, not a chore. Put your heart into it: be curious, be passionate, and be critical about the content you write. This blog becomes your moment, so fly.
    –Caroline Robinson

  • Thai Life Insurance Will Melt Your Heart

    As we’ve seen time and time again, the most successful advertisements tell a story and entertain us as – disguising that they’re selling a product or service. Thai Life Insurance must have known this when they created their newest commercial because ads don’t get any more story-like than this one.

    The video consists of a Thai man going about his everyday life. He sees an old woman struggling with her cart, a stray dog begging for food, and a homeless mother and child. What sets him apart from the rest of the crowd is his kind reaction to these occurrences. He helps the woman with her cart, gives the dog part of his lunch, and generously offers the mother-daughter combo the contents of his wallet. Strangers looking on shake their heads, but the man continues to do the acts of kindness anyway.

    At the end of video, it is revealed that his do-good attitude has lasting effects. The woman with the cart becomes his friend, the dog follows him home, and he gives enough money to the mother that the daughter could go to school. The voice-over (or English subtitles for those of us who don’t speak Thai) tells us that although this man won’t get fame or fortune, he will get emotions. The end of the video challenges the viewer to think about what they value in life.

    This ad is interesting because it uses happiness, not fear, to convince viewers of Thai Life Insurance’s trustworthiness. After all, which company do you want to give thousands of dollars to? The one that scares you into needing them or the one that believes good deeds make the world go round? The second one sounds more appealing to me.

    From a theoretical perspective, this ad is heavy on ethos or emotional appeal. Most insurance ads are, but this one breaks the mold because it is positive. The feelings the viewer experience is happiness, inspiration, and love. If we believe the emotions generated from ads transfer to how we feel about the brand, this one tops the charts. Too bad we don’t live in Thailand, or they would have at least one more customer.

    – Christine Schulze

  • One Country Painted Red

    With the rapid growth of new products, brand extensions and the blurring of traditional and new age advertising, marketing and advertising to target audiences has reached a new level of competitiveness. Brands now must adapt to this changing environment and contest with competitors to stay at the top of their market and target to audiences in creative, attention-grabbing tactics.

    The most iconic brand in the soda market, and throughout the world, is undoubtedly that of Coca-Cola. In the summer of 2011, Coke created an original marketing strategy to run a campaign that would inspire people to connect with the brand both online and offline in order to acclimate to the changing marketing environment. The campaign’s prime objective was to increase consumption of Coke over the summer season and to get people to fall in love with the iconic brand again. Particularly, in Australia, at the time nearly 50% of teens and young adults had never tasted a Coke and this drove the brand to reconnect with the country.

    Established in Australia, the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign immediately received positive media attention and consumer responsiveness. The idea of the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign was to place Australia’s 150 most popular names on the front of millions of Coca-Cola bottles, simple right? This was the first time in 125 years that Coke had made such a paramount transformation to it packaging, and it was revolutionary.

    “We used publicly available data to review the most popular names in Australia and ethnic representation in Australia to ensure the diversity of our multi-cultural nation was represented appropriately.”

    – Coca-Cola Spokesperson.

    The Coca-Cola brand wanted to initiate conversations by putting Australians front and center and inspire them to connect with people and ‘Share a Coke’. The central theme that gave ‘Share a Coke’ its power was the way a brand so universal could replace its logo with individual names by reaching out to consumers and personalizing its brand to individuals.

    “We are using the power of the first name in a playful and social way to remind people of those in their lives they may have lost touch with, or have yet to connect with”

    -Lucie Austin, Marketing Director for Coca-Cola South Pacific.

    The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign strategically exhibited that when personalization in advertising is done the right way, it can be highly appealing and extremely effective. While Coke got personal, media was buzzing with talk over what the brand was implementing behind the personalization. Coke remained silent until Australia’s highest rated media weekend. The campaign was revealed to the public and aired across the biggest weekend in Australian sport, during the AFL (Australian Football League) and NRL (National Rugby League) grand finals which reached over 30% of the population.

    Succeeding the campaign launch, requests for more names were coming in the thousands. Coke was prepared for this boom of requests by setting up kiosks that toured 18 Westfield shopping centers attracting consumers to personalize any name on a Coca-Cola bottle.

    Coke wanted to especially reach out to the 50% of young adults that had never tasted a Coke in Australia, and there was no better way to reach this target market than online. Participation and mass allocation was achieved through Facebook by providing consumers with the resources to connect and ‘Share a Coke’ by creating a personalized virtual Coke bottle to share with a Facebook friend. Consumers were tagging friends in pictures with personalized Coke bottles and sharing stories on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Coke consumers also could create their own commercials! With the abundance of requests still pouring in, Coke told consumers to put in a vote of “who do you want to share a Coke with the most?” via Facebook. After 65,000 people voted, Coke bottles with 50 new names were released. “Consumers were invited to SMS a friend’s name, which was projected live onto the iconic ‘Coca-Cola’ sign at Sydney’s King’s Cross. They then received an MMS enabling them to share their friend’s name up in lights, via Facebook and email.”

    untitled

    The multi-platform communications strategy was implemented to ‘Share a Coke’ with someone you know, or want to know and ultimately gave people the resources to find, connect and share. After 3 short months of running the campaign, young adult Coca-Cola consumption increased significantly in Australia by up to 7%, making 2011 Coke’s most fruitful summer season in history. The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign resulted in 76,000 virtual coke cans shared, 378,000 extra coke cans printed at kiosks, and 5% more people were drinking coke. Coca-Cola had successfully won over Australia and became a part of popular culture again.

    -Briana McWhirter