The Brandtern Experience

Today I had the opportunity to take a little field trip to Market Street Sound.  Members of the Gatesman+Dave team lent their voiceover talents to a set of videos that will become a part of a new app we are launching for one of our clients.  It was really interesting to get a whole new perspective of what actually goes into the video production process.  I learned that voice is a very powerful tool when it comes to advertising.  The same line can be said so many different ways. When recording voiceovers, it is extremely important to be aware of tone, speed, etc. to ensure that you are giving the appropriate message.  I also really liked seeing the storyboards that our creative team came up with for these videos.  They really helped me see the big picture and allowed me to match the voice being recorded to the actual video imagery.  I look forward to seeing the final product! 

Last week was a busy one. I spent a lot of time with Meredith and Dan searching for new PR opportunities for the agency and learning how to create a media list. It was interesting to learn how to use CisionPoint as a tool to find potential media opportunities in a wide variety of local and regional publications. I also got the chance to meet with Dave C. and Kate who taught me all there is to know about traffic. Dave compared doing traffic at the agency to being an air traffic controller. You always need to be aware of each project’s progress and deadline to prevent any fiery crashes! While working on traffic, it is important to always be organized and aware of anything and everything going on in the agency to ensure that all projects run as planned. I look forward to hopefully shadowing him and/or Kate one day over the next few weeks and see exactly what their daily responsibilities entail. Lastly I researched the current web presence for a new potential client, both on Facebook and in the news. This will allow us to see what they are currently doing now to promote themselves and we can use that information to improve their overall presence. I can’t wait to get involved with more projects next week!

I just finished my first week of many as a Brandtern and I really like all that I’ve been exposed to so far. I got to work with Ben who taught me a lot about Facebook analytics. I thought it was interesting to learn how they can be helpful in determining the effectiveness of our social media posts, email blasts, etc. I’m on Facebook a lot in my free time and often “like” things, so it was interesting to see what people’s “likes” and other interactions really mean for a brand.

I also got a chance to familiarize myself with another one of our clients and complete next month’s editorial calendar for them. It basically outlines the day-by-day social media posts that will be made for the month.

Overall it’s been a great week and everyone has been really welcoming. People continue to periodically stop by my desk and introduce themselves, but it might take a couple weeks for me to put a face to every name! After this week, I’m definitely eager to find out what next week will bring.

Hey everyone! My name is Dan and I’m the sole Brandtern at Gatesman+Dave for the Spring 2013 session.  I’m from the Philadelphia area and am currently a senior Marketing major at Pitt, graduating this coming April.  I will specifically be working with the Account Management/ PR Social Media team over the next couple months and I look forward to contributing my creativity to the various projects I’ll be working on during my time here!

Today is my first day and even though it is always a bit overwhelming when you start a new job, everyone in the office has been really nice and welcoming.  I’ve been getting a feel for the office, which is really cool and far different from anywhere else I’ve worked in the past.  I’m loving the relaxed atmosphere and the lime green wall to my left will surely keep me alert!  And it doesn’t hurt to be located across the street from one of my favorite restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory.  I started off the day with the Monday morning meeting where everyone went through the list of to do’s for the week.  It was helpful to get an idea of the possible projects I’ll soon be involved in.  On a side note, there are a lot of people who work here so it may take me some time to know everyone’s names!  Today I also got the chance to get familiarized with one of the agency’s clients and learned how we manage their social media initiatives.  It seems like I’m definitely in for an awesome hands-on learning experience at Gatesman+Dave over the next several weeks!

A couple weeks ago Sean and I were tasked with helping to plan an event for SHOP ‘n SAVE at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix is the largest philanthropic event that SHOP ‘n SAVE participates in throughout the year. The event raises money for The Autism Society of Pittsburgh and The Allegheny Valley School. The objective was to introduce SHOP ‘n SAVE’s new Essential Everyday line in a fun way, while showcasing the line’s low price points. We developed the concept of a “Price is Right”-style Plinko game to inform people of Essential Everyday in an entertaining fashion and were also responsible for every piece of signage and equipment necessary to produce a successful launch. It was an awesome experience and we are truly grateful to have had the opportunity to plan and execute an event of this magnitude. Over the course of a two-day period we had more than 500 people visit our stand, take part in our event, and learn about our client’s new Essential Everyday line. We reached a ton of people and can only hope that their positive brand experience was as enjoyable for them as it was for us. It’s a great feeling when you get to see a successful final product of a project that you started weeks ago. We would like to thank everyone who joined us at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix – and we’ll see you next year!

At the beginning of The Brandtern Experience this summer, as we were all getting to know each other, one of the first conversations we had was about music. Music has a universal power. Whether you’re a casual listener or really passionate about it, music is made to share and bring people together. 

So that’s what brought us to making The Brandtern Experience Soundtrack. Initially we wanted to make an actual soundtrack, as if the experience has been a movie and we would choose tracks to narrate it. But instead, it just felt more natural for each of us to share five songs that we’ve been listening to while sitting at our desks or working on projects. 

We’ve made it a collaborative playlist. So seriously, we want your input. What songs get you in the zone or inspire you to do great work? Whether you’re an intern or a top exec, everyone has their work day soundtrack. We want to know what it is. So go ahead and add a couple of tracks to our playlist. Tweet at us once you have or comment on our blog. Either way, we want to hear what you’re listening to.

So here it is. The music that gets our creative juices flowing. What’s on your playlist?

Skye
Dance for You - The Dirty Projectors 
Soulshine - The Allman Brothers
Take a Walk - Passion Pit
My Body - Young the Giant
Towers - Bon Iver

Dave
Wild Wild Horses-Atmosphere
Tom Sawyer-Rush
Your Touch-The Black Keys
Shake Me Down-Cage The Elephant 
Hey You-311

Kelsey
Good Arms vs. Bad Arms – Frightened Rabbit
Old Pine – Ben Howard
Tangerine – Mansions
No Light, No Light – Florence + The Machine
Wipe Your Eyes – Maroon 5

Sean
Explosions in the Sky – Your Hand in Mine
Third Eye Blind – Motorcycle Drive-By
The Format – She Doesn’t Get It
Blink-182 – Dammit
The Presidents of The United States of America – Peaches

In the internship and job application processes within the Communications industry, it is crucial to have a strong and professional online and social media presence but it is crucial that you are consistently branding yourself. Increasingly, employers are turning to the internet to research candidates. However, with the overwhelming amounts of information online, your name can get buried, or even worse, confused with someone else.

You don’t want employers thinking that you are something you’re not, especially when they think you have a criminal background when the worst you’ve done is forget to use a turn signal that one time! That’s exactly what happened to the founder of BrandYourself.com, a site committed to helping individuals manage their online presence and search engine results. 

We decided to research ourselves, to think like recruiters and analyze our name’s search engine results. To narrow down the field we searched our names and included our school names.

Sean hit the name jackpot. There’s not that many Sean Tubridys out there so most of the results on the first page pertained to his LinkedIn and Twitter account or were about his study abroad experience. However, during his school career he competed in several advertising competitions and there was no mention of that on the results page. He would benefit from making links to articles about his teams’ successes and helping those links to reach the first page. 

Skye Gould is also a pretty original name (lucky!). Most of Skye’s results were about her contributions to album artwork, which is perfect as she is a graphic designer. Her Twitter page also showed up as well as the article about The Brandtern Experience. One problem though was that her portfolio page, which is crucial for employers to see, was not visible through the search engine search. That’s something that needs to be fixed. 

Now onto the not so lucky ones. 

Dave Felt: Dave is a standard first name and unfortunately his last name is interpreted as a verb in the search process. This clutters his results with interviews with other Dave’s saying how they “felt.” His LinkedIn Profile and Twitter accounts are present on the first page so that is a good thing, but much more results such as press he has received and his other social media sites such as his Visual CV should be coming up. Employers need to be able to see his online presence much more clearly, otherwise he may fall into the “maybe” pile. No one wants to end up there.  

Finally to Kelsey Miller. With Kelsey being one of the most popular baby names from the 90’s and Miller being the third most popular last name in the U.S., “Kelsey Miller” is possibly one of the most generic names out there besides Jane Doe. Adding her school name Syracuse to the end does help to clarify the results but even at that many results for Kelsey’s and Miller’s (a lot of athletes specifically) turn up on the first page. Also, she has given opinions to her school newspaper on topics like the basketball team or her favorite type of Pita and frozen yogurt. Recruiters don’t care. She could really use search engine optimization to push those articles down the page and bring forward articles that discuss her successes. 

So whether you’re plagued by a generic name or even if you’re one of the lucky ones with a unique one, you need to check out your online presence and what search results recruiters are seeing. Check out BrandYourself.com or other sites like it to make sure you’re putting the best of you out there!

The past few weeks at G+D have been extremely busy and exciting! I have been able to work a lot of different projects and even went to a photo shoot for one of our clients, Gabriel Brothers.
 
During a typical workday, I make design revisions to different pieces for many of the agency’s clients. I have had the amazing opportunity to also create some ads myself. A few weeks ago I was able to participate in the brainstorming and creation of some ads that will run at a major  summer event which is sponsored every year by our client. This was a great experience to work with the creative team from start to finish on a project.
 
When I went on the photo shoot for Gabriel Brothers I was able to see first-hand the long process of a creating the “Back To School” campaign for the clothing store. I was able to help behind the scenes as well. From steaming clothes to setting up props for the different scenes, I definitely got a full experience of the production side.
 
I can’t believe we only have a few weeks left as Brandterns, but we have some exciting projects and opportunities coming up that I look forward to!