Closing Post

Hi everyone!

I don't know if anyone is going to check the blog anymore so chances are that no one is going to read this post. Anyway, I really glad that I took this class. I definitely learned a lot of valuable information from working at the UT while gaining some experience. It has been a little over a week now since I interviewed with them. I think the interview process went well, and at the very least it was good experience. Even though I am a senior, I still have one more semester to complete in the fall. For this reason, I don't know if the UT is very interested in hiring me if they are looking for someone to work full time. At this time, I haven't heard anything from the UT. It sounded like everyone had a good interview experience. Has anyone heard from the UT? I figured that maybe the person they are going to hire has been informed, but maybe they haven't decided yet.

I think that this class was a great opportunity and I hope that is offered for future students. There are definitely some areas that could be improved upon, but for the first time I thought it went fairly well. I'm sure that this class will get better each year as long as it is offered. Thank you Professor Ehrich for making this class possible! I hope finals are going well for everyone.

Have a great summer vacation!

ArtWalk and Interview

Artwalk: Overall the artwalk was a great experience! It was alot different than I expected it to be. The UT did not use our ideas at there booth which was somewhat disappointing instead, they kept the same things from the year before plus the photo contest. I had fun interacting with the people who came and working with the USD students!

Interview: Interview was super short. They asked me to describe myself and my experience at the UT. I told them I already have an internship with Fox News so they pretty much new I was taken.

Working with the UT was a great experience, they help me assure that I do want to go into Media Advertising! I had a blast working with the students in the class, meet SO many amazing people! Hope everyone has a wonderful summer!!!

Interview

The interview went really well! A question I definitely need to better prepare for is "tell me about yourself" but other than that they just asked what aspects of UTSD I would be interested in working in, how i enjoyed the company and then they asked me about my resume - specially about my Telefunding experience. They were very direct and to the point with their questions - not too extensive but I was able to tell them exactly the positions I would be interested in and how I would better the company. A good experience overall.

Last Post!

Hi all,

Can't believe this class and our time at the UT is already done! It's been a great experience and I'm so happy we had the opportunity to work with a company and experience their everyday tasks and what they do. It was an interesting experience from start to finish and I felt like I gained a lot of work knowledge from this opportunity. Hope everyone did well in their interviews this week. Huge thanks to Professor Ehrich for teaching/guiding this course and getting us connected with the UT :)

That's all for now! Have a great summer everyone - you too Professor Ehrich!!

Sarah

Final Post!

This week on Monday I went in for my interview with UT San Diego. The following is a copy of the job description I sent them on Friday:

"With internet usage now being an integral part of our work at U-T San Diego, we are working to expand our use of social media as a promotion tool for our products and services. We are looking for hard working, creative individuals to be a part of our exciting, fast-paced team that is growing and changing, while still remaining San Diego’s primary source of news and information.

Our goal is to use social media to tap into a new, younger market to build upon our current subscriber base. To do this, we are looking for someone to fulfill the role of social media manager. This position will be integral in using social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to unify our brand and the online products they offer. This position will also strive to maximize our potential in promoting brand awareness and marketing through social media channels."

I also included job descriptions, expectations etc. I had scheduled to come later on Monday (at 1 pm) instead of noon as requested due to my internship schedule in the morning. They were flexible in this, and as the last one I interviewed at around 1:30 pm. I think they may have been more casual for mine, as they realized how many juniors there were as well as seniors with jobs lined up already. They just asked me about my interest in event management, and once they realized I had a job lined up for the fall just asked me about my plans for the summer and we hung out. 

I just wanted to throw out the fact that although I have forgotten a few blog posts, I have attended all of our UT meetings, only missing the Art Walk for a prior engagement. I've enjoyed the class, and think it has lots of potential! Thank you Prof. Ehrich for organizing this :)

Final Post!

Today was the last day at UT. We had to write job descriptions then come in an interview for the job we designed! Personally, I interviewed for a paid intern position since I am a junior and still have one more year at USD. The position I designed primarily dealt with the local colleges. I wanted to work on the new college section on their website. To help create the information for students who are wanting to come to college in San Diego to be able to clearly see the differences and similarities of the main schools here. I also wanted to help with advertising different UT sponsored events and daily deals that pertain to college students at the schools. I would attended college events and give out UT related information. I also really want to learn more about Digital Marketing and Advertising and would like to learn about that from people at UT.
Dan was in charge of the interviews, I personally interviewed for him and two others. They asked me general questions about my personality and internships and jobs I have had in the past. They also went in depth about what I liked about the UT internship. I personally liked the sales rotation and told them why.
This was a great class and experience! Thanks for setting it up Prof E!

Final Week!

So our internship/the school year is coming to an end! Crazy how fast the semester went by.  A couple weekends ago, we all worked at the Little Italy Artwalk, which seemed to be a great success for the UT.  Tons of people filled the streets of Little Italy, and it showed that as parking could not be found anywhere! Haha.  I worked the first shift on Saturday.  It seemed to be a bit slower at first, but as time went by and it got closer to lunch time more people began to stop by the booth to spin for prizes and take funny photos in front of the backdrop.  I think for next year if they do the photo idea again they need to have some sort of sign that says that the picture taking is free/make sure people say that it is.  I know many people I talked to thought you had to pay.  Other than that it seemed to turn out well and it was nice to see many of our ideas implemented into the event!

This past Monday I had my interview.  It was nice to talk with them about the internship as a whole as well as have the opportunity to interview for a job position.  I don’t know when we will find out what happens next, but I cant wait.  Though some things did go differently than I thought for this class, I really enjoyed taking it and think that it is beneficial for everyone to take, just for the experience alone.  Its was great to work in so many departments and being able to put the UT on your resume is not something everyone can do.  I'm looking forward to hearing from the UT team, as many of you all are too… Hope you all have a great summer and CONGRATS to everyone that is graduating!  :) :)

Final Post

This was our last week at the UT. On Monday my group went through interviews. It was a good experience being interviewed by a panel. I am really grateful for the experience of working at the UT this semester. It has provided a lot of insight into working for a larger, well established company.

Good luck to all of the graduating seniors!!

Final Blog!

I cannot believe this will be our last post! 

Looking back on the semester, I am so glad I took this class. The experience was very valuable in many ways, most of which we discussed in class. While the UT was not always that organized, they did a great job considering there were so many of us. I think it was also great experience in dealing with work situations that are not always perfect. This was the perfect class to take as a graduating senior. It got me excited to work, and provided me a class that I was able to be fully engaged in as a senior. 

I cant wait to hear about the interviews! 

Thanks for a great semester everyone! 

Resume & Job Description

Final Preparation Week

Sorry I forgot to post last week!

Last week we met and were given promotional materials for the Art Walk. I posted them in our residence halls on campus, and also put out a couple Facebook posts for the event. Although I was not able to attend as I was out of town for a family event, I hope the event went well.

This week we are preparing for our interviews. I sent my job description to Dan- the template he gave us was very helpful. I will be going in on Monday afternoon to complete my interview.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Almost final week

Hello!

This week started calmer, since we didn't have to go to the UTSD offices on monday and instead went to class and talked about our experience in the UT and our opinions of the class. I felt that all of us liked the experience of working for a real company and have taken a lot of positive things from our stay, but at the same time, are also a little bit disappointed about the little planning and organization that the company has had during this semester.

Dan has sent us an email with our next homework. We have to develop a job description of our "ideal" position in the UT San Diego for next friday. He has sent us a template on which he wants us to base our description. Next week, we will all be interviewed regarding our job descriptions and we must explain them why we believe this is the perfect position for us.

Although not everyone will be interested in conducting the interviews, I do think it is something worth doing, especially because rejecting a job interview nowadays when the economy is not as good as it used to, is not a good idea. This experience will definitely help us practice our interview skills and be better in this aspect.

Next week is the last one! The semester has just flied through...!!

Art Walk Recap

I worked Saturday morning, and I must say, the art walk itself was a really neat event. I enjoyed the opportunity to stroll around and admire some of the great art local artists were displaying. For our actual booth, it was really fun interacting with the people who passed by. Their enthusiasm when spinning the prize wheel was very entertaining. One lady got so into it that that wheel broke off its stand and fell off the table!
The backdrop that they put up featured a collage of various submissions for the Show us Your San Diego Contest. Most of the people declined our offer to take their picture, but the ones who did seemed to have fun posing with the props (stick on mustaches, giant sunglasses, leis, and beach balls).
My biggest complaint is how weak the booth felt compared to what we had originally envisioned. When we presented at UT back in March, I was under the impression they were going to follow through with our ideas and really make the booth something special. Instead, they seemed to do what was easier and only do the contest while leaving everything else the same as previous years.

Art Walk

I worked the morning shift on Saturday for the ArtWalk this past weekend. I have never been to this event so it was cool to see it for the first time. There were a lot of us working the Saturday morning shift, and overall I had a good time. I was surprised that there was only one U-T employee working during our shift. I did not know they were relying on us so much for this event. At first things were a little hectic, but it got better as the day went on. I felt like they didn't give us a lot of direction as far as what was expected of us. For example, I thought they would be trying to get people to sign up for subscriptions during the ArtWalk, but all we did was try and collect emails. There was only one iPad at the event to collect the emails, and I felt this was inefficient. Many of the people waiting in line to spin the prize wheel would leave because it took so long to move people through the line during busier times. I also felt like the U-T booth wasn't as attractive as it could have been. The U-T backdrop used to take the pictures turned out really well and attracted many people to the booth, but other than that the booth was plain. I think it could have displayed some more artwork or something could have beed done to make the booth more attractive.

Overall, the event was fun and I enjoyed walking around a little bit after my shift ended. I knew there was a lot of people who were going to attend, but I was still surprised at how many people came. I interacted with a lot of the people in attendance because for a good part of my shift I was trying to collect peoples emails so that they could spin the prize wheel. There was some rejection, but a lot of people found the prizes cool enough to give up their email.

It seems that there is only one more thing left on the agenda for the semester. All we have to do now is write a job description and interview with the U-T and they will decided who will be offered a job. I will see you all in class soon.

Art Walk

The Art Walk was a very cool event! The UT banner turned out great, everyone loved taking pictures with it and the props. While I was at the event I helped get people to come to the booth and take pictures, especially families with kids! Next I worked on walking around with the I Pad getting peoples emails to sign up for the daily deals! This had a good amount of rejection but I still got a good amount of emails. Finally I worked the spin wheel and gave out the take away prizes and the entries. I think the booth was a success and that everything went smooth! Good work everyone!

This weekend was the artwalk!! I got to go help during the first shift on saturday, from 11 to 2 in the morning. The artwalk was very nice, I loved it. There were people all over the place, the weather was very nice and so was the ambiance. I'm very glad I went.

At the UT booth, we were actually a lot of us. We were in charge of having people sign up to receive the UT San Diego online emails. Once they did that, they were allowed to spin the "prize wheel" . If they got a color, they could get to pick anything from the table in the booth (pens, balls, tatoos, etc.). There were also three possibilities of getting into a contest to win tickets for either a Padres game, a Cirque del Soleil show or a Sushi menu.

The public who attended the booth were actually quite happy and engaged with our activites. They could aslo have the change to get a picture taken with a background frame composed of a series of pictures of San Diego. There were necklesses and sunglasses, among others, to make the picture funnier.

We also tried to explain the people what UTSD is and respresents, and I think we did a good job overall.

See you this week!!

UTSD

This week is the last before the big art walk event. I'm very excited to see UTSD's marketing and promotion strategies in action. They requested us this week to write down our ideal job if we did decide to work at the Union Tribune and bring in our resume to prepare for a mock interview. This will be amazing practice for how a real interview with a company would proceed. I very much enjoyed our most recent project of revamping an area of the website, so having a sort of research and developement job for the company with promoting events and nightlife would be ideal if I did decide to work there. Understanding how social media is carefully constructed to capture the consumer's attention is something that fascinates me because they become highly involved with the company through online channels without even noticing. It's made me very conscious of seeing what works and what doesnt with a website and attracting cliental (especially seeing the Discover SD sight in the beginning of the year and now how much it has changed.) Looking forward to the art walk this weekend!

TJ's Artwalk Week 1 of 2

Hello! We got today off since we are going to have to work a shift at the ArtWalk this weekend, and I'm excited to finally see how the event plays out. Many of our collaborative ideas have been implemented during the preparation stage and I'm hoping that the fruits of our labor will be evident during the weekend! I also look forward to the event because I'll be able to get some 1 on 1 interaction with the managers who will be running it, since I'm the only student who signed up for the saturday evening time slot (this may or may not have been on purpose :)). I'm also hoping this means there will be less downtime and standing around as I look forward to being heavily involved with the execution of the event. Below is the promotional package they gave us:

Part 2 coming right after the event! Check back soon!

-TJ

4/25/2012

It was another shore week at the UT. We all signed up for the shift that we want to do at the San Diego art walk and talked about our duties to drive potential customers to the table by going out and finding them. I'm going to be doing the morning shift on Saturday, I'm pretty sure it will be a fun time ! 
also we have to write our perfect job description for what we would want to do at the UT. I'm having a hard time trying to decide what i liked the most  because every section appealed to me in different ways. After we write these job descriptions we will have to interview which I'm not worried about at all, because we have spent enough time around the UT employees for me to feel comfortable talking with them. well hope to see you guys at the art walk ! have a great week

Week 11

This was another short week at the UT. On Monday we met on the 5th floor and got briefed on the Little Italy Art Walk this weekend. We're each going to work a three hour shift and get to interact with potential customers.

Dan also explained our final project. I think it'll be a great opportunity for us to explain to them where we see ourselves fitting in at the UT and the potential long-term role we could have in the company.

Week of 22

This week was a short week since we did not meet on Wednesday.

On Monday, we were given out last assignment which is to write our job description just as Rachel explained below. I am excited to be able to write out what I would want to do a the UT! and it will be a great learning experience to be interviewed by the company!

UT next weekend! cant believe it came up so fast!

Art Walk Discussion

This week at the UT we discussed what will go on at the Art Walk and what our jobs will be.  I can’t believe it came up so quick, which means that the end of the semester is also creeping up on us!  I’m excited to see the booth in action and everything we have been talking about along the way.

As for next week, I know we have a class meeting coming up, but we are also supposed to be working on our job descriptions (the ‘ideal’ job we would be looking for at the UT).   And then Dan mentioned that we would be interviewed for positions soon! 

Looking forward to the Art Walk this weekend!! I will be working the Saturday 11 o’clock shift.  Don’t forget to hand out the flyers and tell all your friends!!! :) 

Art Walk Week!

So this week the Art Walk is finally here! As you all we know we got the fliers to pass around on campus and I was thinking of putting them up in the bathroom stalls. Those fliers always seem to be seen :) I also plan to make announcements in my classes. Hopefully we can generate a lot of interest and get a good student turn out at the event. I am excited to work the event. I went sophomore year and it was a lot of fun. I'm hoping to at least get my friends to stop by. I think the photo collage concept it also really cool. I'm sure the pictures will turn out great! If anyone wants to carpool to the event or needs a ride let me know (obviously depending on shifts). I think it will be great to see how this turns out, hopefully the people at U-T will be happy with our contributions. I know we don't have to go in on Weds. so I guess I will see you all this weekend!

Art Walk

In class we divided up shifts for our booth at the Art Walk! I have never been before and am excited to attend on sunday. I think it will be a fun experience. It will be really cool to see how UT implemented our ideas into the booth. I think the theme is really good and will definitely attract people to the booth!
At UT we also discussed what we will be doing after the Art Walk is over. UT wants us to bring in our resumes and write out the job description we think we would have if we worked for UT. I am wondering what sort of positions you all are applying for?

Hello!

As previously posted, there is not much to say about this week. Today we all met at UT San Diego in order to talk about the ArtWalk. They have talked a little bit about the booth, and have asked us to write about this event on facebook/twitter as well as pass out several flyers promoting the event. They have also told us that they will send us all an email with all the information regarding the event, the times we should be there, etc.

Also, Dan has talked us about our "final project", consisting in explaining what our drem job in UT would be and then they will interview us. As Dan has said, although we don't get hired or we are not interested in the job, it is definitely a good experience and we will probably learn a lot from it. He hasn't mentioned the deadline for this project, but he will also send us further information by email.

Finally, I would like to mention that I found one of the flyers they handed out very similar to the "discover San Diego" idea that my group and another one developed for our presentations. It was nice to see that our work has been useful for them!

Preparing for the Art Walk

This week was a short week (as we're not going to the UT Wednesday). Today we went over the basic logistics for the upcoming ArtWalk in Little Italy this weekend and what's going to be at the booth, etc. We were given a packet and asked to post one or two times on our personal Facebook/Twitter accounts about the ArtWalk to try and spread the word. They also gave us flyers to pass out around school to try and accumulate more buzz for the event. Supposedly there's thousands of people estimated to come through for both Saturday and Sunday so it should be great! Also today we were given brief instructions about our final project which will be to create a job description for the ideal position we would like to work at the UT and submit it by email, then the UT will schedule an interview with us and we will be interviewed for a potential position with the company and be asked why we wrote the description that we did and how we think we'll be beneficial to the company as a whole. I can't believe this semester is almost done, it went by so quick! That's all for this week :) -Sarah

Hi group !

I'm sorry I just totally forgot to write on wednesday because of the Dalai Lama event and then it came out of my mind ! Actually the content team made us come earlier so that we can give them our projects before going to the Dalai Lama event on the campus. I covered an event on the campus, the week of sexual assault awareness. Unfortunately there were very few people on the day I was supposed to take pictures and make interviews so I had to come back on the second day to talk to people who were members of the commitee of volunteers for the event. It was interesting and I had the opportunity to take some good pictures but not as exciting as some other events covered by my team like Devyn's event which was Coachella Festival ! Anyway I think it was interesting to cover an event about an important issue even if people in USD were not very involved during the two first days. Members of the commitee told me that the big event of the week was on thursday because there was a march around campus and a candlelight vigil but I wasn't there so I don't know if a lot of people came..

I think that they will give our work back to us on monday and they told us that we may participate in a training program for the event of the end of the month.

I just realized that I won't be able to make it because I subscribed to go to a trip with other international students on the 28th of April so I hope our participation is not that important and that it will be okay for them if I can't make it.

See you tomorrow !

marketing week 2

This was a really short week, because of the dalai lama coming to campus. I made my final presentation for my suggestions to improve the classified section on the website. i was really impressed with the website overall so my improvements were small but i felt that they could make a real difference in the user experience. From being around and involved in the car scene my suggestions centered around selling ad space to custom shops on cars and trucks that are popular to tune up. Also I gave some advice on how to attract more private sellers, which would a attract more buys who know that they can get a better price compared to buying from a dealer. I'm really excited for the art walk next week end ! see you guys on Monday

Week of 16

This week was a short week since we did not meet on wednesday because of the Dali Lama. Monday we all presented our marketing presentations, which was amazing! Everyone had great ideas that would be super beneficial to their websites. For my segment everyone really liked they should add a under 21 tab for in the discover san diego website. This would attract the freshmen-jr rang of college students who are unable to attend 21+ events. As a result, they may continue to use the website a recourse once they are 21+. I can't wait to see how different all the segments look once they add in everyone's ideas

UTSD

This week we did the final presentation for our individual projects. They seemed to be really impressed with our research and critique on how to improve the website. I really enjoyed getting a chance to have a project to work on with an actual company and use my own knowledge on how to attract more people and keep them hooked to the website. My idea was to make the website more personal - the consumer would make a their own account and keep tabs on their night life history and agenda on the UTSD site and be able to upload photos and compare social events with friends. This also ties in the theme of "discovering SD" where they would be able to see more of what SD has to offer by following what events their friends go to and are motivated to try something new. I really liked this project and would not mind having a position similar to this in an actual job.

Final Content Day

Today was our groups final day in the content rotation. We were asked to cover an event, and given the same syllabus as the previous groups. For the event we had to tweet at least 7 times, submit our three best photos, and write a report. Today we reviewed all the aspects of our assignment. I covered the 2012 Student Composers Concert that took place yesterday. Michael Price commented on all of the pieces of my project. Apparently my article was well written and my tweets were good as well. The only thing lacking were my photos. It was a concert so it was hard to try and take pictures without disturbing the performance so I was not able to take many photos and the ones I took did not come out very well. Overall, I enjoyed being in this rotation. It definitely was a rewarding experience even though it was stressful at times. It's hard to enjoy an event when you have to worry about tweeting, taking photos, and interviewing people.

I noticed that Briana commented about the lack of communication regarding the Art Walk. Our group (social media) submitted our ideas to the UT over a week ago and we have not heard any response. All parts of our project need to be approved by the UT before we can put them into action. I am also slightly worried since the Art Walk is only a week and a half away. I hope they get back to us soon. We were also talking to Michael Price today and he asked if we were going to be trained. I feel like there is a lot that we need to cover still before pulling off the Art Walk.

Sales Week 2- Group 2

I'm so sorry not to have posted a blog last week, but last week was pretty uneventful. We had Monday off for Easter break, and then when we went in on Wednesday no one had anyone for us to report to, and Dan was out of the office so we weren't able to talk to him. So we ended up leaving without talking to anyone.

Mackenzie emailed Dan over the weekend, and he was able to put us in contact with someone to meet on Monday. We met and were able to see all of the different sales presentations that UT San Diego uses to sell newspaper/product advertisements to companies. It was really interesting! They talked about how the major advantage of the newspaper is its reach, as the paper reaches thousands and thousands of people per edition. He showed us all of the different options for advertisements that companies had, and all of the options companies had in terms of the type of products they want to use as advertising mediums. This ranged from the UT App, the paper, the website, the billboards on the side of the building, etc. The sales rep we met with was very interesting in explaining that a salesperson not only has to sell the product, but has to consult with the consumer and sell the right product that fits their needs. He emphasized the importance of finding the advertising method that will be most successful for the company, as it produces results and encourages them to come back.

This improved my perspective on sales a little bit, and the advice he gave us was great. Unfortunately we told them that we could not shadow sales calls today, since the Dalai Llama was speaking and we had tickets. However, we are hoping that after the Art Walk next weekend we are able to follow up with the Sales Dept. and schedule a time to see them at work.

Regarding the Art Walk, have any of the groups received any guidance on planning for this? Our group was in charge of promoting on campus, but they haven't provided us with any copy to submit to the University for approval like they said they would. I'm getting a little worried since it's a week and a half away. Any updates??

Content week 2

Today at the UT we wrapped up our final rotation, the last day in Content. We did not have class on Monday, but instead were assigned a project as a reporter. We were asked to select a local event and provide news coverage on it. We would tweet about it, take photographs and then write a news journal on it. I really enjoyed this rotation. It was incredibly well organized and I learned so much from it. They provided us with a syllabus and instruction manual of how to cover an event and the importance of journalism within the marketing profession. I personally covered the PB Farmer's Market and thoroughly enjoyed being able to connect with a news event. I have had a wonderful experience throughout this rotation!

Sean Sales

Hello guys! So This week we had presentations, I was able to see everyones prior to this week and everyones looked really nice. Mine was to deal with UT San Diego and Discover SD Events. What I did was look at all the online Events that they had to offer. It was real interesting to know how many events they take part in. There is for sure some areas that could use help, but I worked on saying the things I liked and didn't like. I also went to Coachella this weekend, and it was amazing! I hope everyone that did went or is going this weekend has a blast!

This week we are presenting our projects to the content department. As I explained in my last post, we had to cover an event through a photographic, narrative, and social media report. I decided to cover the V2 pitch deck competition at the IPJ at USD that took place last thursday. I'm taking a Business Plan Competition class, so I was actually quite aware and interested in the event. It was fun since I did not only attend the event as a normal student, but I also had a kind of "journalist" role in it. I was actually quite busy during the event, due to the fact that I had to be tweeting, taking pictures, and also observing and writting down any interesting information I could include in my narrative report.

This activity has been of great help in order to understand what a journalist does. I find their job very interesting and harder than I thought. A lot of research is needed and we must be clear and objective when expressing the information, which is not always easy.

The ArtWalk is getting closer! I'm excited about that! I hope your weeks are good!

Week 10

This week was a pretty short week at the UT. On Monday we presented the final draft of our project for the marketing section of the class. My presentation was on the UT San Diego Deals and the DiscoverSD Insider Hook-up. After presenting the rough draft last week, my advertising class heard a presentation from an advertising exec from NBC San Diego. He introduced some interesting ideas regarding daily deal sites, as NBC San Diego has their own site called The Goods. He explained that since media viewing is so fragmented, the best way to reach an audience is through multi-platform marketing. NBC San Diego advertises their deals not only on their website, but also in three different time slots during the morning news. This not only increases awareness of the site in general, but also specific deals, benefitting both client and customer. I believe that the UT needs to utilize this idea of multi-platform marketing, and advertise their deals in both print and online, encouraging individuals (like my mom) who read the Union Tribune, but didn't know about the deals, to go online and check them out!

Marketing Presentations

This week we did our final marketing presentations.  I just took the feedback I got from the rough one last week and put that into my final presentation.  And of course added pictures/logos/slide layouts/etc.  Overall I think everyone’s presentations turned out very well and Dan seemed to like the feedback we gave from all of them.  If you have not seen already, there are so many changes going on with both the UT and DSD websites daily.  It was funny, I went on last week to gather info for my presentation and then went on again this weekend and so many things were different, I was a bit confused haha.  It is so great to see that some of our ideas are being put into effect.  I know that looking at the website now from when we started already shows great improvement.  For my presentation I researched and talked about UT and DSD’s social media.  I really liked how easy the sites were to find from the websites themselves, but there was a bit of difficulty when going straight from the social media sites, just because there are so many different pages.  They have already started to consolidate, but I know they can take it down even more.  As for keeping people interested, they need to create humor whenever possible, make people curious, and keep it interactive.  This will drive people back to the page to see more.

No meeting at UT on Wednesday because of the Dalai Llama, but we will resume on Monday.  For now my group needs to start thinking more on what props we want to include at the Little Italy Art Walk Event’s photo booth at the end of the month!  Hope you all have a great week, ENJOY the sunshine!! :)

MKTG Presentations

We did our Marketing Presentations yesterday. I presented on the contest sites for UT and DiscoverSD. The main topics I discussed were ease of access, how to sign up, reach of contest, and marketing ideas. UT and DiscoverSD both excelled in different places here. UT was much easier to access. When google searching contests in san diego, the UT site is the first link to pop up where as DiscoverSD is the third link, the San Diego Reader site is second. Also on the UT site you can find the link to concerts under entertainment, which is logical and simple to find. Whereas the DiscoverSD concert link is very difficult to find on the site and is not easy to access.
Under how to sign up I talked about the information they had to give out to sign up. UT contests you have to register which may detour people from signing up for the contest, whereas DiscoverSD you can choose to check a box to become a DiscoverSD insider.
Under reach I talked about how they need to use their social media sites more to promote their contests. They should post the contests as status on the UT and DiscoverSD sites. Also to have the contests interact more by having people upload pictures for things like photo contests up on Facebook.
Finally for Marketing Ideas I think that the use of radio to broadcast certain contest such as a concert ticket prize needs to be utilized more. I also think they need more big ticket prizes that will go viral via facebook such as Coachella tickets. Anything that sells out quickly should be considered as a prize possibility especially for UT were you have people subscribe because those prizes are an even bigger incentive.

Marketing Presentations

Today was our presentation day for our Marketing Plan. I had the brand new UT San Diego Pets (Scratch & Sniff) section which I thought was really great and specifically geared towards pet lovers. An interesting statistic I found while working on my presentation was that last year Americans spent over $50 billion dollars on pets and also that in 2010, USA Today found that more households in America had dogs than children. So, all in all it's clear to see that the pet industry is a booming business so I think it's really great the UT is putting out this weekly section for the pet lovers of San Diego. All the presentations went really well today, everyone had such great ideas for their sections and I hope that the UT will really look further into these suggestions and maybe even put some of our ideas into action. Presentations took up the whole time today and Wednesday we're not meeting due to the Dalai Lama presentation on campus. However, next Monday we'll be meeting back with the Marketing department one last time for one final individual project they told us today. I'm excited for the remainder of our time there. It's definitely been much different than I anticipated it to be, but definitely interesting material all around. Great job on presentations today! -Sarah

Sales Group

Today Group 2 got a sales overview, which was really interesting. We went over different PowerPoints that highlighted the various aspects of sales at UT. What I found the most interesting was the amount of reach that newspaper still gets even though everyone talks about how print is declining. I was skeptical, however, about the facts regarding the decline in TV watchers versus newspaper readers.

It was fascinating learning about the different ad spaces available. The online space has room for 3 ads on the page, whereas the mobile site only has room for one. The mobile site ad will be more beneficial because it is the only ad on the page. Strategic placement of the ads is key. I learned that it is important to know your client and be able to tell which ads and which ad space will be the most profitable for their business.

On Wednesday we will be meeting about the marketing for the art walk. Hopefully some of my questions will be cleared up about what exactly they are wanting us to do for that.

Night and Day Entertainment

Today, we gave our individual presentations on certain aspects of the UTSD website we were instructed to research and adjust. Mine was the "Night and Day Entertainment" part. My theme was to make the UTSD website similar to some of the more popular websites among the younger demographic. First off - to appeal to our generation, UTSD needs to advertise on facebook but with the events as the hook (for example: COACHELLA TICKETS CONTEST, and once they hook the consumer, they will stumble upon the UTSD sight. Second, I noticed that having a membership to UTSD doesnt mean anything and the "create account" icon is in the top right corner and barely noticable. What UTSD needs to do is make the website more exclusive - basically leaving some to the imagination of what it offers until the individual signs up. Once they do, they can check mark their interests so that UTSD has a direction with what to promote to them and a database of what they have been to and what they would want to go to in the future. Third, they should have it be like a private website for the person to keep tabs on their events and see what is up and coming as well as see where their friends go... leading them to "discover SD" because people do what their friends like to become more involved in social circles. By these three ideas, UTSD could make great improvements on its popularity and success.

Hi group !

Today in the content team, we talked about how to use twitter and about how photojournalism works ! I think this was very interesting as I have never used this social media and as I have never heard about photojournalism. I don't know yet what event I am going to cover, I think it's too bad that we have to work in the content team until wednesday because as you may know the Dalai Lama is coming to USD this same wednesday and it would have been a great event to cover.. Anyway I will try to find something interesting to attend to in order to have fun in this project and I hope that it won't be too hard to write an article in English as it's not my native language..

We have sent our first ideas for the use of social media for the event, such as to create a facebook page, to upload the pictures and make people vote for them, to have a twitter account or to make a facebook event.

I hope you are enjoying what you are doing in your teams !

Have a good end of week !

Marketing Week 2

This week we didn't have a whole lot going on as we didn't go to the UT on Monday due to Easter Break. Our rough drafts for our presentations were due today and I'm excited to see what everyone has to offer next Monday when we present. Unfortunately, the guidelines for the presentation were very vague, I was slightly confused of what exactly they wanted us to do and what to include in the powerpoint. The division of the UT that I'm evaluating is the weekly Pets Page which is very new (only 2 weeks old) and comes out in the UT every Saturday. In my powerpoint I discuss likes/dislikes, competitors and how they can get more traffic through the pets page on the UT Website and also how they can get more people to pay attention to and read the pets page each Saturday. Hopefully this is what they're looking for in the presentation as it was very unclear what exactly we were to do. More to come next week! -Sarah

Sales Rotation

Although they didn't have anything for us to do today in our Sales rotation, our meet last week with Kevin from the Sales department proved to be very informative. He gave us what he called his "sales speil" that explained the basic formula of a sales pitch and how it can even be applied during interviews. Kevin was obviously excited to help us understand the basics of selling something to an audience or an individual and did a great job applying it towards what we might expect during future interviews. One thing that he emphasized that I found particularly interesting was the need to ask questions. When making a sale this helps establish the need for the customer and allows us to understand what they are really looking for and how the product might help them. In an interview he explained how asking specific, interesting and well thought out questions can help show the employer that you are really interested in their company and can also reflect motivation to do well. This meeting was one of the most enjoyable times that I have had at U-T because Kevin was so genuinely excited about helping us succeed. He was helpful and certainly motivational and reminded us the importance of following our passion. It does not seem that we will have much more to do in the Sales department, so I am excited to continue working on the Art Walk event and making it the best event that we can! Have a nice week everyone!

Draft presentations

Today we presented rough draft presentations for the marketing rotation. This rotation is much more disorganized and unclear than the previous rotations. Their expectations for the rough drafts were very unclear. I had hoped there would have been more of a lesson prior to creating the presentations. It would have been helpful to have guidelines to follow. I am excited to see what everyone come up with for their assignments (even though we heard most of the ideas today)! My assignment is to come up with a marketing plan for the regular UT website. I plan to focus on how they can get people to read more articles per month, increase interaction with readers and increase subscriptions. Additionally I will focus on my initial impressions as a site visitor. More to come next week!

Week 9

This week we only met at the UT once due to Easter break. Today we presented our rough ideas for the marketing group. All of the presentations today were great and I can't wait to see how they turn out next week! My presentation, like I talked about last week, was on UT San Diego Deals and DiscoverSD Insider Hookup. I talked about what I liked and disliked about each site, their national and local competitors, and devised a marketing plan that I think would be able to help them increase traffic to their site.

Marketing week 2 4/11

hey everybody ! I have be assigned to evaluate the classifieds, with emphasizing auto and real estate. I was really impressed with the UT classified web page. the lay out was really easy to use. I think it impressed me because I was thinking about comparing it to craigslist, but what i found that it was more on the level of cars.com or autotrader.com. The lay out was great and it was really easy to navigate. Also i liked the amount of information offered to the customer. all the cars offered had links to Kelly Blue Book reviews and car facts vehicle history reports. i do a lot of looking for cars for modifications, so i made some suggestions to sell ads to costume shops on certain cars and motorcycles that are popular for lift kits, tinted windows, exhaust systems or air intake systems. i felt that this could really boost ad revenue and traffic to the website from local people looking to tune up their rides. i need to do a lot of work on my power point before next week but im really excited to see how it all turns out .
                       have a great week everyone !!

Week of April 11

We only meet once this week-today. Everyone in the marketing group presented their rough draft in front of 4 of the UT workers, including Dan. Everyone did a great job and had amazing new ideas to better each of their segments. They expect our presentations to be even better on Monday. For my segment- DSD: It was hard to give new ideas since they have basically perfected the website now! it is seriously so amazing compared to what it was before at the beginning of the semester. But I do have a few suggestions and hope that they like them!

Today my group (4) continued with the content deparment. They gave us more insights and information regarding journalism, photography, twitter, etc. These were of great help since it is something very new to me. I just created my twitter account! I found a lot of friends that are using it. I thought I would only create it for this class but maybe I will actually stay with it.

Our challenge is to now find an event to cover. I have a few ideas so I will just decide one and start working on it. We have to do a narrative, social media, and photographic report, quite complete, so I think we will learn a lot out of it.

A thing I found funny is that they told us that the groups who have been working with them previously tended to try to "promote" their events in some way. They told us that that is normal taking into account that we are studying marketing. However, we have to go away of this trend and try to just simply state the truth, being objective and not trying to sell anything.

I will let you know how it goes!!

Week of April 11

Hi Group!

Well, looks like Group 2 had an easy week this week. Last week, we had a brief Sales 101 pitch. This week, we did not have any direction because it seemed that people in charge of our projects were either late or not in today.

I wanted to get a little bit of insight into what other groups are doing as far as marketing for the event in a couple of weeks. Our group is in charge of marketing on campus, but maybe there is some way that we can collaborate and be more efficient?

Have a great week!

marketing week2

This week we had a shorter week due to the Easter break, so the blog posts will probably be a bit shorter!  But throughout the week my group has been working on their individual marketing plans.  I am working on what UT and DSD can do to increase awareness on their social media pages (such as likes on facebook etc).  To start I made some observations on what they already have that is both good and bad.  I found that the sites were very easy to find from the direct link they have on the UTsandiego site as well as the DSD site.  If someone were to go directly from the social media site itself that is when there might be more of a problem.  I then made some recommendations to improve their sites.  One, which we have already talked about in class is consolidating the amount of pages they have out there.  Having one page for each site would probably be most beneficial to them.  I also thought they could run certain deals only through facebook and twitter, where someone has to like the page in order to receive it.  This may decrease the amount of people buying, but I thought if they did it for something more targeted towards a younger crowd, most of that demographic does have a facebook already.   One other suggestion I had was making the UT facebook page more reader friendly.  Right now it is very plain and I think if it captured attention more they may increase their readership/likes of the page.  These are just a few of my ideas that I have come up with.  We have a “rough” presentation/discussion of our plans today, but the final one will be next week!  Let me know if any of you guys have any other great suggestions! Thanks :)   

Marketing

Tomorrow everyone in the marketing section will be presenting the rough draft of their presentations for next monday! I have the Contests for UT and DiscoverSD. I have spent time messing around on the two sites. First figuring out how easily it was to find and use them. Then I tried to figure out who the contest on the different sites were geared towards. Finally I looked at the features and how easy it was to sign up for contest by signing up for some myself.

The UT site was the first one to pop up on my google search and it was relatively easy to find and use. DiscoverSD was third on my google search and was trickery to find on the actual site. I will give out more details tomorrow at my presentation.

Wed Blog

Last Monday we meet for a short amount of time and went over the artwalk. Each group got to pick a specific segment which they want to work on. That pretty much sums what we did. Wednesday- we meet in our groups again. This time my group is in marketing- which we have to individually have to make a marketing plan to a specific segment of the UT. I got first pick so I picked discoverSD. I was very excited to pick this segment because it is what our starting focus was about. I am excited to work on this project! and can't wait to see everyone else's!

TJ's Sales Week 1

On wednesday we met with Kevin for our first day in the sales rotation. He gave us our "Sales 101" class, which was a lot more useful than I first imagined it would be, and then went on to discuss interviews/interview techniques and resume ideas (what to highlight, what to leave out, etc). Kevin had Emily come up with a sales pitch for a pen that she pitched to the group. He then used her pitch to reflect on common trends and mistakes most salesmen make day to day. Emily did really well by first asking questions and feeling out her audience, which most people do not (they are too worried about talking about their product without actually finding the customers needs). 

We ended our session by going over resume ideas and how to approach your job search after graduation. Since Kevin actually takes part in the hiring process for the sales dept. at UT, he was a perfect candidate for us to learn from. His main point on Resume's was not to try and fabricate real work experience (since everyone knows we really don't have any), but rather to really focus on what sets you apart from the rest. Overall, it seems as if the Sales rotation is going to be a great learning experience about the driving force behind all of business. 

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

-TJ

Marketing

We had our first Marketing rotation today. i am really excited for this rotation, obviously since many of us are marketing majors. I think this will be a great way to show UT the skills we have from USD. THey want us to help them by looking at their current sites for various things and tell them how they can revamp them to get more traffic. I am personally doing contest which I am really excited about. When I studied abroad in Ireland one of my classes had a guest speaker who showed us their companies social media contest. Hopefully My knowledge from that class will help with this assignment!

We are he marketing group and our Goya was in a topic an how to better advertise and get the public more involved. Mine in particular is about night an day entertainment and how to get people to subscribe. We are giving a presentation to them next week about what we discovered like the traffic on the website and how to appeal to different target markets.

Content Rotation Day 1

Last week at the UT our group wrapped up the sales rotation. On Friday I was able to work one on one with two sales representatives. They both taught me about their orders and the importance of the loyalty of their customers. With each rep I had my own headset to listen and observe the outbound and incoming phone calls. It was a unique experience to work with each of the reps, especially because I have regularly taken advantage of ads that appear throughout the UT. This Monday we discussed the next plans for the artwalk. I really enjoyed today being apart of the content rotation. We met with one of our facilitators and learned about the background of content. It was a good experience to learn about the journalistic aspect at the UT. Each of us members received an organized syllabus and will each be asked to participate by covering a news event. I am really looking forward to resuming next Wednesday. Hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy your Easter Holiday.

As mentioned by my classmates, on monday we had a meeting at UT San Diego to talk about the art walk and each group was given a topic to work on. By friday we have to provide UT with some ideas on our section.

Today we have had our first meeting with content. It has been very interesting and almost like a class, giving us all sorts of insights and information about how journalism works, what it is, etc. The person who has given us the explanation was very nice, so we have shared a lot of questions and comments with him. I found it very useful, since we actually know very little about journalism and any information will definitely be good to increase our knowledge.

Im excited about covering the event! I will have to start looking at the events in the following weeks and see which suits my schedule and tastes the best.

I hope you have good weeks!!

Week 8 Sales

It was a busy week at the U-T

On Monday we discussed the Art Walk that we will be working in a few weeks. I was slightly disappointed to see that the U-T did not really take many of the ideas that we had, like the winning group's scavenger hunt. However I am sure they have a rhyme and reason for everything. Group to will be working on campus marketing to promote the contest and the art walk in general. We came up with a few ideas like utilizing USD radio, the vista, the kiosks, and USD televisions to promote the event. We also want to send promote to photography and art classes especially for the photo contest. Right now our group is just waiting for a u-t approved flyer so we can start our job.

Today, we went to the sales department and talked with Kevin. He is the sales guru and taught us the 3 V's of sales. I also had to pretend to sell a pen to the group, which was pretty challenging. I started my sale by asking questions of the group to convince them that that was the product for them. Turns out questions are clutch when making a sale so I was pretty impressed with myself =]

Kevin also talked to us about good interviewing skills and told us that it is important to have good questions to ask of the interviewer after the interview is over. He also gave us his number and said that if we had any other questions or wanted to practice interviewing skills that we were more then welcome to call him!

Happy Easter!
Em

Group 2- Art Walk and Sales

This week, we went over the Art Walk ideas, and my group started our rotation with the sales department today.

When going over the Art Walk ideas, Dan outlined their plan for the art walk centered around Group 4's Discover theme. Although they didn't keep the idea of the scavenger hunt, they did decide on a photo contest being specifically promoted to the University of San Diego. They had some other ideas as well such as including photo booths, foot prints leading to the booth, etc. that had been mentioned in presentations. Then, we were given responsibilities for each group. Our group is in charge of campus marketing. Aside from the social media that a different group is focusing on, we will be responsible for promoting it via our kiosks, our USD website, residence halls, art department, etc. We created an entire list of places we would contact as options for marketing this idea.

Today, Group 2 began our rotation with the sales department. It sounds like they had forgotten we were coming, so they asked one of their workers named Kevin to basically give us a Sales 101 talk. He outlined the basics of selling in a way that helped the seller secure their position, and helped the buyer find something that meets their need. He also applied his technique that he taught us to the job-interviewing process, and gave us some tips on interviewing that were very helpful. We're not sure what we will be doing with them next week, but so far it's been pretty interesting!

Have a good break everyone!

Marketing Week 1

This week we met as a class to discuss the Little Italy Art Walk happening at the end of April.  My group was assigned to props for the photo booth as well as finding a photographer.  We have some fun ideas already, but if any of you guys happen to think of anything that you would like to see or you think would draw more people in, let my group know or feel free to comment here! :)  I think this will be a great event for UTsd and we can definitely help by getting more people there our age and from our campus.  Make sure to let your friends know that if they show their USD id at the booth, they will get some sort of incentive (still to be determined).  Maybe we can talk to other teachers at school and have them announce it to their classes as well.  As for today, I am now in the marketing department… YAY!  We all got assigned our topics and have to come up with a mini marketing plan.  I will be working on the social media pages (facebook and twitter) mainly trying figure out more ways to drive people to like the UT and DSD page, as well as research how easy these pages are to access already.  As most of us no there are quite a few pages out there, so I think condensing them into only a few would be much more beneficial to the company! 

This past weekend Connor and I worked the booth at the Crew Classic.  It was a really good experience, because it gave us an idea of what we will be doing at the Little Italy Art Walk and also gave us the chance to be interactive with the public.  I enjoyed meeting people and getting to know some of the employees better.  I liked that we got a chance to actually interact with people rather than just being in an office environment.  Hope you all have a Happy Easter!! :):)  

4/4/2012 marketing

Last weekend me and Rachel went to the Brew and Crew event at ski beach for the Discover SD brand. WE werent allowed to drink but it was still a great time. Primarily what we did was talk with people at the event about receiving emails conserning the Discover SD i-phone app. To get people to come to our both and to get people to give us their information we gave out some pretty good prizes. The two main prizes were tickets to the hunger games and a $100 gift card to bar west. People overall were very receptive to us asking for their information. so i didn't feel like i was hassling because they came to us and we just were friendly and offered information about the company. also they all left with some kind of prize if they like sun glasses or a branded Frisbee. Overall it was very fun and i learned a lot about handling potential costumers.
    
The meeting on Monday  i felt was very important to being ready for the Art walk event. I know that many Events take months of planning and preparation. nothing is worse then going to a poorly planed and executed event. so I'm happy that we have separated out the work, now we can get some real work done for the event.

Today was my first day in the Marketing department. I have high hopes because I'm a marketing major so i expect a lot from a professional company. I chose to do a report on the classified's, i did this because i have bought my car and other items no craigslist and feel that the user experience can be improved. I'm excited to see how everyone's reports turn out. We might be able to have some impact on the UT

Week 8

On Monday we met as an entire group to discuss the Little Italy Art Walk. Group 1 is in charge of finding a photographer and props for the photobooth area that we are doing. I'm really excited about this aspect of the booth because it is kinda fun and silly and I think people will have a great time! For the props I was thinking there could be a bunch of different themes: San Diego, Italy, art and dress-up. We could find things corresponding to each theme so people coming to the booth would have lots of props to choose from, making the photobooth a success!

This week, Group 1 is working in the marketing department of the UT. This is very cool as this is the part of business that I am most interested in. We each got to pick an aspect of the UT/DiscoverSD to focus on, and next Wednesday we will be doing a short, 5 minute individual presentation on our initial findings and some suggestions. Then the following Monday we will be giving our final, finished presentation. I chose the UT Daily Deals/DiscoverSD Insider Hookup. I think it'll be really interesting to compare the two sites, as well as researching some of their competitors. Looks like it's going to be a fun couple weeks in marketing!

MKTG Week 1

This week we met on Monday to discuss ideas for the booths at the Art Walk. We came up with a few more suggestions and the UT team is still implementing all of our ideas into their final projects. We also split up into our last group rotation on Monday and were given the task of making a list of prizes and little giveaways for the Prize Wheel at the booth. Today, we were again split up into our last rotation (marketing) and we choose a division of the UT to focus on and create a mini 5 minute presentation. The presentation is meant to be an analysis of the division we chose (mine is the UT San Diego Pets Scratch & Sniff) so we are supposed to ask people what they think about the section and input our thoughts on it as well. Since the Pets section is very new - it was just released last week - I'll have to see what people think about it and what could be improved for both the print version and also how the Pets Scratch and Sniff section appears online. In 2 weeks we'll present our powerpoint to the marketing board and they'll potentially take in and implement some of our sugguestions. I'm excited for the marketing rotation and to see people's thoughts on the newly released Pet section. As we learned today, more people nationwide own pets compared to have children. So, the pet industry is obviously booming and I think the UT is doing a good thing by taking action on placing this into a weekly segment of their paper. Should be a fun marketing project/campaign :)

HEY EURRYBODY!!! ART WALK/MARKETING

Long time no see, so this week has been a busy week of getting our group and individual task. For the art walk my group and I are doing the props and photographers. For that we are working on getting funny little props like hats, giant sunglasses, mask, cheese heads, Italian type stuff, and soo on for the photos infront of the UT collage. I like the idea of the UT collage, but I think it would be nice to add a little extra to make it stand out more. Also with the photographer we already have two people interested that is in mine and Keala's web design art class, that are really talented photographers to take up two slots. I believe Keala is going to make an announcement to the art department about it. Then with our last rotation we are doing a big individual project on discovering info on a topic that we got to choose, and researching new ideas. I picked the topic of UT San Diego/ DiscoverSD Event. I am really excited about learning and seeing more on there events, and discovering new avenues and possibilities. I hope everyone has a nice break and see you next week!