Learning from a Professional Strategist

On Monday, June 29th, 2020, I participated in my first real-time strategy based class as part of the MAIP 2020 Virtual Engagement Program. To date, I feel that the program has already given me great experiences as well as many great networking opportunities and spaces to learn from professionals. Given that it has been one of my first real-world glimpses of the industry, I feel that I have already learned more than I could have imagined in the four weeks since the program first launched. Moving forward, I believe that the session on Monday was perhaps my favorite opportunity so far, as it allowed me to receive direct guidance from someone within my aspired position.

During this session, we had the guest speaker, Ms. Rebecca Harris, from the agency Erich & Kallman based in San Francisco, California. As a Strategy Director for the agency, she gave us a great idea of what her typical workday looked like, specifically in her communication of ideas and advertisement prompts with the brands that work with Erich & Kallman. One piece of work she showed us that I liked was the work the agency did with Reese’s Puffs. I enjoyed being able to take notes on both what a professional communications brief looked like, in addition to the 5 points of research they used to find insights that contributed to their communication briefs. My favorite quote she used in the presentation was that “Parody and imitation are flattering because it shows reach and that people are paying attention." I thought this was influential because when I think of parody, I often think of people making fun of something but never really considered that, that could, in turn, contribute positively to company success. Overall, I again really enjoyed learning more about the strategy field and believe this session will go along way in helping me continue to strive for my personal goals of becoming a successful brand strategist for a professional agency soon!

#strategy #lifelesson