Undergrads Compete in Annual Marketing Conference

Ishan Dey, a sophomore marketing major, writes about last week’s undergraduate marketing conference in a blog post originally published on terpAMA Scoop.

On Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, terpAMA, the University of Maryland’s Bronze Collegiate Chapter of the American Marketing Association hosted its 7th Annual Undergraduate Marketing Conference, where students had the opportunity to expand their skills and their networks by bringing back fantastic Smith alumni to provide their insights and experiences in marketing world to the attendees.

The conference commenced with the Unilever Case Competition, in which student teams had to solve a case for Unilever. Team Go Green Get Green, which consisted of Angelina Bingei, Jessica Ting, Rachel Hobble, and Meg Goh, was once again the winning team, making them the first team to ever win two years in a row. Team Go Green Get Green chronicled their marketing campaign on the emerging millennial generation, combining traditional strategies with unique hashtags and commercials with the aim of making Unilever's Suave brand more sustainable.

The theme for this year’s conference was “Authentic Storytelling,” which focused the conference on helping students learn how marketing can make an authentic personal connection in our increasingly digital world. The keynote speaker this year was Jim Mollica, who is the VP of Digital Marketing for Under Armour. He focused on how marketing has shifted over to communicating integrity and authenticity because of how consumers judge what brands they buy based on those attributes. Mollica also discussed how analytics can be used to track the effectiveness of storytelling in order to understand what helps and hurts storytelling.

After Mollica’s speech, the attendees went into breakout sessions, which included a variety of workshops and panels to expose students to different aspects of marketing. One of those breakout sessions was the Young Alumni Marketing Council Panel, which was moderated by Professor Mary Harms. The Young Alumni Marketing Council is a group of selected Smith marketing alumni who provide information on job and internship opportunities, as well as helping students transition from college to work life. Included on this panel were Jen Wolosoff from Buzzfeed, Alex Gorman from Deloitte, and Nick DiNardo from MarketBridge. These panels were a great opportunity to hear the experiences of recent graduates and see the great that Smith graduates are doing. “As a senior, I was very happy to hear that I shouldn’t freak out if I have not gotten a job offer yet like many of my accounting and finance friends. They said marketing jobs hire on a need basis so just stay the course and be patient but persistent,” said Jennifer Kinnear, terpAMA VP of Events.

Another one of the breakout sessions was a graphic design workshop, led by Smith alumni Ashley Jager and Delaney Gilman. Both Jager and Gilman were former terpAMA Executive Board members. Their workshop focused on the problem-solving aspect of design and how to utilize design to effectively showcase yourself. Jager expressed how her passion for art and interest in business led her to a career in graphic design. The workshop leaders helped attendees on how to make a creative resume that would help them stand out from standard resumes “The speakers went over an introduction to Photoshop in a way that was very easy to understand, especially for people who have little experience with the program,” said Max Faucher, terpAMA VP of Marketing. Graphic design can often be daunting to jump into, but Jager and Gilman’s workshop worked to make more graphic design more approachable. “I gained helpful tips in creating a creative and eye-catching resume through Photoshop, which is something I’ll definitely use for the future, said Avi Schneider, a freshman who is a first-time attendee.

Graham Garvie, who works at Lippincott in New York City, presented a brand strategy workshop, which aimed to teach attendees on the steps of creating a consistent and effective brand image. “I thought Graham’s workshop on brand strategy was really informative!” said terpAMA Creative Ad Designer Allison Thompson. “I didn't really know what brand strategy was before the workshop but now I think it's a very interesting field and I might consider a future career in brand strategy.” NewDay USA, which is a company that helps veterans get loans, presented a sales and persuasion workshop, led by Richard Tibbetts, Blake Alderman, and Victoria Bednarek. The workshop focused on understanding the consumer’s point of view in order to make more of an impact. As well as the importance of creating a personal sales pitch intended for any selling opportunity. Overall, the workshops spanned over a variety of aspects of marketing, thus exposing attendees to marketing job paths that they may not have been aware of or have a newfound interest in.

The last portion of the conference was the networking dinner, in which attendees had the chance to interact more in-depth with Smith marketing alumni over a fantastic meal. Graham Garvie was awarded the Young Alumni of the Year award for his excellence in serving on the Young Alumni Marketing Council. I had the opportunity to sit at the same table as him at the dinner and it was great to see how someone who has gone through the same experiences that I am going through right now has gone on to do great things in the marketing world, which was certainly inspiring. In addition, Ashley Jager was recognized at the dinner for being the newest addition to the Young Alumni Marketing Council.

This year’s Undergraduate Marketing Conference brought out the best of the Smith School for an extraordinary and enriching event. It will be exciting to see what new thrills next year’s conference will bring.

Click here for more information about the undergraduate marketing program at Smith.