#mark1024

Hello, everyone! Welcome to my exciting experience in the MARK 1024 Marketing Seminar series - as we continue this journey, I'm eager to share some valuable insights and reflections that I gained from this incredible adventure. First things first, I must pay homage to the mind behind this lecture series, Professor Adam Drutz - without his initiative and extensive network, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to attend these informative guest lectures.

One of the guest speakers who truly inspired me was Jeremy Shell, the Managing Partner of Fuel Growth, his words were like a spark that ignited my passion for marketing. Jeremy emphasized the importance of creating value for our audience, and this perspective transformed how I approach marketing- I realized it's not just about promoting products; it's about understanding our audience's needs and crafting campaigns that truly resonate with them.

Networking became an essential aspect of this adventure, and two individuals stood out - Sarah Thompson and David Johnson. They became my mentors in the vast marketing industry, guiding me through the challenges and opportunities. Networking, I learned, is not just about adding and messaging contacts on LinkedIn; it's about building genuine relationships with like-minded individuals who share the same passion for marketing. During another enlightening class, we had the pleasure of listening to Doyle Brown, the Director of Marketing at Barilla, his talk shed light on the multifaceted role of brand managers in marketing. It was eye-opening to see how creativity intertwines with business acumen and strong agency relationships to craft successful marketing strategies.

Doyle's talk inspired me to consider a career as a brand manager. It showcased the dynamic nature of the role and the potential to contribute to the success of a brand on multiple levels - The idea of crafting well-rounded strategies that combine creativity, business acumen, and strong agency relationships resonated with me and set me on a new course of exploration within the marketing world. Moreover, the seminar series not only enriched my knowledge but also provided valuable networking opportunities - I eagerly followed up with Jeremy Shell and Doyle Brown, reaching out to express my gratitude and seek additional insights- their willingness to engage and support my learning journey was both humbling and motivating.

As I ventured into industry events and workshops, I was blown away by the wealth of knowledge and insights shared by professionals; mingling with potential employers and industry peers was invaluable, and I cherished the connections I made. In addition to networking events, I cast my anchor in LinkedIn groups and the Canadian Marketing Association, seeking out like-minded individuals who shared my passion for marketing; engaging in discussions and sharing insights with this community added a layer of camaraderie and support to my journey. Volunteering with the Canadian Marketing Association was a rewarding experience - it not only allowed me to contribute to a worthy cause but also introduced me to new contacts who became an invaluable part of my professional network.

The treasure trove of LinkedIn opened doors to numerous job opportunities. Thanks to the connections I established through networking, I am close to landing a co-op position at a renowned marketing agency - Networking played a significant role in setting me apart from other job seekers and helped me navigate the competitive job market.

With my foundational network now established, I ensure to keep in regular contact with my connections. I scroll through social media platforms, engaging with them on their professional endeavors, and attending industry events to reinforce our bonds. In this interconnected world, keeping in touch is the name of the game that secures the strength of our relationships, promising fruitful partnerships in the future.

The most important lesson I learned throughout this seminar series is the power of networking in the marketing world. Building a strong network empowers us to connect with industry professionals, learn from their experiences, and gain valuable insights that can propel our careers forward. It opens doors to new opportunities, helps us stay updated with industry trends, and provides a support system when guidance and advice are needed. Throughout my networking journey, I have learned valuable tips and best practices such as the importance of authenticity and building genuine relationships; by approaching networking with a willingness to learn and support others, I have found that my network has become a strong foundation for personal and professional growth.

To conclude, the MARK 1024 Marketing Seminar series has been a transformational experience. The knowledge gained, connections made, and inspiration received from guest speakers have shaped my career aspirations and ignited a passion for exploring the vast and exciting world of marketing.

Brett Jones, who is a former GBC post-grad graduate and User Acquisition Manager at Game Hive, was our online webinar guest this week. It was a great opportunity for us to get insights about the mobile apps market especially game apps and user acquisition. 

Learning so many details and statistics about the mobile app market was really informative for me since I have no prior information about the industry. Do you know that;

87% of the time on devices is spent in App

65% of the millennials prefer to make a purchase in-app

5M+ apps in the ecosystem whereas 20% have 0 installs

New Apps: 4000/day on Android and 1000/day IOS

Market Share: 70% Google Play, 30% IOS App Store

The transition from premium to freemium (2008 25% free, 2018 88% free)25% of the apps are games

Monetization is how you make money

I knew the term monetization regarding how people make money from their youtube channels. In order to have ads to be shown on your channel, your channel should be monetized by youtube and it has certain requirements. Likewise, in order to make money from the app, especially with the freemium version, app developers have to monetize their apps. There are various ways of monetizing a channel.         

In-app advertising Subscribing premium to have better features Having gated features to make users pay for these features. Mostly with the gaming apps.

Marketers’ Takeaway

This week we had the opportunity to hear from Lucy Baumgartner, group director at Omnicom; Jasbeen Chunara, senior analyst at OMD, and Kristen Keays, senior brand manager at Rogers.

Since Jasbeen was a former George Brown graduate, she talked about her procedure how she landed her job which really helpful for us to visualize the process. She gave detailed information about the job search stage, how we should make the job research, why it is important to make a Google search about the company, how to connect with the hiring manager from various social media platforms to make it easier to get the job.

Lucy talked about her career and how she got into Omnicom. She said that she started working at Omnicom 8years ago in London. She worked in different clients and departments in Omnicom and she was transferred to Toronto office a short time ago. 

Kristen was the group director of media buying at Rogers and she talked about how they develop strategies and execute different campaigns at Rogers. She gave a lot of insights about the process and mentioned about the trial-error side of the campaigns and how they optimize the campaigns and end the campaigns if necessary.

You don’t need to know any tools!

One of the most important takeaway for me was the answer given to the question of one of our friends. She asked if they would suggest any tools which would differentiate us from the current competition in the digital marketing industry. I was very curious about the answer because there were tons of tools that were suggested to be used in digital marketing and the advice of these seniors would really help us to make a difference in the “job hunt.” I was shocked about the answer because none of the panelists suggested any tools but highlighted the importance of “having a desire to learn.” In other words, being adaptive to the ever-changing work environment of digital marketing and being curious about the new technologies. All three panelists confirmed that they didn’t know anything about the tools they were going to use when they landed their jobs and they emphasized that they learned everything at the workplace. 

Although this may be considered as a soft skill and difficult to demonstrate on the resume, it really helped me to be more optimistic about my current job search period. I sometimes feel a little bit nervous due to lack of experience but as far as I see, nobody born “marketer.” Everyone just worked continuously to become a better version of themselves. I didn’t give up completing my Google and Facebook Certificates since they are very important for the digital marketing field but it really gave me an important life lesson.  

This is not a mathematics class. This is not an equation at all. What are these numbers for? They are representing something which is an important mindset to be understood and to be implemented into the lives of every entrepreneur. Hamza Khan who is a multi-award winning marketer & entrepreneur. He had several start-up companies like Splash Effect, a boutique marketing & creative agency, as well as SkillsCamp, a soft skills training company and Student Life Network, Canada’s most comprehensive resource hub dedicated to helping and empowering millions of students across the country. His life is full of stories and the story he shared taught me lifesaving principles to be used for the rest of my life. “1X4X4”  represents “1 Question”, “4 Principles” and “4 Steps” which makes it easier to memorize and learn. He starts with one question “What is next?” This question is the question also changed the entire trajectory of his life and helped others to make changes about their lifestyle. This is the question to be asked at every step of our life. Unfortunately, most of the time, we don’t give ourselves to take a break and think about “what is next?” If we start thinking about the next thing, it becomes easier to plan it and accomplish our goals.  Here comes the next part, while planning about the “next thing” we had better put some international principles to guide our purpose.  These common principles are;1.    What you love;2.    What you are good at;3.    What you can be paid for;4.    What the world needs.If your purpose has one of these principles, it is nice, but it is better to be able to have all these 4 principles in your goals. The target, the job, the business you love, you are good at, paid for and the world needs. It is the sweet spot where your dreams meet international principles. Then we have 4 Steps of our iterative the process to make it better.1.    Ideate: self-discovery;2.    Prototype: experiment and evaluate solutions;3.    Build: execute a solution;4.    Analyze: learn and evolve through the entire process and be open to feedback.This is a continues process to be done. It is a long journey to start. We cannot pick the correct thing at the beginning but we have to pick something, start doing it and then we should try to make it better. To sum up, we should not be overwhelmed by the question of “what is next” We probably may not do everything right at the beginning. But the important thing is we should start doing and we should continuously move forward and use the principles and steps to grow ourselves or our businesses. We cannot always make a “right decision” but we can “make a decision” and then make it right! I want to finish this with the quote Hamza shared from Robert Greene “THIS VENTURE HAS TO SUCCEED AND SO IT WILL.”

This week we had an online meeting with Shereen who is a Senior Strategist at McCann Worldgroup & Strategy. She is specialized in content creation and personal branding. I was more curious about her side career as being a YouTube Creator. She is a dancer and has a YouTube Channel about dancing which has interesting content and has 100K+  followers. I was interested in the YouTube creation part of her career and would like to learn about the difficulties of being a youtube creator and how she overcomes these issues. 

While I was listening to what she was doing and how she was managing her tasks, I realized that she was like a “superwoman”. It is really very difficult to be able to do her-kind of multitasking and being able to be successful! According to my understanding, number one reason of her success is her passion, her biggest advantage is knowing the digital space and being able to manage so many tasks with the help of technology. To be honest, working in a corporate job and doing entrepreneurial things like running a youtube channel and growing my personal brand was my ultimate goal, so I learned a lot from her. One of the most important points I got from her presentation was her way of segmenting social media channels. She categorized the channels according to how they help her personal brand’s growth and gave me a clearer understanding of the functionalities of different platforms. She also said that determining different strategies for different platforms is important for the brands’ audience and this is how brands should determine how their audience would like to engage with them. Being an “Instagram person” I didn’t like/want to be on each and every platform and produce different content for these platforms. On the other hand, I realized that every platform has its own characteristics and should have different kind of content for different kind of users on these platforms. 

What action I want to take based on my learning from this meeting is I am going to take action and start my youtube channel. I know that it needs time and work to make it perfect, but I cannot be perfect unless I start doing it. That's why I am gonna start creating my channel and hopefully it is going to be better and better while I work/learn consistently. 

We had an Alumni Panel this week where welcomed Natasha Burtenshaw and Jennifer Nugent. Since they were GBC graduates, their experience was really very helpful for me. As  they know the assignments, courses, professors and the environment, I feel like they were the future of ourselves which made me feel very close to them. Moreover, they transferred their knowledge about their employment process very practically which was also really helpful. Due to the reason that, I was interested in SEO and analytics part of Digital Marketing, I had questions ready for Natasha like; how to improve myself for the industry and how to close the gap about not having enough experience, what tools should I focus, etc. 

After I learned about the background of Natasha, I was really impressed. Although she was doing the most tech-savvy side of digital marketing, she doesn’t have an engineering or technical background. She had a personal interest about web design and coding, which I think helped her to be employed but it was a drastic change for her to shift her career from Child and Youth Program staff at YMCA to an SEO expert at a digital marketing agency. This change really encouraged me about my career opportunities. I should work more to improve myself but I am sure that my postgrad at GBC was a good decision to network and be employed in the industry. 

What action I want to take based on my learning from this meeting is I have to prepare a portfolio to show off my work. So far, I developed some e-com websites and tried to develop my online brands. They were not perfect but with a few tweaks, they would demonstrate my skills and really help me to be employed in a good agency. Moreover, I should finish the Google Ads and Analytics courses and have my certificates ASAP. I believe these steps are going to help me to accomplish my goals faster.