AdPR Intern Spotlight: Jefferson Hopkins

This past summer, Jefferson worked in New York as an Advertising and PR intern at Tom Ford.

What is Tom Ford?

Tom Ford is a leading menswear and womenswear fashion designer. He is also an Oscar-nominated director for his film A Single Man.

What were your responsibilities at Tom Ford this summer?

As a PR and Advertising intern, I was responsible for all of the "hard labor" tasks that you don't necessarily need a degree to do. I packed clothes for celebrities, ran clothing and accessories to photo shoots throughout the city, represented Tom Ford by meeting with magazine editors and stylists that my bosses didn't have time to meet with and took pictures of products for Mr. Ford.

What valuable information or skills did you learn at your internship?

Treat everyone you meet with respect. You never know what someone does or who they know.

Did anything you learned in your Advertising classes aid you in your internship this summer?

Mots of the stuff I did at Tom Ford required on-site training and can't be taught in the classroom. Dr. Reichert's emphasis on sex in advertising did, however, lead me to Tom Ford and I am grateful for that.

What was the best part of your internship experience?

The best part of working at Tom Ford was learning how things work in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment. It was great to see how much work it is for a company to do everything in-house. The advertising team did the creative and media planning all on their own and Mr. Ford photographed the campaigns himself.

UGA doctoral student publishes brand Twitter analysis in Journal of Interactive Advertising

Congratulations to new Grady Advertising doctoral student Eun Sook Kwon for having her article "Follow Me! Global Marketers' Twitter Use" published in the Journal of Interactive Advertising. Eun Sook Kwon and Dr. Yung Jin Sung (University of Texas at Austin), a Grady Advertising doctoral alum, explored how social media have grown into powerful marketing communications tools in the global economy.

Kwon and Sung undertook a content-analysis of the Twitter use of 44 different brands including Starbucks, BlackBerry, MTV, Coca-Cola, Nokia, and McDonalds. They found that marketers try to introduce human personality characteristics into their brands by using human representatives, personal pronouns, and verbs in the imperative form. The analysis also showed that information like brand names and redirecting cues frequently appear in tweets for these brands. Overall, the researchers discoverd that marketers tend to exhibit brand presence and personality through their Twitter accounts, which allows them to build relationships with current and potential consumers.

Read the full article here.

Professional Blogger Speaks at Ad Lecture Series

Award-Winning blogger, Mir Kamin spoke at the Ad Lecture Series on September 1st. Her talk, "Pitch Perfect: How to Woo Blogs and Influence People," discussed the ways bloggers are approached by advertising and public relations professionals. She talked about the best ways for advertisers to approach bloggers and offered advice to those who are thinking of starting blogs.
Kamin maintains two popular blogs, wouldashoulda.com and wantnot.net.

AdPR Alum Spotlight: Whitney Jones

Whitney Jones graduated in 2006 from UGA with a degree in Advertising. She currently resides in Atlanta.

What are you doing now and how did you get there?

Currently, I'm a Communications Specialist in Atlanta at the Emory University Department of Medicine. Before that, I was a Marketing Strategist and Internal Communication Specialist with WellStar Health System in Marietta for over four years (January 2007-June 2011). I got my start with WellStar as a Marketing and Publications intern back in August 2006.

What is your favorite Grady memory?

My favorite Grady memory would have to be my summer 2006 capstone course. There were several students unable to take the Advertising Campaigns course during the spring semester due to class size limitations. Grady added an additional course during the summer to allow for us to graduate with our class. Since it was a summer course, my classmates and I became really close and truly embraced our final project. I think having the class during the summer gave me a greater respect for the project and the processes it involved.

What advice do you have for current AdPR students?

Be sure to put yourself in a position where you are always gaining experience and connections. It may seem difficult at times, but if you are willing to put in the time and effort, the hard work pays off.

AdPR professor investigates sports fans' use of social media

Do sports fans on Facebook have a better experience socially than fans not on social networks cites? That is a question one of AdPR's new professors sought to answer.

Dr.Phua's article entitled, "Use of Social Networking Sites by Sports Fans: Implications for the Creation and Maintenance of Social Capital" was accepted for publication in the academic publication Journal of Sports Media.

His study examined the use of Facebook by fans of the football team at a major southwestern university, and its relation to sports fan identification, collective self-esteem, satisfaction with life and bridging and bonding social capital. Dr. Phua sought to discover if Social networking sites (SNSs) act as a communication channel to connect sports fans with others in their existing offline social networks, meet new friends who also support the same team, and engage with the larger community of fans.

Survey results (N=395) indicated that intensity of SNS usage had a stronger effect on bridging than bonding social capital. SNS usage also interacted with identification, collective self esteem and satisfaction with life to influence bridging social capital. SNS usage thereby enhanced fans' online experience, allowing them to connect to fans of their favorite teams, while also helping to maintain their existing offline relationships.

AdPR Recent Alum Spotlight: Katherine Strate

Katherine Strate graduated from Grady in 2009 with a degree in Public Relations. She currently resides in Atlanta.

What are you doing now and how did you get there?

I am working at Jackson Spalding, a marketing communications firm in Atlanta. I've worked at JS since I graduated, and got my foot in the door with the company through an internship. The summer after my junior year, I was an intern in our Athens office and got some great experience that helped me get an internship in Atlanta when I graduated. After six months, they offered me a full time position!

What is your favorite Grady memory?

I was very privileged to go on the very first PRSSA trip to Washington, D.C. my senior year. It was an incredible week of learning about our profession, bonding with friends in my major, and building a great network. I loved that Grady gave me the opportunity to travel like that with Dr. Jones, Dr. Middleton, and Dean Cully and all of my friends. It was an awesome week!

What advice do you have for current AdPR students?

Differentiate yourself in your resume. Many of the AdPR resumes that come across our desks look the same. Feel free to add some spot color to your resume, and make sure that you actually have experience that makes you stand out to potential employers. If you don't have an internship, volunteer somewhere and do work for free. Use your creativity and your ability to work independently to build your resume and your network.