Preparing Students to Meet the Challenges of A Changing Advertising Industry

The digital era has rocked the advertising industry. Advertising has seen seismic changes in consumer behavior and media consumption resulting in disruption to the creative and management departments throughout the industry. These factors combined with a major recession resulted in large layoffs in most advertising agencies. To the old guard, the new digital age is seen as a death star hovering over Madison Avenue. To the advertising faculty at Boston University the rise of all things digital has been opportunity knocking on the door of those smart and nimble enough to capitalize on this revolution.

The advertising program at the Boston University College of Communication is a professionally oriented major with advertising classes in account management, creative development, digital media and consumer insight. The advertising faculty at the College of Communication consists of seven full-time faculty members all with extensive professional experience, and a large number of adjuncts drawn from the Boston ad industry. Professors teaching computer courses in the Department of Mass Communication, Advertising and Public Relations provide classes in digital design and technology contributing to the advertising concentration.

Despite the recession, graduates of the program have succeeded in entering the job market at advertising, media, social media and digital agencies. This is a direct result of strong mentoring, networking and the building of long lasting relationships between the faculty and alumni. The model for success is combining coursework, events and networking to facilitate securing entry-level jobs for new graduates.

Over the past ten years the trifecta of coursework, events and networking has evolved into an effective model for achieving the objective of teaching our students to succeed in all sectors of the advertising industry. The faculty believes that to remain competitive it needs to integrate current trends with the fundamentals that have been the foundation of the industry since television dominated the landscape. The problem is how to determine what is the baby and what is the bath water. Which trends are going to drive advertising and which trends are a flash in the pan? Not an easy task when hype and the coming of the next big thing dominate the conversation.

The professors are constant tinkerers tweaking courses in the program to reflect the realities of the constantly evolving industry. The faculties close relationships with alumni who work at the cutting-edge of the industry provides the critical link for maintaining up to date content in the classroom. The alumni visit as guest speakers in classes and as panelist for events in the college. They also host our students on trips to their advertising agencies. This is the glue that cements the bond between the faculty and their former students.

The advertising program consists of a mix of traditional and professionally focused courses. Half the course work completed by ad majors is in the liberal arts. This provides a solid educational foundation insuring that all students have been exposed to a variety of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Advertising students in the Mass Communication Department are required to take courses in writing, research and communication studies. The majority of their program is professionally focused classes in advertising management and creative development. Additional course work in consumer insight, media and digital design compliments the core courses in the concentration.

AdLab at the Boston University College of Communication

AdLab is the student operated advertising agency at BU. It is based on the traditional advertising agency model and services 25 clients each semester. AdLab is a two-credit elective course in the advertising concentration. Students have the option to take up to two semesters of AdLab. A student run Executive Board leads the other students registered in the course who work in account teams at the agency.

AdLab runs like an advertising agency. Students work as an account executive, creative copywriter or art director, consumer insight planner, interactive designer, social media developer, production staff or in new business development. The account team works throughout the semester developing strategy and then designing the creative product for the account. This real world experience makes AdLab a feeder line for entry-level jobs in advertising.

Two professors are the faculty advisors in the class. This counts as part of their teaching load.  As a result of the unique nature of the course the professors work closely with the students as mentors guiding them in how to succeed working on advertising accounts. During class sessions and office hours, the professors meet with account teams and approves strategy, creative work, interactive designs and consumer research. Students value the one-on-one discussions with the professors that provide learning lessons discovered by the students. This relationship turns into a permanent connection between the students and their professors.

Students in the AdLab course frequently talk with the professors about careers in advertising. The students want to know about the job application process and how to best apply for positions. The professors connect their current students with former AdLab students who are working in the advertising industry. The alumni usually offer to meet with students and assist in their job search.

The professors continue to advise students throughout the job search, interview and hiring process. They prepare the students for interviews by describing the types of questions they need to be ready to answer and the proper attitude for demonstrating professionalism and confidence. After the job interviews are concluded, the professors continue to be involved advising on the hiring process and guiding the students through follow-up procedures on how to stay in touch with the advertising agency. If a job offer is made the professors advise on salary levels typical for the position. Some students receive offers from more than one agency and the professors are important resources for this great opportunity.

 The AdLab Executive Board    

The heart of the agency is The Executive Board, known in AdLab as the EBoard. This consists of approximately twenty-five students who excelled in their roles on an account team and are promoted in the following semester to a leadership position. The Executive Board is divided into account groups represented by account and creative supervisors. Students can also rise to top management, President and Vice Presidents after serving on the EBoard.

EBoard members develop leadership skills and the ability to supervise their peers. They are responsible for managing seven or eight accounts consisting of a total of thirty students. Supervisors work directly with students on their account teams providing guidance and critiques of strategy, client relationships and creative work. Supervisors develop advanced skills in the process and creative output of advertising and are charged with solving problems that arise in the agency. They are sought after by advertising agencies looking for entry-level staff.

The President and Vice Presidents are the stars of AdLab. These are upper management positions and control the workflow and client relations for the agency. The leadership of the EBoard has a stellar record of job placement in top advertising agencies. Because they have a reputation for maturity and professionalism, alumni who are familiar with the quality of these students recruited them for positions in their agencies. Many former EBoard members rise to upper management in the advertising industry and are key members of the Boston University advertising network.

AdLab EBoard meets once a week as a separate class. During this time work on all of the accounts are reviewed and problems discussed with the professors. A special bond is established between the professors and these students. Strong mentoring by the faculty helps the EBoard to learn how to solve problems and manage accounts and clients. This keeps these students in good stead as their careers progress.

Many Boston University advertising alumni were students in AdLab and the industry is filled with graduates from the student agency. The shared experience from the course provides a strong bond for a relationship between different classes of graduates. AdLab is an important part of the relationship that binds together different generations of students from the BU advertising program. It is one of the key factors for the strong network of the program.

The New York Spring Break Advertising Agency Trip

In 1999 the College of Communication agreed to sponsor a spring break trip visiting major New York advertising agencies. 12 top advertising students would be selected for the trip lead by two professors. This was developed as a way for our students to become familiar with the best practices in the industry. Leading agencies were contacted and asked if they would host our students. The response was overwhelmingly positive and the trip became a premiere annual event.

Over the years the trip has demonstrated a proven strong track record offering networking opportunities and providing connections for entry- level jobs for BU students. As a result of this success an alumnus was approached for a donation to support the trip. She agreed to provide each student a $400 stipend to help defray the cost of the trip. This support was based largely on her desire to contribute to the mentoring between the alumni and current students.

The trip has included visits to the world’s most important advertising agencies including BBDO, OMD, Publicis/Kaplan/Thaler, Grey, McGarry/Bowen, Ogilvy, TBWA Chiat/Day, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Deutsch, Firstborn and Big Spaceship. Speakers have included BU almni working in top management roles such as CEOs and Presidents of their agencies. These industry leaders set the tone for students by demonstrating the importance of staying in touch with the program, their former professors and new graduates. This is a lesson learned by students and has become part of the DNA of the relationship between the faculty, students and alumni.

The majority of the presentations on the trip are by alumni working in a variety of departments and representing a wide range of positions at the agencies. Students on the trip benefit from listening to everyone from recent hires working as assistant account executives and junior creatives to senior level account directors, consumer insight specialists, vice presidents and creative directors. This provides an understanding of the scope of work performed throughout the agency.

An expanding group of actively engaged alumni have been the foundation for the trip and instrumental meeting with students and assisting in the job searching process. The New York Spring Break Ad Trip has been a major source of networking between current students and our graduates. Speakers are eager to offer advice about how to get jobs in the industry. The alumni provide a direct link for students on the trip to apply for open positions at their agencies. The trip became the foundation for connecting alumni with faculty as well as students. Alumni are reminded of their experiences in the program and get in touch with professors at Boston University. Alumni use their relationships with the professors to email leads about internships, job openings and offer to meet with students when they are in NY.

The most significant trend over the last several years is that students who went on the spring break trip and were hired at agencies they visited are now hosting the trip and are members of the presentation team. The alumni have learned the lessons from their predecessors that paying it forward by speaking with current students, offering advice and leads on open positions is part of their responsibility as alumni of the advertising program. Mentoring begat mentoring. The next generation of alumni is passing down the benefits of the advertising program to current students.

Grey Advertising is a prime example that demonstrates how the spring break trip is a means for students to enter the industry. The Human Resources Department works with Boston University alumni at the agency to develop presentations for the students on the tour. During the first years’ of the visits to Grey senior level alumni at the account supervisor and director level delivered the presentations. Subsequently Grey hired over a dozen BU graduates, many of who were members of the spring break trip. These young alumni now join the senior speakers as part of the presentation. The young alumni enthusiastically offer advice and give trip members their contact information at Grey.

Publicis/Kaplan/Thaler is another major advertising agency that demonstrates the connection between the program and the alumni. It has also hired many Boston University graduates and actively recruits from the ad program. Senior executives at Publicis/Kaplan/Thaler directly contact faculty in the advertising program recruiting for open positions. The agency has hired BU graduates for account services, consumer insight and creative positions. Several former participants on the spring break trip are now part of a panel that answers questions from the students.

The mentoring ethos that is a central part of the faculty’s relationship with their students has spread to many alumni. Viral communication, when an idea spreads through its own volition, is still a hot trend in advertising industry. The importance of being part of the Boston University network and offering to mentor students has gone viral and is benefiting the current generation of advertising students.

The New York Spring Break Advertising Agency Trip includes a Pub Night Event that brings together many of the presenters, other alumni at the agencies visited and NY alumni who want to meet the newest group of BU advertising students. A large contingent of alumni who went on previous trips makes up a significant number of the attendees. The Pub Night is an informal get together where students can talk about careers in advertising and hear about entry-level opportunities in NY. It creates and reinforces relationships and has led to a strong advertising alumni group in the city.

Adstravaganza, A Special Networking Event For The Advertising Program Alumni

Pub Night became the model for developing an ambitious event that would bring together a large number of advertising and media alumni in New York. Working with the COM Alumni Office, we reached out to key insiders in the agency world to explore the possibility of creating a major event for the advertising community. A small core of active alumni became central during the preliminary stages of development. The Dean of The College of Communication agreed to finance Adstravaganza, the title chosen for the gathering.

Contacts from the New York Spring Break Trip along with addresses supplied through the COM Alumni Office provided the core mailing/email list for invitations. The goal was to attract upper management members of the alumni community as well as more recent alumni to Adstravaganza. Musician Peter Cincotti was hired to perform, and a scholarship in honor of the advertising programs’ founder Walter Lubars highlighted the event. The entire advertising faculty was brought to NY providing a major attraction for alumni and offering the opportunity for them to reconnect with their professors.

Held in April at a mid-town Manhattan venue, over 125 alumni came to Adstravaganza. This was the first time many faculty members got to meet with their former students since their graduation. Adstravaganza reestablished the close relationships that contributed to the success of students in the program. It offered a more permanent connection between the faculty and the alumni and dramatically increased the alumni’s use of their former professors as a means of finding young talent for slots at their agencies. Adstravaganza also inspired more alumni to actively mentor students coming out of the BU ad program. The realities of the benefits derived from their coursework and professors at BU motivated the alumni to engage more concretely with the college.

Adstravaganza has grown into a large annual event attracting 300 alumni from the advertising and media industries. Recent attendees are younger alumni many of who were in AdLab and a high percentage of students who attended the NY Spring Break Ad Trip. The foundation of strong bonds built from AdLab and the NY Ad Agency Spring Break Trip has made Adstravaganza a “must attend” event for many alumni. It has achieved significant buzz and is eagerly anticipated by the NY ad contingent.   

A direct benefit of Adstravaganza is the advertising program has developed a very large contact list of alumni, their email addresses, job title and agency. This contributes to the faculty’s understanding and monitoring of the changes in the job market as agencies and positions have evolved with the rise of digital and social media. A result of this interaction between faculty and alumni has been an increase in emails to the professors from alumni looking to hire graduates of the advertising program. The alumni attending Adstravaganza are now more conscious of their role as mentors to new members of the ad industry.   

The Mentoring Trifecta

AdLab, The New York City Spring Break Ad Trip and Adstravaganza are important, but not the only factors contributing to the success of networking and mentoring in the advertising program. Professors bring a professional approach to all of the courses in the program. This prepares students for the world of advertising and strong relationships are formed throughout the students’ time at BU. The NY events enhance the relationships developed in the classroom.

Alumni frequently speak in classes at the school and host visits to ad agencies in Boston. This has created a very strong network in the Boston market. The local alumni provide a huge number of leads for job postings and provide contacts at agencies throughout the city.

The advertising program presents several events on campus including Creative Café, where each semester 25 alumni working in creative departments at ad agencies critique the work of the students in the Boston University program. Students interested in account management attend Agency Insiders, a panel of alumni who focus on how to get a job in advertising. Alumni working in the media departments of major agencies presented their ideas about media strategy, buying and metrics at Mediadeck. All of these events offer students and alumni the opportunity to make connections that turn into long lasting relationships.

The mentoring trifecta of coursework, events and networking is effective in the advertising program at Boston University because of the dedication of the faculty, the professional orientation of the coursework and the large number of alumni working in the advertising industry in New York and Boston. The faculty has been aggressive contacting their former students in the business and connecting them with current students. The alumni have responded by following the examples set by their professors and helping current students prepare for careers in the business. As long as the faculty prepares students for the real world of advertising and our alumni keep paying it forward, the trifecta is a winning formula for success in a very competitive industry.