Backpack Communications
The group that made me fall in love with advertising, the next generation of storytellers.
GM is my current role and it has pushed me to become a stronger public speaker and leader. Here are some of my favorite accomplishments and everyday tasks:
Plan and facilitate weekly meetings for the 25-person team to promote positive workplace culture and empower students to provide outstanding work for our clients.
Organize agency tours and bring in guest speakers to inspire and excite our group.
Attend and present in new business meetings - I get to show just how much I love the work we do and the people we are.
This semester we started working with Bizzy Cold Brew after a successful capabilities deck presentation!
General Manager
After four semesters of client work at Backpack Communications, I was promoted to general manager for my last semester with the program.
Chosen by our program director, Rich McCracken, and the rest of our leadership team; my dedication, hard work, and positive attitude have led me to succeed at representing and leading the amazing students at Backpack Communications.
MIMA
Our Assignment: Led promotion around their 25th anniversary event: MIMA Next. Put together a 10-minute video showed at the event highlighting the “MIMA Luminaries.”
Challenge: As account & project manager, I reached out to the group of marketing professionals that make up MIMA’s history and conducted in-depth interviews. Finding this time between our student schedules and their professional lives was not easy, and with and hands-off client, it was in my hands to create strong relationships within our team and with the interviewees.
Strategy: With limited chances to meet and review as a team, I made sure to be a strong point of contact for MIMA. I developed a strong understanding of their needs and project vision so that I could accurately communicate to the Backpack creative team on what they would like and need.
Outcome: The video was a hit! We received amazing feedback from our clients and attendees of the popular event, with over 300 live viewers. After the event they achieved increased membership, setting them up for a strong future.
B1G Academic Alliance
Our Assignment: Raise awareness about their newest project, Open Books: Gender and Sexuality, to the Gen-Z audience.
Challenge: Open Books, a platform that provides free and accessible learning materials to anyone, had no previously established social media presence. It was a new long-term project that they were in the beginning stages of releasing.
Strategy: Implement a strong strategic backbone that can provide long-term success as they move forward through the Open Book public release. I assisted the strategy team in organizing SWOT analyses that revealed the benefits and weaknesses of future Open Book themes.
Outcome: We designed a brand book and developed a strong platform on Instagram and Facebook, directly run by me. Provided a guideline of what themes they should lead with in the future to best maintain the attention of Gen-Z.
Account Manager
I started at Backpack in the Spring semester of my sophomore year as an associate account manager, learning the ropes and finding out what it meant to run a client account.
Through practice, observation of my peers, and many client accounts, I found that not only did my strengths match the role requirements, but I was passionate and excited about the work I was doing.
Here are some examples of that work: