The Topic: Preparing Students for Industry Success
Moderator: Chuck Carey, President and Co-Founder, Troika Design Group
Panelists: Michael Benson, EVP, Marketing, ABC Entertainment Group
and PromaxBDA Chairman
Bear Fisher, SVP, Creative Director, Comcast Entertainment Group
Steph Sebbag, President and Creative Director, bpg
Niels Schuurmans, EVP Brand Marketing & Creative, Spike

So here is the “take away”–

For students preparing for an interview and planning a career in media, six things to know. (These really are universal as far as preparing for any interview.)

1. Where do you fit in? You must know this before going to any interview. Know what your skills and strengths are, and basically what you want to do.
2. Be prepared to show examples of the type of work you want to do.
3. You must do your homework before going to an interview. The panelist said 90% of the applicants they interview have not looked at their web site (!!!)
4. Understand all aspects of the field. Understand how the business works.
5. All the panelists said that they put personality and passion above education. The panelists talked about passion a lot…
6. But work experience is important too, so internships are critical.

My first thought is, you don’t want a website.

Let’s just put that out on the table and rather than jumping to the solution — because a website is (or should be) an interactive solution to a problem — let’s talk more about what you do before we talk about what you need.

Sure, I need to know what the client wants for the company and for the product or service. Selling widgets may require a different solution than finding a market for a service. But most importantly, I need to know everything I can about a company’s customer base and what they want. And it might not be a website — although it will probably include something interactive. (okay, yes it will probably be at least a website.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about the article “Multiscreen Mad Men” from the New York Times’ Screen Issue from November 2008. Here’s a great quote from Lars Bastholm of Ogilvy North America:

“Now our job is to have a conversation with your consumers about whatever story it is you want to tell about the brand.”

That pretty much nails it on the head. Effective communication design is about having effective, relevant, useful conversations with consumers. And that is why a client doesn’t want a website, a client wants an effective conversation with consumers and whatever can deliver that communication best is what the client needs.