2016 – 2017 Scholarships Awarded

February 15, 2017/in News /by Christian Schmid

The American Advertising Federation of Northeast Tennessee (AAF-NETN) has awarded academic scholarships for the first time, to Milligan student Gloria Vazquez and East Tennessee State University (ETSU) student Olivia Page. The awards were announced by AAF-NETN’s education co-chairs: Dr. Carrie Swanay, chair of Milligan College performing, visual, and communicative arts; and Art Brown, Milligan College assistant professor of graphic design. The scholarships are given for the 2016-2017 academic year.

“We’re excited about the new scholarship initiative offered by our local chapter,” Swanay said. “In addition to the scholarship awards, each student will receive a free one-year membership to AAF-NETN. This gives students the opportunity to network and will help them get to know local industry professionals.”

Vazquez, a sophomore at Milligan College, is pursuing a career in graphic design. “I have always enjoyed creating art since I could hold a pencil,” Vazquez said. “It made my day when I would show friends and family a sketch, and they would be surprised with what I had drawn. Graphic design is a career that communicates a message through the arts, and I want to create designs that could change the world.”

The first of her family to attend college, Vazquez sees this as a real opportunity. “This scholarship will greatly help me to continue my work as a graphic designer and meet designers in this region,” she said. “Since the scholarship was determined by the quality and uniqueness of the student’s online portfolio, I was nervous about developing mine for the first time. When I knew that I had impressed the AAF-NETN panel, it gave me more confidence toward my work.”

Page, a junior at ETSU, is pursuing her degree in media and communications, with a concentration in advertising and public relations.

“I chose the field of media and communications because of the impact it can make on people’s lives,” Page said. “I love to engage and be present with the people around me, and I believe communications can provide an opportunity to do that. Whether working for a corporation’s next campaign or creating a press release for a new children’s hospital unveiling, there is always a new challenge in front of you to make a difference in the piece you are working on.

“I realized early that this field is the perfect blend of creativity and organization,” Page added. “That is a big reason why I enjoy it so much. These characteristics are what really led me to this field.” Upon graduation, Page plans to pursue graduate school and earn her master’s degree.

“Our local club is proud to provide deserving students with additional resources to further their education in our industry,” says club president, Samara Bolling, who is the director of integrated marketing and insights for Ntara. “Our affiliation with area colleges and faculty allows us to stay involved and see new young professionals enter the field of advertising.”

Dr. Stephen Marshall, chair of the ETSU department of media and communication, agreed. “AAF-NETN has always been amazing and supportive of student outcomes,” Marshall said. “I don’t know another group that is more focused on education.”

AAF-NETN meets monthly to provide speakers and workshops as continuing education for local professional members and the community.

Event Wrap Up: Preparing Students (and you) for the Experience Age

January 27, 2017/in Event Wrap-Ups /by Christian Schmid

Dr. Stephen Marshall hosted our monthly lunch event at East Tennessee State University today, giving us a lot to consider in the Experience Age. As many companies transition from promoting their platform to promoting an experience around their brand, they need marketers and advertisers able to deliver their message through a variety of mediums.

ETSU is the first of over 2500 universities throughout the US to take advantage of a partnership with Adobe to prepare college students for the Experience Age. The number of jobs in digital marketing continue to rise higher than the number of qualified applicants, and Dr. Marshall is helping to alleviate this issue one student at a time.

He gave us so much info, it’s probably best to list it all in bullet format.

The average person checks their phone over 150 times a day
90% of marketing professionals feel behind in their digital knowledge
51% of consumers discover new companies on their phone
1 in 3 phone users purchase from a company other than their intended search
40% of users abandon a site that takes 3 seconds or longer to load
90% of consumers use multiple screens. Make your site cohesive, simple, and quick on all platforms.
48% buy from companies with instructional videos

If you came, thank you! We would love it if you could leave us a comment here:

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Event Wrap-Up: How to Find Your Flavor with Jose Castillo

December 15, 2016/in Event Wrap-Ups /by Christian Schmid

On December 15th, entrepreneur and 3rd generation advertising pro Jose Castillo shared his story with AAF NETN at the Birthplace of Country Music. From his grandfather’s advertising firm in Mexico City, to his father Joe’s stint on America’s Got Talent, to Jose’s company Flavor Inc, the Castillos have cemented their legacy for doing “spicy” things all over the world.

Bland is the Enemy

If being flavorful and impactful is our goal in what we do, then being bland is the enemy. Here are the ingredients that create Jose’s recipe for being spicy:

Unique – Copying others isn’t going to cut it. You have to find your own voice and share with the world what makes you or your company different from everyone else.
Honest – Tell the whole story. Don’t be afraid to get real.
Shared – You can’t share your flavor if you hoard it all to yourself. You have to share to grow.
Inspired – Can you impact others in a way that they want to take immediate action?

In sharing his family’s super secret Pico de Gallo recipe, Jose shared the ingredients which each make up a part of his life. The tomatoes are the sweet base, giving him a foundation of goodness. The onions are the sad or difficult parts of life, necessary to create a truly flavorful life. The cilantro, lime, salt, and jalapeños all add their own unique flavor to create the final, tasty recipe.

If you were there, please let us know how we did: Leave us a review

Art Director, Copywriter, & Front End Developer – Creative Energy

November 29, 2016/in Job Openings /by Christian Schmid

Art Director

We’re looking for an Art Director who is both exceptionally qualified and fun to work with, including qualities such as:

A sense of humor and curiosity
Excellent conceptual and design skills with a strong portfolio showing your interactive talents as well as print and motion
Strong experience on large cross-channel and/or direct-marketing initiatives across media, both online and off
An ability to manage time and resources efficiently
Team player and self-starter
Expertise in Adobe Creative Cloud
A knack for strategic brainstorming, campaign development and creative execution
A four-year degree, plus two to four years of art direction experience in digital and traditional medias (agency experience preferred)
Able to present creative ideas in client meetings
Broadcast experience a plus

Sound like you? Give us a shout! Send a link to your portfolio and a resume to: work@cenergy.com

Creative Energy believes its most important asset is talent, and each employee contributes to the success of the agency. We are proud of our working environment, competitive salaries and benefits including health, dental, and disability insurance, 401(k) and more.

Applicants will be evaluated based on experience and portfolio quality.
**You must submit samples of your work to be considered**

Copywriter

We are looking for an advertising copywriter to help create some pretty amazing work.

The work you do demonstrates craft and elegance. We expect bold and unique thinking with a high level of maturity and strong grasp of digital.

Your ability to produce effective communications from even the most complex creative brief is critical. You will partner with art directors or work individually to develop concepts for broadcast, digital, print and design. Your creative team will work independently at times and will be given opportunity to show leadership.

Requirements:

A sense of humor and a passion for the work
Strong conceptual thinking
Big and unexpected ideas
An ability to manage time and resources efficiently
Degree in advertising, english or communications (portfolio school preferred)
3-5 years agency experience
Able to present creative ideas in client meetings
Understanding of strategic marketing objectives
Attention to detail

Sound like you? Give us a shout! Send a resume and PDF of your book or portfolio link to: work@cenergy.com

Creative Energy believes its most important asset is talent, and each employee contributes to the success of the agency. We are proud of our working environment, competitive salaries and benefits including health, dental, and disability insurance, 401(k) and more.

Applicants will be evaluated based on experience and portfolio quality.
**You must submit samples of your work to be considered**

Front End Developer

Creative Energy is focused on delivering exceptional creative work and user experiences to our clients. As a front-end development engineer, you will collaborate with the digital media and creative teams to develop award-winning interfaces and apps that drive engagement.

You will be well-versed in HTML, CSS, Javascript and best-in-class front-end web frameworks such as Bootstrap and Material. You’ll be knowledgeable and capable in integrating with third-party APIs and REST APIs. You will also have working knowledge of top CMS platforms such as WordPress, and you are comfortable utilizing Git for version control.

You will have solid coding habits, writing efficient, well-organized code that performs well. You must have a passion for learning new methods and new development languages and frameworks.

You should have a desire to work in a collaborative space, and value the benefits of working with a diverse team of professionals. If these aspects align with your goals and you’re looking for an opportunity to bring your talents to bear on these types of challenges, then we would like to begin talking with you. Creative Energy is growing; be a part of that journey.

Responsibilities include:

Work closely with digital media leadership and designers to interpret designs and UX wireframes, ensuring excellent code performance and stability across multiple browsers.
Collaborate and interact with partner development firms in the development of web and mobile projects.
Work closely with full-stack developers to integrate front-end code to various production environments.
Work with digital media leadership to help guide design decisions to improve project performance.
Stay on top of bug and task management for assigned work, and be able to coordinate work on multiple projects during the course of the average business day.
Maintain flexibility to jump into new areas and new technologies, and stay in-step with the latest advances and trends in front-end development methods.

Requirements:

A minimum of 2 years of experience in web development as part of a development team.
Solid command of core front-end technologies such as: HTML5, CSS3, Javascript/JSON.
Experience with the full development lifecycle of web and mobile sites and applications from requirements building to launch.
Familiarity with languages such as PHP, Python, AngularJS and Node.js.
Experience in front-end interface design, the creation of interface interactions through animations and behavioral feedback.
Demonstrated experience implementing web interfaces with a degree of complexity across top browsers, with attention to browser capabilities, troubleshooting for cross-browser compatibility adjustments and browser security concerns.
Familiarity with core practices in interaction and web usability design.
Experience in optimizing front-end performance (page load, code efficiency, performance optimization).
Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience required. Computer Science/Engineering or Web Development/Code School degrees or diploma preferred.
Must be able to demonstrate abilities through portfolio of past projects and examples of original code.

Preferences:

Experience with responsive web design principals
Experience with Sass or LESS
Have a public GitHub account with current code examples

Sound like you? Give us a shout! Send a resume and work examples to: work@cenergy.com

Creative Energy believes its most important asset is talent, and each employee contributes to the success of the agency. We are proud of our working environment, competitive salaries, and benefits including health, dental and disability insurance, 401(k) and more.

Applicants will be evaluated based on portfolio of past projects and examples of original code.

Event Wrap-Up: Radio Advertising with Pandora

October 17, 2016/in Event Wrap-Ups /by Christian Schmid

San Francisco-based Pandora advertising executives Mark Gill and Chase Martin brought their expertise in using the Pandora platform to the Tri-Cities on Oct. 13th. Gill and Martin shared how companies are using Pandora to reach their customers in unique and successful ways as well as some general information about the Pandora network.

3 Advertising Truths Today

Attention Economy – You have 8 seconds of attention to capture before that person moves on.
Show Me You Know Me – Don’t just advertise, engage with your audience.
Sonic Boom – Look around: many people are wearing headphones or listening to music.

Pandora Stats

75% of people choose music as entertainment
Audience play: 20 minutes per day, 84 million visitors
The power of audio, aka the Headphone Generation
65,000 listeners in the Tri-Cities
1/3 of Americans listen to Pandora
#1 on mobile time spent: 21 hrs
Data Driven: over 1 billion data points

With Pandora, you can address your listener specifically with call outs like, “Hey mom” or “Hey voter” allowing you to sell to them casually without the hard sell. As a brand, you also have the ability to craft your own station that plays only your advertisements for your listeners.

Full Event Video

Marketing Communications Specialist – Wellmont Health System

October 7, 2016/in Job Openings /by Christian Schmid

The marketing communications specialist works collaboratively with other members of the marketing communications team to support, promote and advance the Wellmont Health System brand. Assists co-workers in developing a variety of written and visual collateral, influencing community perception of the organization and effectively informing Wellmont’s internal audiences. Supports department with event planning and monitoring health care messages in local media. Assumes other duties as assigned. Entry-level position with opportunity for professional growth and advancement.

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business or a related field or equivalent experience. Prior experience in marketing communications preferred. Health care experience a plus. Position requires excellent oral and written communication skills as well as interpersonal and presentation skills. Knowledge of Associated Press Style, video editing and photo

http://www.wellmont.org/Careers/Job-Search/

Event Wrap-Up: Clark Rector from AAF National on Advertising & Government Relations

September 19, 2016/in Event Wrap-Ups /by Christian Schmid

Last Thursday, Clark Rector from AAF National came and gave us the rundown on how AAF lobbies in Washington DC for advertisers across the country. While government may not be the first thing you think of when you think of advertising, Clark showed us all just how much of our day to day lives are affected by his work.

Over his last thirty years in Washington DC, Clark has advocated for diversity and minorities in the advertising industry to make the industry as a whole more inclusive. In addition to that, his overall goal is to educate lawmakers at all levels about the benefits that advertising poses to the economy and job market. Representing the interests of all who work in advertising, AAF has done studies to show the positive economic impact that advertising has in our state, and even in our region directly. Clark told us that one dollar spent on advertising, creates nineteen dollars in economic impact.

“Advertising pushes the economy, and needs to be encouraged…” Rector said.

One of the biggest projects everyone has seen but not necessarily understood, is the AdChoice logo on most online ads. Clark explained that, “Most consumers, once they learn about what is happening [with targeted ads], they generally get more comfortable and don’t opt out…it’s a place where we’ve gotten ahead and educated consumers.” Defending the right to free speech and the right to advertise, Clark explained the difficulties the pharmaceutical industries face with scaring off potential patients with disclaimers. Another particularly difficult industry? Surprisingly, food. Advertising has recently been blamed for the obesity crisis in America, and part of AAF’s work has been defending the right of companies to advertise their product despite no correlation between obesity rates and advertising spend.

Marketing Coordinator – Face Amusement Group

September 19, 2016/in Job Openings /by Christian Schmid

Marketing Coordinator

Face Amusement Group – Gray, TN 37615

Responsibilities:

maintains email marketing campaigns and MVP customer loyalty program
sets up online presence for new locations and manages existing location accounts
manages SEO and online advertising
creates and implements in-store/online promotions
maintains Marketing budget
collects and analyzes data for future Marketing efforts
stays up to date with industry and market trends
creates and maintains relationships with local business associations

Apply Now

Event Wrap-Up: Brad Magnus on 3D & Virtual Reality Video Editing

August 24, 2016/in Event Wrap-Ups /by Christian Schmid

With the advent of new technology comes new opportunities to create immersive experiences for marketing and brand exposure. Brad Magnus joined us Tuesday to show us how 360 degree video and virtual reality can transform the creative scope of what agencies currently offer clients.

While some technology may be fleeting, the investments major corporations like Facebook and HTC have made in virtual reality in recent months boosts the likelihood that virtual reality is here for good. Brad made the point that the majority of 360 degree content can be consumed via cellphone now unlike other recent tech ventures like 3-D TVs –further ensuring that this technology is here to stay.

“What makes [360 degree video] applicable is you can experience those 360 degree experiences on a cell phone unlike other technologies that have failed in the past…”

Alongside the usual video production timeline of script writing, planning, and scouting of locations, the timeline for 360 degree video also needs to leave ample time for the processing of the footage. The workflow for this type of video looks more like the following due to the unique nature of what these new cameras capture:

Capture the video: Find the budget you want to work within to determine what equipment you’ll want to purchase/use for the project. Cameras can range from a few hundred, to thousands of dollars depending on their resolution —so plan accordingly.
Stitch the videos together: Each camera’s capture is different, some include software to do it for you, some do not. Make sure to leave ample time in your production workflow for this process as it can take up to 24hrs to process.
Edit the videos: Using the Adobe workflow, Brad showed us how you can seamlessly switch from Adobe AfterEffects to PremierePro to add text that seamlessly integrates into the 360 degree video capture, and how to edit video in this new dimension.
Export the videos: Exporting and compressing the video to make it usable for marketing efforts is the most important part in order to allow all your hard work to be seen. Facebook’s investment into the technology has made for an easy avenue to showcase your handiwork.

From patches to account for adding animations and text to the 360 degree video, to the stitching process, and variety of equipment set ups, Brad gave us the run-down on what the opportunities are for the next age of media. As promised, Brad covered his eyes, and drew a winner for the year’s subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud and Greg Nobles was the lucky recipient.

If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, working with Brad, or joining his monthly video club meetings to discuss technologies such as this, you can check out his website: bradmagnusdesign.com.

Be sure to mark your calendars for our next event at the Gray Fossil Site with Clark Rector from AAF National on September 15th at 11:30!

Full Event Video

Event Photo Gallery

Event Wrap-Up: Connecting the Unconnected

June 30, 2016/in Event Wrap-Ups /by Christian Schmid

Thank you for attending
Connecting the Unconnected

We all packed into Main Street Pizza KPT to hear Mike Watson, founder of Heart-centric Leadership, speak on Connecting the Unconnected. He referenced Darwin, Einstein, and Picasso. He taught us about theme mapping and how we can discover what seemingly unrelated objects, like an automobile and a room, have in common. Mike shared with us three common hiring blueprints for startups and told us which was the most successful. Then, proceeded to tell us why even the most successful model would fail over the long term; leadership should willingly invite in diversity and opposition. If everyone is the same, you weed out diversity and your thinking as a group becomes narrow.

Most importantly he shared with us this key message: It is impossible to think creatively by looking harder in the same direction. Good advice to remember next time you hit a creative wall (which happens to us all at some point or another – event though Christian was the only one to admit it).

Mike was kind enough to share his presentation and notes from last week’s event. (download PDF | download PPT). Enjoy!

We look forward to seeing you again July 20 at 11am in Eastman’s Toy F. Reid Center, Room 225 for our next event. Details to come.