Small & Local Means Scrappy & Nimble

When it comes to my dreams as they relate to advertising, I share similar aspirations with many of my peers -- the ultra-competitive job search process has showed me this more times than I can count. For me, the end goal is a high level strategy position at a global, full-service, award winning agency head quartered in New York City. I'm attracted to this career track because of the fast-pace, high-stakes, and fulfililng relationships that come with it. The clients are big names, and because of that they have the power to reach huge audiences by leveraging crazy budgets and harnessing mass-media.

Much of the work I've done in UNC's School of Media and Journalism, though, has been quite the opposite of this. The school's primary goal is to give its students real-world experiences, to simulate the professional world as closely as possible. That means working with real clients, on real projects

In a few cases, those clients are global. My advertising creative and art direction classes have spent the past two semesters launching a lifestyle product line extension on behalf of Cartier. This past Saturday, we had the chance to present our work to the Marketing Director for Cartier's Paris segment. This opportunity to work with a global brand, however, has been the exception rather than the rule.

As it is more feasible, the clients we work with tend to be nonprofits in the research triangle area. Through various case competitions and classes, I've gotten to work with a handful of great charities and strategize on how to best market their mission. The work has been no less fulfilling than what I imagine my dream job to be. While the pace may be a little bit slower, the stakes a little less high, the relationships are still just as fulfilling.

The most rewarding project I've worked on was through my digital marketing class this past semester. We were tasked with ideating and proposing a comprehensive digital marketing campaign for The Jiti Foundation on a $20,000 budget. The Jiti Foundation works to cure preventable blindness in India by empowering women in the community to create and run eye-care centers in various rural areas of the country.

Our campaign Look Me In The Eye allowed me to learn the organization inside and out, speaking with board members, donors and target audience representatives to learn about motivations and key moments of connection. Another thing I learned is that the established order in the world of advertising is being overthrown. Technology has disrupted the food-chain, giving small, local nonprofits the ability to reach just as big an audience as a giant like Red-Cross or the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Sure, their budgets are smaller, but isn't it incredible that with $20,000 and access to Google AdWords we can effectively target Indian Expatriates residing in North Carolina with a median household income at or above $107,000, and obtain a goal of increasing donations by $100,000 in a single calendar year?

This project for the Jiti Foundation may have adjusted my dream. Yes, I still want to be in strategy. And Yes, I still want to be in New York. But the Ziti Foundation taught me that there's nothing wrong with words like small or local, it means they're scrappy and nimble, not puny and weak.