Saturday, February 16, 2008

Getting the Story on Brooklyn's Ad High School

Brooklyn is the home to the nation's first public high school for advertising. If there's another one preceeding it, please tell me. It's name is High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media and it will open September 2008 within Canarsie High School. I'm pleased to be third to break the story in NYC. The first publisher of the story is the NY Daily News. I had a writing embargo until after Feb. 8 when Advertising Age would publish it. This news is fantastic. The people with whom I connected are equally fantastic.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is on a drive to have Brooklyn realize being "the 4th largest city in the US," although it is a borough of NYC. Markowitz knows a school like this will do so much for Brooklyn's reputation and real power. Imagine, your borough grooms the next advertising executives and managing staff. It's quite possible that in the future Brooklyn and Manhattan will be America's centers of advertising and media genius. College students may run to Brooklyn for that "great copy or art job."

Advertising Week, Inc executive director Matt Scheckner tried to pass himself off as an average Joe dropping some lines to me but, humility to the side, top ad people like Ron Berger, Michael Roth, Byron Lewis and Rosemarie Ryan wouldn't have just any Joe working their show. Rather, someone who serves as Yahoo's marketing director and previously headed American Association of Advertising Agencies and ADWEEK magazine would admirably run Advertising Week.

As a reporter getting quotes, one should remain objective but, after the second quote, "The kids will get dipped into the advertising and media sauce via a combination of..." I commended him on his great sound bites. Don't get me wrong; it was tough going getting a telephone interview with him. Possibly the embargo was being extended--it's all in the game of news reporting.

This high school is shot in the arm for Brooklyn. It's a feather in Markowitz's cap.

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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Talking Shop is Natural in PR

A senior account executive for a maverick firm that's making much waves in PR talked a little shop with me recently. He gave me different pointers on getting and keeping a job, client services and salary negotiation.

I asked about favorite spots where communicators go to unwind. He said that there weren't places like that because PR folks tend to keep a distance from one another due to the competitive nature of the business. "Everyone is after the same segment producer or reporter."

Well, I accepted that until I finally went to a PRSA monthly social mixer. The admission fee is "the cost of your drink." It was at the Arctica Bar & Grill. I arrived late but the place was still full of chatty people. Executives from Burrelles Luce were a few feet from Cision staffers. People from boutique to major PR firms schmoozed effortlessly. Piled on the pool table were copies of the latest Bulldog Reporter--the newsletter that tracks the career moves of magazine and newspaper editors . If people thought about hording media contacts, then the ol' Bulldog, Cision and Burrelles Luce countered that move.

This event was about networking. It was going past the search firm to know your colleagues and the house they work for. After all, in PR, people tend to be recycled, promoted, and set up shop within the industry. Read the bios and you'll see the trail of agencies someone worked at to get to where she is now--in PR or a complementary industry. Well lest we get left in the shadows, Planning To Succeed was promoted by yours truly.

I'm very glad I went to the mixer. The Arctica Bar & Grill serves great foreign ales on tap in 20 oz. glasses for six bucks. Of course the company was cool.

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posted by Unknown @ 1:15 PM 0 Comments