142 Hours
From stepping onto a bus in a couple of hours to stepping off the same bus six days later, 142 hours is all the time I have to make the most of this trip.
Time has always been an interesting concept to me. Sometimes it seems to drag on with minutes feeling more like hours. Other times, it rushes by in a flurry. But seconds tick by at a constant rate. It all just depends on how much you are noticing time as it is going by.
While I’m sure this trip will fly by way too quickly, I want to notice and appreciate as many moments of it as I can.
One way I plan to do that is by tracking what I am doing during each hour of our trip in order to create a visualization of how I spent my time on this trip. I can’t guarantee it will be perfect and every hour will be accounted for exactly, but this trip is an investment. Lots of people have put in countless hours to prepare this opportunity and this is one small way of showing the outcome of that investment.
Jesse Summers 5.6.2017
The Strategist’s View
I’ve grown up in airports.
Every summer, my father would pack me and my two older brothers up with our ginormous suitcases and take us to Hawai’i to visit our family on the Big Island. Without going into detail, I have flown a lot and have now become addicted to air travel.
When I get the first inhale of an airport’s air, my heart skips a beat. Adventure is literally right in front of me.
Yet this trip has gotten me thinking about flying in a different way, as it relates to life and advertising.
Observation #1: As people grow older, we become more afraid.
It’s a funny thought, isn’t it? The older and wiser we are, the scarier the world seems. I’m sitting on a bumpy flight where the young man next to me needs a valium while the two-year-old in front of me giggles with delight. Maybe the truth in this scenario is age makes us wiser because the lessons we learned caused us some form of pain we haven’t forgotten. Fear is what keeps us from experiencing the pain again.
Observation #2: An advertising pitch is just like taking off in a jet.
You can feel the engine rumble below you as it roars in your ear. The g-force pushes you down in your seat a little more, making you somewhat uncomfortable. Over the past two hours, you have faced stubborn ticket kiosks, security pat downs, and overpriced breakfast. The high of being 35,000 is literally seconds away, but it can’t get there fast enough. Finally you are in the air and you look down at the world below and enjoy the beautiful view. Suddenly all of that chaos is worth it.That’s what it feels like delivering a pitch. You stress as you go through the process. You feel a little bit of pressure right before you hit the crescendo. Then you get to relax and see just how far you’ve come and where you are heading next. With droopy eyelids, I made the connection in my mind and smiled. Then rewarded myself with sleep.
-Emily Garcia, Strategist5.6.2017
***Please note the above photo is not mine. It is solely used for educational purposes.
Travel Curiosities
I am 35,000 feet up in the air traveling at 551 mph in a giant metal beast carrying nearly 200 hundred other people all headed to NYC for some reason or another and it makes me think. When I travel there are two things I can’t help but think about:
1) Where are all these people going? There are over 200 of us who were willing to get on a 7:20am flight to get somewhere. To my comrade on this plane, where are you going and why is that place important to you? Is it work? family? family illness? travel? travel to a destination that is still days or hours away?
2) How the heck are we still in the air? I know we learned about aerodynamics in science class but it amazes be every time we take off that the plane doesn’t just come right back down again. Not only that but I am being beamed a wifi signal right now? where is it even coming from and how does it get to the plane and then to me? Is it from a satellite, a really powerful radio tower? Does the plane have an antenna - how does that affect flight?
Seeing this picture only escalates my thinking. It is all the planes in the air at the same time. The green and blue planes are planes headed to or from Newark.
Audrey Grimes
After delayed flights and long waits for shuttles I finally made it to New York. It is currently 4AM as I sit in my hotel room writing this. You would think after a long day of traveling I would be exhausted and ready to crash, however, the funny thing is I have never felt more alive in my life. As I look out onto people walking the streets of Manhattan I can’t help but feel excited to learn about this amazing city. I can’t help but wonder about the agencies I will visit. What insight will I gain from this trip? What top secrets will be shared with me at agency visits? Who will I meet? Will I find a home here in New York?
My mind is racing in a million different ways right now and I can feel the inspiration oozing out of this city. I’m excited to work hard and find myself a place in this crazy city. As I sit here watching people from my hotel window I wonder if one day I’ll be walking the streets and someone will be looking out onto the city with the same feelings I have now. Who would’ve thought that at 4AM you could feel so alive just from looking at a city through a hotel window?
Topacio Beerhalter 05.06.2017.
There’s only so much a skype chat with someone in New York can teach you about the ad industry. Their experiences are unique to them. Until I am in the city that is fueled by coffee in an agency face to face with these people, I will not have my own experiences. Only then will I be able to understand the notes I wrote in creative strategy during this skype calls. I believe curiosity is strongest when you are in an unfamiliar place. I am unsure of what the week ahead will have for me, but I am sure I look back 10 years from now, thankful for the curiosity that got me here today.
-Justin Hartney
5.05.17
Nothing like a good morning text of “Flash Flood Warning this area til 4:30PM. Avoid Flood areas.”
My rain ego (as Dave Koranda would call it) was in full force looking over the weather forecast before arriving in New York. Rain Jacket? Umbrella? Hell No!
I was definitely put in my place, as I walked not even a block to grab a coffee and got completely drenched. “SOS” was an understatement, but I proceeded to bite my tongue and ask the barista where the closest store to by an umbrella was.
We walked to the deli across the street only to find out the man in front of us had just purchased the last umbrella. As he started to walk away, he heard me ask the man behind the register if they had any extra umbrellas in the back. He turned away from the door, handed us the umbrella he had just purchased and said we could have it. Yes, tears came to my eyes, as I was so grateful for this stranger and his generosity! So big thank you to you, if you ever read this post!
Off to dry my pants…
Hailey Geller
5.5.2017
Tell your story.
Interviews can be very nerve racking and challenging to prepare for. Today I received the best advice from a recruiter. Rarely any student comes into an agency prepared. Everyone must be trained and polished. Therefore, come into your interview ready to tell your story. Relate that story to how it will help you in the position you are interviewing for.
-Emily Sarale
Million Dollar Idea… Literally
What would you do if you were given one million dollars to spend in four days? Would you pay off student loans? Buy a house? Take a vacation? Be the responsible adult and invest it in a 401K to enjoy a lavish life later?
That was the question my team and I had to answer five weeks ago when given a creative brief from Kevin Tuerff in New York City.
To the average American, one million dollars seems like a lot of money to spend. When you’re in advertising, one million dollars can seem pretty small for a national campaign when you’re accustomed to working with major brands like Nike or McDonald’s.
Thankfully, I am not used to “Super Sized” budgets.
I’m a girl from middle-class Bend, Oregon. Among the many talents I have inherited from my beautiful mother, I am most thankful to have gained her thriftiness—especially over these last four weeks.
Within 48 hours of receiving the brief, I knew that our campaign had to rely heavily on good strategy and less on flashy technology.
This prompt was exposing my raw skills as a strategist. Whether or not we got to pitch to Kevin Tuerff in New York relied on my ability to find the human truth that brought the pieces of this prompt together, and find the means to make it happen.
Small budgets aren’t intimidating. They’re just little men in green suits challenging you to be more creative with your thinking.
Four weeks of researching, eight hours of number-crunching, and one day of creating later, I am proud to say that our team not only developed a pitch that excited our professors, we were over $25,000 under budget—that’s including an insurance amount within the budget to cover any unexpected costs.
We get to pitch to Kevin Tuerff in New York City and I couldn’t be more excited.
I have never been more energized about an idea in my (albeit, short) career. And to top it all off, I owe most of it to being raised by a strong, frugal woman.
Thanks, Mom.
-Emily Garcia, Strategist
5.4.2017
Don’t have a plan.
Today, a woman struck up a conversation with me on the plane. At first I was a little bitter, as I just wanted to be left alone to sleep. As our conversation progressed, she shared with me all the adventures she had been on throughout her life. One thing she said in particular really stuck with me.
“Go travel, and don’t have a plan. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself.”
If you know me, you know I’m a planner. So here’s to NYC, with no plans or expectations. I am ready to absorb all the information I can in just one week.
-Emily Sarale