The 2012 Century College graduation commencement was held on Friday, May 11. Marketing students attending included Krista Daugherty, Sara Miller, Marlys Moen, Britany Pedersen, Heather Shelton and Janet Tobako. Congratulations to all 2012 Marketing Graduates including Nick Andrist, Kevin Dickey, Kyle Kasprzyk, Sarah McCullough, Corissa Roberts, Steven Shaw and Gina Sohlo.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tech’s Next Feats

I ran across few advertisements on the island. They might advertise their business’s Facebook and Twitter outside their business like this.

We saw this business in town one night. It becomes a night club when it gets dark out.The spare tire for the jeeps you rented had advertisements like this.

The humor is quite effective. It is a good advertisement because it is always moving. The tourists who rent it will see it and might decide to go there, as well as everyone you pass on the island while driving it.

This is the closest thing I saw to a real advertisement.

An ad for popsicles at the beach! Who could resist this? Even if you can’t read Spanish, it still looks delicious.

You have advertisements that tell you not to worry about the dangers of parasailing.

They had parasailing on a beach we stopped at. A lot of tourists would be scared to do it but this ad specifically tells you there are no worries.

I found that in Cozumel, they definitely use themselves as advertising more than anything. They don’t really have the money to spend on advertisements that are big and expensive. The biggest form of advertisement was what they yell to you when you walk by, kind of like Carnies! They even know all about your sports teams. They ask you where you are from and try to relate to you in that way so that it draws you into their store. Who would want to buy a Vikings blanket in Mexico?

Are you looking to acquire new technical skills to help land your dream job?

Perhaps you’re just looking to freshen up skills in your current position?

Whatever your case may be, stop by the Century College Open House on Tuesday, February 21 from 5PM – 8PM to find out about our programs and award offerings.  Representatives from almost every academic program will be on hand to answer your questions, and if you apply for enrollment at Century College that evening a $20 registration fee will be waived.  There will also be some prize giveaways and special presentations from Century alumni (see poster below).

The Open House is free and open to the public.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Event Flyer .pdf

Not a chance.

The morning after Twitter went online the world gave birth to 10,000 social media “experts” and their “best practices.”  (There are probably now something like 15.3 million experts)  Some of these people are really good at what they do, and I mean that in the best way possible.  They’re smart, experienced, and they share genuinely useful insights.  (See Brian Solis and Chris Brogan, among others)

Unfortunately these folks are the exception, and they are sometimes drowned out by the masses of self-proclaimed “experts” who are likewise really good at something.  They’re smart, but inexperienced and disingenuous; and getting you to look at and purchase their content is what they really excel at.

Admittedly – they’re doing something right, just not what we’re looking for.

The marketer in me always feels inclined to bring it back to the consumer.  Get a group of folks (the consumers) to look at something, share their thoughts, and organize the results into some consumable format that lends itself well to the creation of a better product.  I do a lot of work like this through focus groups.

Disclaimer: My students aren’t a focus group, and I’d never consciously set up an in class exercise for the purpose of gathering data for use outside my academic institution.  However, I was so impressed with the results of a blog critique exercise we did two weeks ago that I now feel compelled to share what we came up with.

Eighteen students were asked to visit a selection of blogs from the Technorati Top100 and to come up with a list of reasons why, based purely upon the objective features of their websites, why these blogs had become so successful.  The following 9 prevailing statements came out of the conversation, and I named these the Hallmarks of a Great Blog.

Here they are in no particular order of authority.

1. A great blog has unique subject matter

2. A great blog has a consistent interface that is easy to navigate from page to page

3. A great blog has visually appealing content

4. A great blog has well-formatted articles

5. A great blog has thought-provoking subject matter (it makes you think about what you read days afterward)

6. A great blog is self-promotional, but in a tasteful way that does not detract from the reading experience (share buttons are good, pop ups are bad)

7. A great blog has up-to-date content and is regularly updated

8. A great blog has deep and meaningful conversations occurring in its comment sections

What do you think are hallmarks of a great blog?

Who: Branding specialist David Brier
What: A guest lecture at Century College
When: Friday, February 3, 2012
Where: East Campus in Lincoln Mall

Click to view the Official Event Flyer.

Recently Wheat Thins did just that by hitching a ride on the popular Family Guy “Hweat “meme.  Here is what the company got by mashing up the two.

So, was this a good mashup, and was it a good idea for Nabisco to tap into Family Guy with this ad?  You decide.

Have you ever wondered how the people who get voted off the island end up on the island in the first place?  In a recent interview with Nicole Foster, we explored reality show casting.

Question:  You are a student in the Marketing program at Century but you also work as a reality-casting producer.  What an interesting job.  Can you tell us what you do as a reality-casting producer?

Nicole:  It is my role to interview candidates, on camera, who made it through initial screening.  I sit down with a person for approximately 20-45 minutes (depending on how in depth the casting is) and encourage them to be as raw as possible.  I also try to obtain some quality sound bytes.  An interview is considered successful, if I can get a range of emotion from the interviewee during that time.  I then select my favorite people, decide how I want to pitch them, and then paint that picture by editing the interview down to 4-5 minutes of my selected content.  I then “sell” them to my casting director who selects her favorites to pitch to the network.  The executive producers ultimately decide on the final cast.  Then I eagerly wait for the show to air to see how “my people” turned out as characters.

Question:  I would image a reality-casting producer living in the heart of Los Angeles. How does someone living in Minnesota end up with such a job?

Nicole: Since the age of 15, I have worked in restaurants and have continued working in this industry for about ten years. Just like other Hollywood success stories, I was in the right place at the right time.  While living in West Hollywood, CA I managed a restaurant called the Bungalow Club on Santa Monica Blvd. Hell’s Kitchen 2 held their wrap party (final celebration after production of the show is complete) at the Bungalow Club.  I started a conversation with the casting director, who interestingly enough went to high school here in MN.  She was looking for someone to join the casting team who had some knowledge of food. Her casting team was great at finding characters, but didn’t have a clue about the actual inner workings of a kitchen.  Ultimately I was hired to work on Hell’s Kitchen 3 as a casting assistant.  I loved my job, was enthusiastic and passionate about my work and moved up very quickly- from casting assistant, to associate, to coordinator, to producer.  This was my full time job until I moved back to Minnesota.  Now, when reality-casting agencies that I worked for in the past cast here in the Twin Cities, I get a phone call.  I consider myself very lucky.

Question:  When casting, what do you look for in a candidate?

Nicole (or Nikki?): This can vary from show to show, but I always need people with confidence and assertion in whatever it is they are saying.  I look for someone I would want to watch on the show: someone who has energy and speaks with fluidity.  I personally love someone who talks with their hands, they appear more animated and that is more watchable then someone who simply sits still.  I also seek someone who is opinionated and passionate about their views.  If it is a challenge show EXAMPLE?, I look for someone competitive and willing to do what it takes to win.  Or someone I think could potentially be overly emotional on the show.  Someone that I think America would root for or against. Ultimately the cast is a puzzle, but we, as a casting team, don’t know what pieces we are working with until we have finished combing of the country and the casting is complete.

Question:  What is the most challenging part of your job?

Nikki:  For me, it has been very hard to not get personally invested in “my people.”  Casting and production are very different.  I get to know the cast as people; while production sees the cast they are working with as simply characters.  It is their job to make an entertaining show regardless of how the cast feels.  I understand it completely, but I grow attached to my candidates.

Question:  If I were selected as a potential candidate, what could I expect?

Nicole:  We interview someone going through the casting process multiple times.  We really begin by digging into who they are and what makes them tick.  When the top 20 to 40 candidates are selected, we fly them to LA for a final screening.  The final screening involves not only an hour-long interview with a room full of executives and cameras, but also a full background check, psychological evaluation, and blood tests.  We get to KNOW our cast.  It is important to keep a wall between you and your candidates, but this is something I will always struggle with.  What is best for them is not best for making an audience tune in.  The sound bytes that are caught during the interviews, usually the ones where they think, “I really shouldn’t have said that!  I don’t know why I did,” are the ones that will inevitably air.  This is why I do not continue with shows through production, it is too hard for me to watch!

Thank you Nikki for a really insightful and interesting interview!