Matt's Blog

Every New Beginning Comes from Some Other Beginning's End

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:33:34 EST

The end is upon us. Early fall, I hardly knew ya. And now that you are almost gone, I think it’s time to look back at some of the lessons you taught me over the past nine weeks.

Lesson #1: Blogging is much more time intensive then I ever imagined. And it takes a lot of practice to be any good at it. Folks that do this for a living must not have time for much else. Either that or they don’t sleep at night. Vampires would make superb bloggers now that I think about it. Count, the ball is in your court.

Lesson #2: IMC 619 is one of the three hardest courses in the program. It should be noted that I still have three more classes plus the capstone to complete, but so far I rank 619 there with 610 (a “shock and awe” introduction to online learning) and 612 Audience Insight (Two words. “Group” and “Project.”) I’m sure that others may disagree, but I rank 619 up there as one of the more demanding from a time and effort stand point. To be honest, however, I also consider 610, 612, and 619 to be three of the most valuable learning experiences I’ve had so far. The more you put into those classes, the more you get out of them. Kinda like vending machines.

Lesson #3: It is impossible to watch a Presidential debate while trying to write. Unless, of course, you are critiquing the debate. Which I was not. In fact, on three separate occasions I’ve tried to plow through a post, a paper, or a blog entry while listening to McCain and Obama vie for votes during prime time. Each time I came to the conclusion that it was more important for me to utilize what mental capacity I have left to sort through the stump speech rhetoric and try to decide who I will cast my vote for on November 4th. I’ve made my decision. I hope that you’ve taken the time to make one as well, and will join me a few days from now to decide who will be our next President.

Lesson #4: WVU’s tailgate experience is grander than that of the combined efforts of the three schools I’ve worked for in my career. You really must check it out if you have not already. It’s a sea of blue and gold. Country Roads and Cornhole. Controlled mayhem and controlled substances. A fantastic experience full of tradition and excitement. My advice is to plan ahead and make sure you include at least one game on your social calendar during the 2009 season.

And last but not least, Lesson #5: Parting is such sweet sorrow. It has been a blast holding down the fort as your IMC Student blogger this term. I hope you found some of my posts tolerable, and that occasionally you had as much fun reading them as I had writing them. On my way out the door, I would like to wish Nicola the best of luck as she takes over the reins of this blog for the late fall. As I’m sure you’ll soon find out, Nicola will bring an interesting perspective on the IMC experience; that of a student living outside of the U.S. I would also like to thank Nicola for being a loyal reader of my blog, and I promise to return the favor.

So, without further adieu, I wish you adieu, and leave you with these parting words:

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your lawn.
And until we meet again at graduation,
May your IMC experience be as fruitful as it has been for me.

Sincerely,
Matt

Trick or Treat?

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:56:31 EST

Well, it’s the last week of the early fall term. Not sure what’s scarier at this time of year. The Halloween specials on the Travel Channel. Adam Sandler’s Cheap Costume Ideas from the early 90’s. Or the impending deadline for our final projects.

"Adam Sandler Halloween Costumes" | Funny Jokes at JibJab

I don’t know about you, but I have some serious work to do before 11:55 PM Eastern Standard Time on Monday night. Yes, it will be a sprint to the finish, but I must admit that I’ve enjoyed the ride. And what good roller coaster doesn’t end with a steep hill.

Next semester I’m taking the new Cause Marketing course. Technically, the university I work for is a non-profit, so I’m hoping to build a better understanding of IMC from a balance neutral perspective. Plus, I’m a big believer in using electives to broaden my perspective on topics that interest me, but I might not otherwise have an opportunity to study. If anyone else in the WVU blogosphere is registered for IMC 693A, I look forward seeing you on Blackboard.

The end of the semester also means that my time as your IMC Student blogger is almost up. I have one more post left before I go, but our days together as writer and audience are just about through. Thanks for the response to my last post. It’s not quite to the 12 comment (and free drink!) level yet, but there are still a few days left to secure your beverage du jour at the next IMC Weekend.

Last but not least, I wanted to throw a new marketing term out there that you may or may not be familiar with. It’s “Purple Cow.” Author Seth Godin says that the key to success is to find a way to stand out—to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins.
As you trudge through the last few days of week #9, I hope that you find a way to make your work stand out from the rest of the herd, becoming a violet bovine if so desired. And ultimately, may your work in this program lead to a surplus of another color as well. Green.

Say What You Need To Say

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:40:00 EST

I’m sure that I am probably the last person on Earth to have watched The Bucket List. Maybe there are a few folks out there that have yet to see the Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson vehicle, but that’s about it. Anyway, while watching the movie this past weekend, it occurred to me that there a few things I would like to accomplish before my time as your IMC Student blogger is up. It’s week 8 of the early fall and after this post, I have only two more to write before handing over the reins to another of our IMC peers (cue applause followed by gentle tears).
(For those of you with ears, I apologize)

So, here is my IMC Student Blog Bucket List for the rest of the term, in no particular order:

– Exceed 12 comments on a single post. With buzz marketing being a topic of IMC 619, you’d think I could do a better job of engaging the audience. Alas, the highest total of comments I’ve had on a post has been three, one of which is usually my response to one of the comments. So I’m challenging the vast IMC Student Blog reading audience to submit a comment?any comment at all?to see if we can break the record of 12 comments posted to Jamie’s blog this past March. Tell me what you like, what you hate; what the temperature is at your house this morning?anything. If we break 12 comments I’ll buy each contributor an adult beverage of their choice during the next IMC weekend. How’s that for buzzed marketing?

– Submit and publish one of my posts by Tuesday. This may be the toughest goal of all, but timeliness with blogs is very important. The audience needs to know when they can visit your site and read new material. I’m horrible about that. But at least once this term, I will submit a post by Tuesday morning! Get your RSS feed ready to roll.

– Refer to myself in the third person for no particular reason. Maybe it’s the Presidential election stirring up nostalgic images of Bob Dole himself Bob Dole. Ricky Henderson is also famous for doing this. But the most famous third person reference of them all is from The Incredible Hulk.

Yes, we know you can smash, but would it kill you to mix in an “I” or “me” every now and then? So Zita Knific (my high school honors English teacher) prepare to cringe. ‘Cause you won’t have Matt Miller to kick around anymore! Third person, here Matthew Miller comes. OK, that’s enough of that. Even Matthew Miller is tired of hearing Matthew Miller at this point.

– Link to something from YouTube that actually provides insight into the IMC profession. I promise never to stop searching for the weirdest and wackiest user generated videos to liven up the remaining posts. But at least one will have something valid to say. Keep an eye out for it and let me know if you catch it.

– Send a shout out to my Great Aunt Margaret. The last time I talked with her she was in a hospital in Cleveland and I hope she’s feeling better. No joke in this section?I just hope that everyone reading this is lucky enough to have some in their life like my aunt, a truly special person. Hope you are feeling better Aunt Marg! P.S. She’s probably never been online in her life?but it’s the thought that counts, I guess. Maybe flowers over a mention in a blog would have been a better idea. Way to go Miller.

– Expose the WVU Blogosphere to the wonderful world of breakfast cereal advergaming. Yes boys and girls, you can help Snap, Crackle and Pop choco-tize their factory. Too messy? How about diving for buried treasure with Toucan Sam. Think swimming tropical birds are a figment of someone’s sick imagination? How about pairing a cinnamon stick and an apple in a battle royal on Apple Jack’s Web site. Yes, my friends, every day is Saturday when you’re wasting time on Kellogg’s Family Friendly series of sites.

– Quit while I’m ahead. Far be it for me to get in the way of your advergaming pleasure. I’ll leave you with one final thought. Could there be a worse job right now than running PR for a financial service firm? Yikes! Not only do you have very little positive news to spin, but your job (as is everyone else’s in that industry) is in jeopardy, and your 401K is worth about as much as a can of WD40.

If Only Life Had a Mute Button

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:55:02 EST

You know how you can have too much of a good thing. Halloween candy for instance. First few pieces are yummy to my tummy. But pieces 12 through 20 make you feel as scary on the inside as you presumably look on the outside.

Here’s another example. My son is obsessed with Country Roads. Ever since I downloaded the song onto my iTouch before venturing up to Morgantown for the Villanova game, Miles has demanded we play it whenever we’re in the car. Not the studio version mind you but the live rendition that features the crowd clapping along to John Denver and his band. He calls it “Wes Irginia” as he smacks his hands on his two and half year old thighs, shaking his head back and forth in a rhythm that would make Stevie Wonder jealous. I just hope that it’s not the line “miss the taste of moonshine, tear drop in my eye” that he relates to. I’ve heard rehab is almost as expensive as pre-school.

On a related note, am I the only one that thinks ole Johnny D looks like a Muppet?

He looks likes Animal’s understudy in this picture. Am I wrong?

Back to the topic at hand, I was trying to watch a short film online for our IMC 619 midweek post. While I could easily adjust the volume of Robert Downey Jr. in Volvo’s The Route V50, I was unable to mute the noise of people walking up and down the hallway outside of my office. Here’s tip number one to any IMC neophytes in the reading audience. Unless you have one of those remotes from the movie Click, it’s best to leave the office when you’re trying to get ahead of your homework during your lunch break.

The same could be said for competing noise at home. As I type this my wife is getting caught up on her weekly fix of Gossip Girl and the new 90210 (because the original left so many unanswered questions). As much as I would like to fill every second of the commercial breaks explaining why all shows in the 30-year-olds-playing-high-school-kids genre actually suck the very life out of any human that watches so much as one second of the Kevin Williamson inspired dialogue, I understand that it’s my penance.

It’s my cross to bear for being non-existent on Monday and Wednesday nights as I plow through the final drafts of my papers and posts over the course of the past two years. IMC tip #2: Understand that even though you may be physically present more often than a graduate student attending an in-person class at a brick and mortar campus, you are going to be mentally absent if you truly put in enough time to get something out of the program. Make sure you budget for some time to engage with your friends, partner, offspring, or pet. And when you’re busy writing, learn to tune out their mindless programs, cause everyone needs a way to unwind and escape from the pressures of the day to day. For me, I’ll take a few minutes of ESPN, The Colbert Report, Charlie Rose or Dexter.

For others, its One Tree Hill and Privileged. To each their own.

To wrap up my sixth IMC Student Blog post, I want to briefly come back to online videos. Our lesson this week focused on the growing trend of companies creating film-like commercials that focus more on plot then a traditional sales pitch, without sacrificing product placement. Many of the examples my classmates and I dug up can be found on YouTube. Many of them feature Hollywood stars like Uma Thurman and John Malkovich. So my question is, have any of you ended up on YouTube, either on purpose or by accident? If so, please comment below and leave a link to the video, if you are so generously inclined. I’ll get things started. Here is one of my finer moments from college, as posted by some of my old Ohio University friends. Enjoy…and don’t judge. It was the mid-90s…grunge was still in.

-Matt

The Home Stretch

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:08:07 EST

Well, it’s week five of the early fall semester. We’ve surpassed the half way point of class and can see the due dates for our final projects tumbling towards us at a pace that would make Usain Bolt jealous. As I mentioned before, the final project for IMC 619 is a blog that each member of our class has been working on for the past five weeks. If you’re a loyal reader of the IMC Student Blog (I’m talking to you Mom!), then you may have noticed that I posted this submission later than usual this week. Work has intensified with the kick off of my employer’s recruitment cycle.

The reason I mention this is that my IMC 619 “Mowing the Digital Landscape” blog has suffered over the past two weeks as well due to the uptake of my out-of-school commitments. But I hope to spend some time this weekend, on location in Chardon, OH for my mom’s 60th birthday party, to get caught up.

She’s the one on the left!

If you’ve been reading my other blog, give me a couple of days to refresh the content before you check it out again. And stop stalking me. Even I don’t read both of my blogs.

To Text or Not to Text, That is the Question

One of our IMC 619 objectives this past week was to understand why mobile marketing can be an important tool in the marketing communications mix. The discussion assignment was to focus on how to best leverage this emerging medium, as well as create a mobile marketing message of our own. Most of my research was on the record setting text blast used by Senator Barack Obama to announce the pick of Joe Biden as his running mate.

According to Nielsen Mobile, roughly 2.9 million people received the following text message from the Obama camp: “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 p.m. ET on www.barackobama.com. Spread the word!” A press release from Nielson Media confirms that Obama’s text blast constitutes as “the single largest mobile marketing event in the U.S. to date.” It’s also estimated that the total cost of this mobile marketing tactic was around $290,000, far below what the candidate would have paid to make the announcement via a national television and print campaign.

I proposed a marketing message that would quickly announce admissions decision to applicants of the graduate program I currently recruit for during my day job. Some of my favorite posts from my classmates included movie theaters texting patrons about new releases, GameStop offering a coupon to those that responded to a text message, and travel companies keeping their customers up to date on the status of their flights & hotel reservations. The majority of the class indicated that there is room for mobile marketing within most IMC campaigns, just as long as consumers clearly opt-in to the service. What do you think? Is sending a text message just part of the evolution of direct marketing, or is it an invasion of privacy that only Big Brother could be proud of?

Rock of Aged

To wrap up my ramblings this week, I’m going back to my Mom for a second (That’s three references in this post Mary. I assume your check is in the mail). I’ve had the hardest time trying to pick out a 60th birthday present, other than the obligatory “you’re young at heart” Hallmark card, and the box of industrial strength Depends from Sam’s Club. All very exciting, but I’d like to come up with something that has a little more pizzazz.

What I’d really like to get her is an iPod. My mom’s a music lover. One of my favorite stories is one about how she snuck out of her house as a teenager to attend the Beatles’ concert in Cleveland. She’s also the type of person that plays the beat of a song on the steering wheel while driving, so a portable juke box would be right up her alley. But I’m worried my $150 investment may gather more moss than a toupee in Tony Kornheiser’s desk drawer.

My parents once gave me a very expensive home stereo system because they never figured out how to use it. Not sure she’ll have more luck with a device that’s smaller than her cell phone. Anyone out there have any luck giving their geriatric relatives a Steve Job’s special? Did it end up on eBay or are they building playlists featuring the very best of Christopher Cross?

The Power of the Blog

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:19:19 EST

Disclaimer: This post is not written in my usual jovial and sarcastic tone. I just heard about the following story on the power of a new medium and thought it might be of interest to the WVU blogosphere. Next week, I’ll be back to my normal style, which may make you happy or violently angry depending on what you think about my previous three posts. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming…

Blogging Moms

I was chatting with two of my co-workers the other day about the blogging phenomenon. Both of them happen to be moms, and during our conversation, they brought to my attention a few of their favorite weblogs written by other moms. Detailing everything from the mundane to the absurd, these blogger moms offer some perspective on the day to day duties involved in raising our nation’s youth. My colleagues, as well as thousands of other parents, enjoyed reading about activities they could relate to, especially if the description was presented in a witty or sarcastic style.

Why do I mention this in the IMC Student blog? Well, some of you reading this may already be a parent; others may be one in the near future. As a dad I I find it interesting how many of my peers, including my wife, search for assurance, support and advice via social networks like CafeMom (started by one of the guys on Melrose Place) and blogs. It’s hard to imagine my grandmother doing something like that, but then again everyone knew their neighbors back then. In today’s rapidly changing economy, we’ve had three neighbors move in and out of the same place in just over three years. I don’t think we are alone in witnessing a much more transitional neighborhood than the ones in which we grew up. Maybe blogs and social networks are a way to replace what used to be found down the street.

The NieNie Dialogues

Anyway, I ran into one of the aforementioned coworkers again this morning. She brought to my attention a story she saw on the Today Show about another mom blogger that touched the lives of many of her readers, especially other moms that knew of what she wrote. Her name is Stephanie Nielson, a 27 year old mother of four, who began her NieNie Dialogues blog to keep her family that lived outside of Utah appraised of how the kids were doing.

What started as a small side project spread via word-of-mouth from mom to mom, ultimately averaging over 1,000 visits a day as of a few weeks ago. Stephanie’s focus on the joys of motherhood became a refreshing reminder to others of how a positive attitude can make the rearing of children a better experience for all. Recent posts featured photos of a family trip to a baseball game, the discovery of chalk artwork on their sidewalks, and redecorating her kid’s room with old road maps. Nothing out of the ordinary, just subjects that most parents can relate to.

A Turn For the Worse

Unfortunately, Stephanie and her husband Christian were involved in a serious plane crash on August 16. The pilot, Doug Kinneard, did not survive. Christian suffered burns on 35% of his body and is expected to make it. The new is also bad for Stephanie, who received burns on over 85% of her body and is currently in a medically induced coma, given about a 65% chance of living.

The Nielson’s family decided to continue updating the NieNie Dialogues to keep family and friends informed of Stephanie and Christian’s health. What was not expected was how this news would affect the blog’s readership. Traffic to the site jumped up to 20,000 visits per day. One reader even organized a fundraiser to help the family cover the million plus dollars the family will have to pay out of pocket for their treatment. As of Tuesday, over $100,000 has been donated to the fund. After two years of emotional support from Stephanie to her loyal readers, the favor is now being returned in the form of financial assistance, notes of appreciation, and prayers.

Take Aways

As I attempt to maintain two blogs this semester, the story of Stephanie Nielson and her work provide inspiration and an example for how to keep my content true to life. While I harbor no aspirations of ever making even a hundredth an impact that she did with the NieNie Dialogues, I at least hope to let a few other people know about the power of the emerging blog medium and how much it can affect others in our increasingly online world.

I hope you’ll join me in sending your thoughts and prayers to the Nielson family. And if you can spare it, a small donation to their recovery efforts.

Sincerely,
Matt

Watch as I Trip Down Memory Lane

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:37:45 EST

School Daze

It’s week three of the early fall semester and I’m still standing, as I hope that most of you are. The IMC 619 class has been challenging so far and I don’t anticipate the deliverables getting easier any time soon. That’s usually a good sign. The more effort I put into my IMC studies, the more information I tend to retain when I need to recall some of the tactics at work. Our focus this week is on creating buzz via viral marketing, blogs and crowdsourcing. One of my favorite viral marketing campaigns of the past year was conducted by Warner Bros. while promoting the summer blockbuster, The Dark Knight. To read more about their work, check out this post on the MGH Word of Mouth blog.

Let’s Go…Mountaineers

Last weekend I participated in a true WVU rite of passage by attending my first Big East football game. From my initial taste of tailgating, to the outstanding aural sensation that is the “Pride of West Virginia” Mountaineer Marching band, the WVU romp over Villanova was truly a great experience from start to finish. If you are participating in the IMC program and have yet to make the pilgrimage to Morgantown to attend a game at Milar Puskar Stadium, than I’d recommend you visit StubHub while tickets are still available. Even though this program is completed online, in my opinion you can’t stake your claim to WVU without at least having some photographic evidence of being surrounded by the sea of blue and gold at least once. A big thank you goes out to our hosts for the game, Chad and Cathy, as well as Rick who showed us how to tailgate in true West Virginia style. My wife and my liver send their gratitude as well.

Katrina Part Deux?

On a less jovial note, my wife and I kept a close watch on the Weather Channel this past weekend as Hurricane Gustav progressed towards our former home, New Orleans. Luckily, the damage rendered to the Crescent City seems to have been minimal.

While the flood waters in the Big Easy may have been held in check, the flood of memories from our evacuation due to Hurricane Katrina three years ago were overflowing. Most of the time our drive from Uptown New Orleans to Houston, TX seems like forever ago. But this past weekend, the memories were fresh, as if we were quickly packing up a suitcase (for what we believed would be a long weekend) just a day or two ago. It’s funny what you remember about certain life changing events. I can barely recall the actual drive out of the city. I couldn’t tell you what time we left, or what hotel we stayed in outside of Houston. What I can remember is the flavor of daiquiris my sister and I grabbed as my pregnant wife drove us to safety. Only in New Orleans can you order a frozen Hurricane from a drive-through en route to evacuating an actual hurricane.

With a concerted effort to evacuate everyone this go round, I was curious as to the integrated marketing tools used by Mayor Nagin, Governor Jindal, and the rest. From what I’ve been able to gather, the local officials put into place a public relations campaign that featured press releases sent to and covered by the local newspapers, radio and television stations, and appropriate Web sites such as www.nola.com. Sometimes we can forget that the tools we are sharpening in the IMC program can be applied to more than just money making ventures…they can be used to alert citizens to a pending crises. Can there be a greater measure of success than saving a life?

Random Closing Thought

Is anyone else receiving the text message updates from either the Obama or McCain camps? So far they’ve communicated everything from their Vice President – picks to requests to support hurricane relief efforts. With over 219,400,000 cell phones being carried around the United States, text messaging blasts seem like a powerful tool for dispersing a concentrated message to a large audience, with a high rate of viewership. Unlike a solicitor’s phone call right as you’re about to put a shovel full of mashed potatoes into your hungry mouth, a text message can be read at any time. And there is no harm in reading it. You can choose to respond or not. Save it or delete it. The only downsides I can see are the cost to the receiver, as well as the ability to get permission to send the messages. Has anyone tried leveraging text messaging at work? If so, what’s been the response? Just curious.

Something Good This Way Comes

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:13:09 EST

With a title like that I better bring my A game to this post. Yet keeping up; with work, with school, with this blog, has been a bit of a challenge for me the past two weeks. As much as I enjoyed the three week break following the summer session, I fell into a series of bad habits that I’m finding hard to shake. No…cross dressing while carrying a brief case on a tight rope is not one of them.

First off, I haven’t been budgeting an appropriate amount of time for sleep. Mix that with too much caffeine to compensate for the drowsiness, and you have one antsy Matthew Miller on your hands.

Secondly, we are in the process of switching to a new CRM at work, which requires a revamping of our communication plans. Taking our existing plan and making it fit into a system that can automate many of our processes is a good thing, but it requires a lot of work up front that I’ve been putting off until now.

Method to my madness?

Why am I telling you this? Good question. My point is that to be a success in the IMC program, or any endeavor for that matter, you need to make sure you are in the right frame of mind. Get some sleep, recharge your batteries, plan ahead, and don’t procrastinate. And if you find a way to get around these tips, please let me know ASAP. Maintaining a perfect balance between work, life and school is a challenge for us all. The format of this program really enables you to have much more of a balance than the majority of master degrees that I am familiar with. But that flexibility can be a trap if you don’t learn to manage your time properly. Most of the time, I do this fairly well, and I’m sure I’ll get back into my normal rhythm very soon. In the mean time, I’ll keep fellow IMCer Scott Cuppari happy by purchasing Diet Coke in bulk. Here’s a depiction of what’s happening inside my stomach at approximately 11pm on most week nights.

619 Update

On the class front, me and my fellow IMC 619 students have begun writing our blogs on the ever changing new media frontier. If you just can’t get enough of my blogtastic musings, you are more than welcome to check out my other blog, Mowing the Digital Landscape. You may notice a slight difference in tone and content (that’s intentional; it is for a grade after all). Hopefully over the next nine weeks you’ll find it to be a useful forum for debating the validity of the various forms of emerging media. But that’s not all! So that your thirst for emerging media does not go unquenched, my classmates’ blogs are listed under the Blog Roll. Most of them put my work to shame, so I would encourage you to peruse them as well.

Country roads, take me home…

As mentioned in last week’s post, my wife and I are preparing for our inaugural trip to Morgantown for the WVU vs. Villanova football game this Saturday. As an alumnus of Ohio University, I am looking forward to diving head first into the WVU football experience for two reasons. The first is that I take great pride in having completed my undergrad degree and subsequently working on my graduate degree from two prominent members of The Princeton Review’s Top Twenty Party Schools. WVU is number 4 and OU is number 5 in the 2008 ranking, respectively.

Secondly, I distinctly remember tearing down the goal posts after my Bobcats beat a Div. II team early in my freshman year. It had been almost two seasons since the team had won a game. What can I say; our emotions got the best of us. We were just glad to have a reason to stick around after the Marching 110 finished their stellar half time show. And while former Nebraska coach Frank Solich has made the Bobcats respectable for the first time in a century, my undergrad alma mater still can’t hold a lick to the pigskin tradition of the Mountaineers. Win or lose, I guarantee my first WVU game will be a cultural and social experience that I won’t soon forget, and will hopefully get to replicate. We’ll try and take a few pictures and report back on the event.

To close this post, I would like to thank my fellow IMC students that took the time to read and comment on my first blog report. Denil, Angela May and Jean Paul, I appreciate your feedback. If anyone else has a response to anything I’ve written, or suggestions on what you would like to see presented, I hope you’ll follow their lead and let me know how you feel.

How many widgets do you have to sell to pay your tuition?

Image courtesy of bittbox.com

Well, I’m off to get caught up on my week two readings. Can’t wait find out when a widget actually went from a generic term for a fictional product used in the business fables of my father’s generation to a hip tool for the savvy marketing professional. Your probably using them right now and don’t even know it. Unless you’re on Facebook. Then you can’t escape them. Anyone find an IMC Bumper Sticker yet?

Till next time,
Matt

Come Along and Ride on a Blogtastic Voyage

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:38:20 EST

Hello WVU blogosphere! I’m Matt and I’ll be your IMC Student Blogger for the early fall session. (Please hold your applause until the end.) Before I begin to tell you a little about who I am, why I think the IMC program is a great value, and what class I’m taking these nine weeks, let me post a disclaimer. There may very well be something wrong with me. Try as I might, hosting a blog that reads more like a nuclear physics textbook is just not in my DNA. What I will attempt to do over these next few weeks is provide, as interestingly as I can, a look inside the life of an IMC student. Yes there will be jokes. Many of them will not be funny. For that I apologize in advance.

The content will be written from my own twisted point of view, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in hearing from you. Yes I’m talking to you, Mr. or Ms. Current IMC or Prospective IMC student. Let me know what you would like to hear more about and I’ll be happy to oblige. The more this blog resembles a conversation, the less I’ll feel like I’m talking to myself. According to my shrink, that’s a good thing.

Moving on, let me say a few (more) words about me. I’m 325 years old, but look remarkably like a slightly overweight 31 year old. Good genes I guess. I stopped dying my hair after my son, Miles, was born in late 2005. When you start going grey at 16, you learn to be creative with your choice of head follicle hues. I settled on black for the better part of my late 20’s, but then I got married, had a son and figured, hey game over. Ouch!!! (My wife, Abigail, just lovingly punched me in the arm).

The Silver Surfer look does help in my day job however. I’m an Assistant Director of Graduate Marketing and Admissions for a large public university in Virginia. The average age of our graduate students is around 40, so the grey plays, so to speak. I enrolled in the IMC program as a way to build a more solid background on the various entities that make up integrated marketing. My previous experience included a stint selling television advertising, then renting medical equipment, followed by two other higher education recruitment gigs. Most of my marketing expertise was developed on the fly. The rest I just faked my way through. Now I can actually have a discussion regarding marketing strategies, objectives and tactics and not sound like my son explaining why he decided to pee on the floor instead of his Elmo potty.

What I also found over the past year and half (this is my ninth IMC course) is that the program more than delivers on its promise of integrating the curriculum into your life, as the lessons and assignments have been directly applicable to my day-to-day work. If you are not familiar with the program, I’d highly recommend taking a look at the rest of the Web site, as well as contacting someone currently enrolled at WVU (I’m happy to answer any questions!). There is a rhythm to the program that permeates through each course, with deliverables due on the same days, and the same naming conventions/grading policies utilized. This enables you to structure your nine weeks accordingly to your life. Knowing when things are due in advance helps you not drop the ball at work, allows you to squeeze in a date with that special someone or to attend a WVU football game this fall (I’m going to my first one on August 30th. My liver is already quivering with anticipation.)

That being said, I do not intend this blog to be a sales pitch on the IMC program. Trust me; their staff can do that much better than I can. Plus, I think there is some value in hearing a relatively unfiltered depiction of the weekly ebb and flow of a class before you sign up for it. My goal is to give prospective students an inside peek, and to provide current students with some anecdotes that they can relate to. And if I don’t enjoy writing something, I won’t post it. Hopefully my enthusiasm for what I’m describing will translate into something that you enjoy as well.

One final note, I just started the IMC 619: Emerging Media and The Market class on Monday. It’s always great to see some familiar names on the roster (Denil, Matt, Shannon, Carol, etc). Prof. Perez really impressed me during the few moments I was able to chat with him during the most recent IMC Weekend, and I truly look forward to diving head first into the “digital landscape.” As a head’s up, you are required to create and maintain a blog throughout the nine weeks, focusing on “the impact emerging media is having on integrated marketing communications in the world around you and in your own life.” Depending on how well the content comes together, and if my fellow classmates don’t mind me cherry picking their ideas, I may link to our class blogs in future posts.

Well, that’s all I got for now. If you managed to read through all of my ramblings and are now at the bottom of the page, thank you. It’s a pleasure to be able to contribute to the IMC program lore and I hope you’ll stick around for the rest of the story.

Sincerely,
Matt