Marketing Symposium - April 4th, 2011

For the last symposium of the term, we were delighted to have two fantastic speakers take the time to come to the University of Westminster on April 4^th.

The first speaker was Camille Deeny, a Global Account Planner with JWT. She discussed case studies on popular brands that have achieved success with international marketing. She focused primarily on a case study of the brand Canesten, to illustrate how this brand was marketed differently to female audiences across different parts of the globe. The main take away point was to keep in mind if the market has matured or is still relatively immature, as well as if the advertisements for in an international campaign should use a standardization or adaptation strategy depending on regional differences.

Camille Deeny, JWT Advertising

The second speaker was Helen Keegan, a Mobile Marketing Consultant for beepmarketing. Given that 91 percent of adults in the UK use a mobile phone, and 65 million adults have an active phone subscription, this market is evidently an enormous one to tap into right now.

Helen Keegan, Mobile Marketing Consultant

Also - did you know that there are mobile applications that retail stores have developed that can essentially “speak” to you as you pass by their store? Consumers can either receive a text message or Bluetooth message from the retail brand that inform  them of sales or new products, for example, as they and their mobile phone pass through one of the retail locations receptions zones. Pretty cool!

When also taking into account the countless opportunities to integrate with other digital channels, mobile marketing seems to be an area with many expanding opportunities, and an area of marketing I know a lot of soon to be graduating students are interested in getting into.

Panel L-R: Anne Barker, Camille Deeny, Helen Keegan

At the end of the symposium, both speakers gave advice and answered questions on careers and planning for going forward into the real world out there after graduating from a Master’s program – which we were all quite grateful for! Both Camille and Helen emphasized the importance of letting your personality distinguish you in a pool of applicants going for the same position. If you are a right fit for the job, you will surely stand out as long as you are being yourself. They also reminded students that there really is no conventional path to getting where you want to go or any timeline on when you need to get there. Any big or little experience you gain along the way will provide further direction to where you may be heading on your career path.

Many thanks again to both speakers, Anne Barker for organising the event, and for all the students and guests who attended!

Hayley Millard


Photographs by: Griselda Zhou