BIC adjunct prof on "corporate narrative"

Sandra Stahl
Co-founder and Principal,
jacobstahl inc.

The pharmaceutical industry has a unique -- and fascinating -- challenge: it has to deal with all the branding and marketing communications challenges of any company; and it also has to convince its stakeholders to entrust them -- not with their dollars or their lifestyle -- but with their Lives.

Sandra Stahl, co-founder and principal of jacobstahl, inc., a 25+ year veteran of healthcare communications, will join the BIC adjunct faculty in the Fall of 2014 to help BIC students understand how best practices in branding fit into the most sensitive and important aspects of both our personal lives as well as part of one of the largest segments of the global industrial economy.

See Professor Stahl's recent post at pm360online.com (pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical devices online marketing magazine) on "The Return of the Corporate Brand."

Creativity made for sharing

Brand managers covet -- and sometimes desperately regret -- the viral spread of messages. BIC industry advisory board member, Rob Norman, GroupM's Chief Digital Officer, recently blogged at Exchange4Media.com about how communications professionals can structure and harness the cultural and social triggers that characterize some of the most successful and product viral brand messages.

BIC students: highlight of CCNY Graduate Student Symposium

BIC MPS Class of 2015 students:
Edmund Balogun, Raj Andrew Nicholas Gomes,
and Luz Corona

On April 24, 2014, BIC students carried off top recognitions among the Humanities and Arts submissions at the CCNY Graduate Student Symposium for Research and Creative Achievement.

Edmund Balogun received the third place recognition for his paper on "Market Research Bias," a paper he first developed for his BIC course,  Research and Measurement, taught by BIC adjunct professor, and EVP of Global Research at Y&R, Belle Frank.  (Mr. Balogun will also present this paper on April 24 at the State University of New York Graduate School at The College of Rockport annual Master's Level Graduate Research Conference.)

BIC students Raj Andrew Nicholas Gomes and Luz Corona received top honors at the CCNY competition for their development of an integrated communications campaign concept for the New York City Citi Bike program, "Create Your Own Stop," a project originally developed for their BIC class in Idea Development taught by CCNY Professor and BIC Program Director, Nancy Tag.

The CCNY Graduate Student Symposium is a platform for graduate students to gain recognition for their work by faculty, students and potential employers. It raises awareness about the wide gamut of programs housed at CCNY and helps distinguish the college as one of the premier higher learning institutions in the CUNY system. The students received cash awards as well as bragging rights -- in BIC's first year, we walked away with two of the three awards for graduate student achievement at CCNY Humanities and Arts.

BIC MPS Class of 2015 Students: Edmund Balogun, Raj Andrew Nicholas Gomes, and Luz Corona

Still good to the last drop?

NPR's Marketplace recently reported on Kart's "refresh" of the "vintage" Maxwell House Coffee brand -- which includes a new logo and design but resurrects a Very Old Tagline: "good to the last drop."  The people at Kraft are not investing in Maxwell House out of nostalgia. Presumably, they've got some research and insights and that are supporting this risk. Another brand story to watch.

How about this idea for brand strategy: Honesty. Integrity. Truth.

Imagine: a first priority for communicating with total, transparent honesty, integrity, and truth.  Other objectives follow (efficiency comes later; sales results are important but don't come first), because if that first priority is achieved -- all else will be well.

Professor Shannon Bowen from the University of South Carolina has posted at PRWeek that "if we [marketing communications professionals] act as independent advisers seeking to create truth and support relationship building, we release the field [public relations] from the 'divided loyalties' conflict between employer (or client) and the publics that has plagued it."

Professor Bowen reminds us that the bar for honesty, integrity, and truth cannot be raised too high.  NOT because that's all goody-goody; but without that ability of a brand to sustain perception of honesty, integrity, and truth, there are no other "tricks of the Ad/PR trade" that will work.

The New Yorker deliberately evolves a digital brand strategy

Digiday.com has published a very interesting take on The New Yorker's digital strategy. It sounds like The New Yorker is being smart (well . . . I guess that's what you'd expect) -- in evolving its core identity into digital: not trying to be Upworthy; maintaining the 90-year tradition/policy of having every word published/posted be fact checked (by a real person) (including the comments, Tweets, etc.). It seems to demonstrate that long-read and deep content does not have to be diminished by digital platforms.

Rebranding the oldest company listed on NYSE.

Sotheby's auction house is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was founded in 1744, and if it doesn't have a brand by now . . . well, what's a branding firm to do?  Well, whatever it does, it better do it well.

Pentagram Design

Since 2011, Pentagram has been working with Sotheby's "to bring stronger coherence to the full spectrum of the company's identity and communications."  If it were only so simple that the company sold stuff, at auction.  But Sotheby's is arguably one of the leading organizations / voices for significant changes in global culture. Sotheby's customers are among the most influential -- and richest -- consumers and  patrons of global culture.

Sotheby's credibility is grounded in its claim to unerring judgment of the potential value about cultural artifacts -- the final cash value of objects is, of course, up to the buyers.  But Sotheby's is the very definition of a "global market maker" -- and needs to be at home, credible, and trusted in New York, London, Paris, Zurich, Milan, Geneva, Beijing, Hong Kong, Doha, Moscow, and . . . . anywhere that power and money invest in culture.

Pentagram's work for Sotheby's is an insightful case study in branding conceptualization and fulfillment in a high-stakes, high-profile environment. This is not the branding story of a start-up; this is the branding story of an organization over one quarter of a millennium old -- not much competition in that frame of reference.

BIC students receive prestigious national scholarship awards

Two among BIC's first class of students, Frederick Garcia and Amber Jackson, have been selected -- among just 20 graduate students nationwide -- to receive The LAGRANT Foundation (TLF) scholarship for students who share the Foundation's mission of increasing ethnic diversity in the advertising, marketing and public relations industries.

Nancy R. Tag, BIC Program Director and CCNY Media & Communication Arts Professor said, "Our BIC student TLF scholarship recipients competed against students in long-established, high-profile graduate advertising, design, and MBA programs from leading universities throughout the country. Most of all, we are thrilled for Fred and Amber. We are also very proud that in our very first year, the BIC program has been acknowledged among the top tier of programs preparing the next generation of leaders in integrated communications professions."

Frederick Garcia
BIC MPS class of 2015Recipient of a 2014
LAGRANT Foundation Scholarship

Frederick Garcia received an Associate Degree from the Bronx Community College and his BA from CCNY from the Media & Communication Arts program in 2007. Mr. Garcia works at Exposure, an independent creative agency with offices in New York, London, and Tokyo. He previously was an Interpublic Group InterAct Associate (2007-2009) gaining experience at Gotham, Inc., Deutsch, Lowe Worldwide, and DraftFCB.

Amber Jackson
BIC MPS class of 2015
Recipient of a 2014
LAGRANT Foundation Scholarship

Amber Jackson received her BS in Journalism and Strategic Communications from the University of Kansas in 2012. Ms. Jackson has been an Interpublic Group InterAct Associate since June  2012, a two-year associate program which includes six-month  rotations at four IPG agencies. She previously was employed and  had internships with Victoria's Secret (Lawrence, Kansas),  ISNetworld (Dallas, Texas), and the Starlight Theatre (Kansas City,  Missouri).

The LAGRANT Foundation (TLF), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization based in Los Angeles, was established in 1998 by Mr. Kim L. Hunter to address the lack of diversity in the advertising, marketing and public relations fields. TLF provides scholarships, career development workshops, professional development, mentors and internships to African American/Black, American Indian/Native American, Asian American/Pacific Islander and Hispanic/Latino undergraduate and graduate students. Please learn more about our programs.

Since its establishment, TLF has awarded $1.56 million in scholarships to 221 ethnic minority students and has provided in excess of 278 internships and full-time employment.

BIC student selected to present research at SUNY multidisciplinary research conference

BIC student, Edmund Balogun's research paper initially prepared for his Research & Awareness BIC class has been selected for presentation in April 2014 at the State University of New York (SUNY) Graduate School at The College at Brockport third annual Master's Level Graduate Research Conference.

The SUNY Brockport Master's Level Graduate Research Conference attracts nearly 400 presenters from over 30 universities and enables students to hone their professional presentation skills and network with peer scholars and faculty.

Edmund Balogun
BIC MPS class of 2015
will present original research
at SUNY grad-student conference 

Mr. Balogun received his BS from the American University of Nigeria, in Information Systems, Database Design, and Web Integration in 2012.  He has had employment experience in information systems and business development with the Auchi Polytechnic in Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria and with JoSeg Associates Printing, Benin City, Nigeria.  Mr. Balogun had been active in engineering, international relations and entrepreneurship organizations at the American University of Nigeria.

Mr. Balogun has previously published on "The Role of Linguistics in the Detection and Prevention of Cyber Crimes in Nigeria," African Journal of Computing (Vol. 5, No. 3, May 2012);  "The Eradication of Complexities in Human Computer Interface Design for Increased System Usage Productivity," Information Systems and Development Informatics Journal (Vol. 3, No. 3, July 2013); and "Eradicating Complexity in Software Interface for Increased Productivity Software Engineering and Research Practice," WorldComp Conference Proceedings (Las Vegas, U.S.A., July 2012).