TBWA M+M Launches 20/20 Visionaries

On October 18th, we introduced our latest batch of brilliant BICsters to the industry at our annual Mix + Mentor event. More than 100 guests gathered to enjoy hot hors d’oeuvres, cold drinks and fresh talent at TBWA\Chiat\DayNY’s Madison Avenue office in midtown.


Professionals from TBWA, VMLY&R, Porter Novelli, Edelman, The One Club, Ketchum, DDB, Golin, NYTimes TBrand Studio, Jack Morton, BBDO and more came to mix it up with their agency pals and meet their future recruits: BIC’s 36 students of the Class of 2020 (aka the visionaries with 20/20).


Also joining were a number of consultants and recruiters, plus mentor-worthy BIC alums Nehal Mahmoud BIC '15, Luz Corona BIC '15, Melissa Julien BIC ‘17, Dalyn Francis BIC '16, and Donna Dei-Baning BIC '16 - from companies like NBCUniversal, McCann Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, and The New York Times. As always, City College of NY colleagues MCA Chair Jerry Carlson, Humanities and Arts Dean Erec Koch attended, along with BIC Faculty member Angela Chitkara and alums turned Adjunct Faculty Vera Keiter BIC '15 and Cassondra Bazelow BIC '16.


BIC board members Donna Renella, Hayes Roth, Gustavo Stecher (all the way from Argentina) and of course TBWA host Rob Schwartz showed up in force to meet the newest BICsters and to celebrate BIC's year-long 5th anniversary.


Schwartz found it fitting for TBWA to host BIC's Mix + Mentor. "We talk about the power of mentors a lot in this building, starting with a mentorship between a guy named Steve Jobs and a guy named Jay Chiat. Jobs needed advertising mentorship and Jay, together with Lee Clow helped Apple change the world and create a lot of the amazing stuff that inspires us today to go into this crazy business. So we have to thank mentorship for making this agency and business into something we all want to do."


Acting BIC Program Director Gerardo Blumenkrantz thanked all of the Mentors for helping shape the careers of the BICster Creatives, Planners, Account Managers, and PR pros from the start. “It's no secret that mentorship advances careers. People with mentors are more likely to get promotions. But those being mentored aren’t the only ones whose careers are enhanced; mentorship is reciprocal. I can attest to that; I became a much better advertising professional since I started teaching, almost 10 years ago. And don't forget the BICster you mentor today could become the visionary who makes your company look good in 2020 – or even sooner.”


A big BIC thank you to everyone at TBWA\Chiat\DayNY who helped host the event and invited us to arrive early for their #DisruptorSeries event with Charlamagne Tha God. A special shout out to Monica Torres, Becca Lazarus and of course Rob Schwartz for making the evening a memorable one. We’re grateful beyond measure to them and to past sponsors of the BIC Mix+Mentor – Y&R, Ketchum, McCann, GREY, and R/GA.

More photos in the Gallery.

BICsters Visit Tom Ford Beauty to Find Out What Makes it Fabulous

On October 8th, five lucky BICsters were invited to visit Tom Ford Beauty – a division of Estee Lauder. The goal: to understand the financial and brand strategies underpinning one of the leaders in the world of international beauty.

Erica Pierce BIC '19, Sofia Maayah BIC '19, Melissa Lee BIC '20, Cecilie Mengel BIC '20, and Carmela Vecchione BIC '20 along with a group of undergrads from CCNY and Manhattan College met with Rainey Mancini, the Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Guillaume Jesel, the Global Brand President of Tom Ford Beauty. Mancini and Jesel discussed some of the financial strategies that make the company so profitable.


The students were also joined by Dexter King, VP, Flobal Fragrance Marketing and Strategy at Tom Ford Beauty, who shared a presentation on how Tom Ford continues to remain relevant.

Major takeaways:

There is a depth and breadth of analysis required to be successful in the highly competitive international beauty business.

Tom Ford has a 10-year perspective they call their "compass", which is designed to create long-term value by focusing on being flexible as well as building hero franchises that resonate with a global customer base.

Paul J. Kim City College Adjunct Lecturer (who studied at NYU Stern along with Mancini & Jesel) arranged the outing. "I thought it would be a great experience for students to get a real-world perspective on how a company thinks about strategy at a high level."

Mission accomplished. At the end of the day, the students left with a better idea of what has made Tom Ford the powerful force it is today - and a bag of fabulous Tom Ford perfume.

BICsters Rising

NiRey Reynolds BIC '17 is the Education Programs Manager at The One Club for Creativity and is focused on building the student and faculty community. She helps develop and grow programs such as Portfolio Reviews, Speaker Series, Mentorships (among others) and also leads the charge for the Young Ones Awards.

Melissa Julien BIC ‘17 is now an Account Executive at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness. Melissa works on the Humira account and is focused on the upcoming launch of an exciting patient support program which will go live in early 2019.

Amber Jackson BIC ‘15 just moved from the Big Apple to Apple. After a great run in NYC where she was an Account Supervisor at 360i on brands like Oreo, Amber headed west to be a Brand Manager at Apple. In her new gig, she helps lead marketing teams in the creation of marketing communications and advertising for a new Apple product.

Megan Fullagar BIC ‘16 is a Marketing Manager working in the media world for Penthera, a mobile video start-up based in NYC. Megan’s experience as a marketing professional includes positions at both Comcast and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, one of the largest commercial real estate firms in the world.

Andre Ory BIC ‘15 is making a difference as an Account Director at Fenton in Washington, DC whose clients are the foundations, non-profits and brands taking on the world's toughest challenges in human rights, social and economic justice, environment, education and public health.

Nehal Mahmoud BIC ‘15 is a Manager of Insights & Storytelling at NBCUniversal – a newly created role. Nehal works across the company's portfolio to provide strategic and analytical day-to-day leadership in the creation of internal and external insights and measurement-based communications.

Luz Corona BIC '15 is a Content Manager at Universal McCann Worldwide where she's putting her experience and skills she learned while at BIC to good use. She works on the Coke team across many brands including: Coke Trademark, Sprite, Diet Coke, Fanta, SmartWater, VitaminWater, Minute Maid, and more.

VML and BICsters Help Harlem Grown Branch Out to Parents

This summer, two teams of BICsters developed communications campaigns for local non-profit Harlem Grown in partnership with mid-town ad agency VML. This one-credit BIC course, called the Social Impact Lab, was the brainchild of VML's God-is Rivera and was overseen by VML pros Eddie Velez and Cassandra Ondich.


Harlem Grown's mission is to inspire youth to lead healthy, ambitious lives. A tall order when you live in a neighborhood lacking grocery stores with fresh ingredients. The non-profit exposes young people to healthy possibilities through mentorship and hands-on urban farming - which is a hit with kids - but parents not so much.

So the BICsters had to think long and hard about how to earn parents' trust so they'll prepare the veggies and fruits their kids bring home and be motivated to include more fresh produce in their families' meals. The business challenge was to develop an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan that's creative, impactful, and can be executed within Harlem Grown's modest budget.


Team A spokesperson Sarai Perez was grateful for the chance to work on such a meaningful project at VML. "Eddie and Cassandra let us come up with three big ideas, then guided us toward the one that worked best for the client. The entire project felt like the perfect preparation for our Fall capstone project for Sandy Hook Promise."

Perez, along with team members Breanna Arthur, Sara Ledra, Kelvin Morales, Imani Nunez, and Letier Santana came up with a campaign that builds trust though an engaging IGTV docuseries that reveals the untold truth about what really grows in Harlem. The docuseries features local influencers like Marcus Samuelsson, Casandra Rosario, and Angelique Miles and would be viewed on YouTube, neighborhood LinkNYC kiosks, and via Social Media.



Team B, which included Ashley Arocho, Matt Hamilton, Nick Pavone, Carmen Quang, and Amera Rime-Lulu, came up their own creative solution: "Grow Your Own Piece of Harlem,"  a campaign that takes the mission of Harlem Grown from the garden and into the streets. The campaign has three key components. An app where kids and parents can learn through recipes, videos and plants trackers. Interactive "What's Growing On in Harlem" kiosks that present Harlem Grown news and events. And a Food Festival and Family Dinner where locals can learn about Harlem Grown, cook up their own dishes using Harlem Grown ingredients, and sit around a table to break bread to build community.

Team B spokesperson Matt Hamilton said of the project: "As someone who's outside of the agency world, I appreciated the opportunity to learn about VML's inner workings and to be mentored by industry professionals. Also, working for a client like Harlem Grown felt deeply meaningful."

Eddie Velez, Associate Creative Director at VML, guided the BIC students through the process. "We hope this milestone moment is just the beginning of a larger program that allows agencies like VML to connect with young, local, skilled professionals and to partner in assisting neighboring non-profits. As a former CUNY student, I'm extremely proud of what the BICsters accomplished."

IPG's Michael Roth Leads Panel of Prognosticators @BIC

IPG Chairman and CEO Michael Roth (CCNY '67) returned to his alma mater on Sept 27th to lead an all-star panel including Gail Heimann, President of Weber Shandwick; Matt Neale, CEO of Golin; Suzanne Powers, Global CSO of McCann Worldgroup; and Nada Stirratt, VP of Global Marketing Solutions North America, Facebook at "The Future In Five" @BIC event. In front of an SRO crowd, panelists were asked to predict the near future as part of BIC's year-long 5th Anniversary celebration.



Prediction One 
Diversity and inclusion will be tied to business objectives and result in positive performance indicators and a stronger bottom line.

Prediction Two 
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) will become passe. Social purpose will be woven into the DNA of a company and more CEOs will become activists.

Prediction Three
VUCA talent - talent that can solve problems with velocity, and deal with the unexpected, with complexity and ambiguity - will rule.

Prediction Four
People will continue to trust brands more than the government. So using trust building strategies like McCann's #truthcentral will be critical in the next five years and beyond.

Prediction Five
Facebook will more deeply integrate messenger and messaging.

BONUS Predictions:
IPG's recent acquisition of Acxiom drives a commitment for more nimble, integrated, and personalized usage of data and technology.

AI and machine learning will analyze millions of conversations around the world in mere minutes -- empowering human beings to make sense of it all.

Despite a media environment where everyone's jumping into the pool, agency value and the need for talent has never been greater.

In this data-driven world, where clients look to agencies to prove they've solved problems, there's a real tension between the short term solves and long term crafts of this industry. We will shape and grow their world by giving them both the long and short term.