Lights. Camera. Ready for Action.

2/28/2016 Anonymous 0 Comments




The BIC team of Professors Gerardo Blumenkrantz and Nancy R. Tag met at the Mexican Consulate on Wednesday, February 24th to discuss final plans to shoot three videos as part of their social marketing communications campaign to increase HPV vaccination rates among Mexican immigrants. They were joined by Dr. Abraham Aragones of Memorial Sloan Kettering and Executive Producer/Filmmaker Emilio Rincones.

In addition to shooting two videos welcoming visitors to the Mexican Consulate and explaining the value of its health center, a longer piece will pay tribute to the struggles of typical immigrant workers who see their ongoing sacrifices as an investment in their children's future -- a future which will be more guaranteed by vaccinating them against certain types of cancers.

This effort is part of a partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering, this campaign is being funded by a $750,000 grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

BIC Program Director to Judge the 2016 YOUNG ONES Competition

2/22/2016 Unknown 0 Comments



The ONE Club has invited BIC Program Director and Professor Nancy Tag to be among its international jury of professionals and educators for the 2016 Young Ones Competitions, perhaps the most acclaimed advertising, interactive and design student competitions on the planet, dating back to 1986. 


Thousands of students across the globe compete to receive Merit Awards -- or win Gold, Silver and Bronze Pencils. The Pencil winners are awarded at the annual One Show Young Ones Education Festival awards ceremony during Creative Week in May and finalists are published in the prestigious One Show Annual as well as online in the Young Ones Awards Archive. 

In 2007, City College students Sal Lombardo and Morgan Schreiber won the Client Pitch Competition with an integrated communications campaign for NRDC. Since then, CCNY has produced a number of Merit winners. This year, BIC has dedicated a one-credit course to prepare BICsters for submissions to this year's contest. The deadline to submit is March 4th.  Winners will be announced by the end of that month. 

BIC partners with Universal Music Group

2/21/2016 Unknown 0 Comments


This Spring, BICsters in the Corporate Capstone Practicum will dedicate an entire semester partnering with Universal Music Group (UMG) on the assignment of a lifetime: Design a long-term campaign model to effectively establish a new act that appeals to a youthful market segment without the appearance of over-commercialization.

Universal Music Group is the world's number one music producer with more than 30% of the global market. Through a group of record labels including Republic, Capitol, Def Jam, Interscope, Island, Decca, and Polydor, it produces diverse artists ranging from Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Eminem to Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, and Ennio Morricone. Headquartered in the United States with major offices in London, it is a subsidiary of Vivendi, a French multinational mass media conglomerate.
 UMG’s Advanced Media division seeks to leverage the group’s position as the global leader in music across a variety of partners and platforms to help it become -- and be seen as -- a trans media content and experience producer rather than simply a music publisher.

Ray Mia (CCNY '01), Iain Bruce, and the core UMG team from Advanced Media flew in from London to brief all 31 BIC "Corp Campers" on Thursday night, February 11th. Ray spoke for two hours before giving students a sneak peek at UMG's Grammy Showcase of nine new artists. The three student teams were asked to each select a single artist that they must use in their integrated marketing communications campaign. Teams quickly conferred and then scrambled to get their first choice artist (below). 

It was an amazing evening to kick off an amazing semester. All BIC faculty and MCA Chair Jerry Carlson came to witness the presentation. Many students commented that they would've stayed past midnight to hear Ray share his vision -- peppered with backstage stories and industry expertise. As BIC Program Director and Professor Nancy Tag stated to Ray as he concluded his briefing, “I’d pay to hear that again.”




The New Nomad Class

2/21/2016 Anonymous 0 Comments


PSFK just released its latest report, the Rise of the Nomad Class, and BIC Program Director Nancy Tag was invited to a sneak peek early Monday morning as PSFK enthusiasts gathered at the CORE Club in Midtown. In its usual dynamic fashion, PSFK has examined the untethered lifestyles of a growing cross-generational tribe of educated, influential and affluent professionals. Exploring the trends emerging around the lifestyle of this group of early adopters and how they will impact the mainstream in the next 18-36 months, PSFK’s Nomad Class Debrief is now available online.


Key takeaways from the engaging session are that these nomads are looking for company culture that travels, their interests have shifted from ownership to access, they are keenly engaged in the experience economy (where a FOMO mindset can result in “experience envy”), and that their nomadic existence relies on the boundless potential of the cloud. 

BIC Professor Douglas Davis to Judge 2016 HOW Promotion and Marketing Design Awards

2/21/2016 Unknown 0 Comments


What does BIC Professor Douglas Davis do when he's not teaching? Well, among many, MANY other things, he offers up his expertise to HOW, a multifaceted source for creative inspiration, career advice and business strategy.  Founded in 1985, the HOW brand began its life as a print magazine. Today, the brand still includes an award-winning design magazine, but has grown to encompass a host of products and events including several design competitions, HOW U’s online design courses, design books and more.

On February 11th, HOW announced its esteemed panel of judges for the Promotion & Marketing Design Awards 2016, HOW’s longest-running design competition. Among them: BIC's own Douglas Davis. Read more about the competition and view Professor Davis' bio along with the two other judges here

Douglas has also been tapped for HOW Design Live 2016 where he'll deliver a session that demonstrates simple creative tactics that will help you turn research into insights and turn insights into a variety of creative business solutions. 

BIC Welcomes IPG’s SVP of Client Finance & Operations Rick Weber

2/20/2016 Unknown 0 Comments


Accepting a gracious invitation from BIC Professor Michael Farmer to be grilled by students in his Internal Management class, Rick Weber of IPG shared insights into how holding companies manage their agencies -- and vice versa. 

Armed with knowledge gleaned from Professor Farmer's book Madison Avenue Manslaughter, BICsters were polite but diligent in seeking answers to why the financial wellbeing of holding companies does not always trickle down to its agencies. 

According to Brian Wieser, the most prominent media communications analyst on Wall Street,  "IPG reported 4Q15 earnings with +5.2% organic revenue growth, helping the company to a +6.1% organic growth rate, above ours and consensus expectations. Margins were also strong as the company posted a year-over-year gain of 120bps in the quarter and 100bps for the year. We continue to rate IPG Buy and maintain our YE2016 price target of $24."  

Some BICster questions included: Are agencies still run like “ant colonies,” where every 'ant' is supposed to know what needs to be done and is left alone to do it? What will it take to get an agency CEO to change the way he / she manages – to restore agencies to partnership status with clients? What are the complications of organizing and managing a “holding company relationship?” Of getting agencies to work together on behalf of clients? 

Among his many words of wisdom, Rick Weber emphasized the need to cultivate negotiation skills as one of the keys to succeeding in the complex organizational structure as well as in the ever-evolving communications landscape. 

Evolution of Creative Advertising in Spain and the US

2/20/2016 Unknown 0 Comments



Professor and BIC Creative Track Director Gerardo Blumenkrantz along with BIC students Marta Mugica and Rocío Rivera (both BIC '17) have been chosen by The Second International Congress to lead a panel on "The Evolution of Creative Advertising in Spain and the US" at this year's conference on Historical Links between Spain and North America. It will be held in New York City from May 4th to 7th, 2016.

Professor Blumenkrantz is the panel coordinator who will introduce the theme and panelists. Rocio will speak for 15 min on the evolution of advertising in the U.S. Then Marta will do the same for Spanish advertising. All panelists will compare commercials from both countries as they relate to male stereotyping. Having had an opportunity to set up the historical context and having dissected some actual work, Professor Blumenkrantz will conclude by taking questions or comments from the audience.


Marta and Rocio's submissions were based on analysis that they began to formulate in BIC's foundation course in Idea Development taught by Professors Nancy Tag and Blumenkrantz. 

Conference locations are as follows: 

City College of New York (CUNY) 
Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at CWE 
25 Broadway, 7th Floor 
New York, NY 10004 

And 

Instituto Cervantes: New York 
211 E 49th St. 
New York, NY 10017 

The first draft of the official program will be available on March 7 on the conference website: http://www.historicallinks.com

Secrets from a Female CEO

2/20/2016 Unknown 0 Comments

In a few weeks, BIC will welcome Barri Rafferty, CEO of Ketchum NA and BIC Advisory Board Member, to campus as she delivers the second lecture in our @BIC Series. Please join us for "Leadership, Inclusion + Diversity: Secrets from a Female CEO" on Monday, March 28th at 6PM in Shepard Hall S104.
This follows last semester's inaugural lecture "There's an App for That" by Rob Norman, CDO of GroupM and BIC Advisory Board Member.
Guaranteed seats for BICsters. Open to the public with limited seats. Please RSVP to bic@ccny.cuny.edu

Journalism in the Age of Branded Content…and Vice Versa

2/20/2016 Unknown 0 Comments



BIC is excited to announce its first collaboration with the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism's Tow-Knight Center: “Journalism in the Age of Branded Content…and Vice Versa.” 

The conference began as a conversation between BIC Program Director Nancy Tag and J-School Dean Sarah Bartlett back in the Fall. It's blossomed into a cross disciplinary, one-credit BIC course in Native Advertising that is anchored by this March conference featuring an amazing line-up of speakers. Professor Tag has been working with J-School faculty and members of the Tow-Knight Center Hal Straus, Jeremy Caplan, and Jeff Jarvis to create a dynamic learning experience that puts BIC students, J-School students, and industry pros together for a culminating negotiation that could re-imagine the future of branded content.

"Journalism in the Age of Branded Content...and Vice Versa" will be held on Friday, March 11th at 12:15PM @ CUNY J-School, 219 West 40th Street. Lunch will be served and reception will follow. 

More about the conference: 

As brands increase their native ad spending and news organizations ramp up to compete for those dollars, what are the rules of engagement? Native ad creators from the Wall Street Journal and other publishers will describe what's working now, and how they balance customer requirements with news standards. Lawyers from the New York Times and Covington & Burling will deconstruct the latest Federal Trade Commission guidance on what native ads can and can't say. Experts will report on how consumers are responding to it all -- and get your guidance on questions for future research.

Space is limited. Click here to RSVP. 

Melissa Julien: 3rd MAIP All-Star from BIC

2/20/2016 Unknown 0 Comments


BIG BIC congratulations to Melissa Julien who will be interning this summer at DigitasLBi as one of an elite group of students chosen for the 4A's prestigious Multi-Cultural Advertising Internship Program (MAIP). Melissa is a graduate of Hunter College with a BA in English and is currently in BIC's PR track. 

Each year, undergraduate and graduate students are selected for the 10-week paid summer internship at a 4A's member advertising agency. Students gain practical work experience, establish key industry contacts, and become better prepared to land a full-time job in communications when they graduate. Upon completion of the program, interns become members of the MAIP Alumni Association, a close-knit family of over 2,600 MAIP graduates that fosters the development of future MAIP interns as well as the professional development of the program's alumni.

Melissa joins Chris Villanueva (BIC '15) who is now a copywriter at TBWA and Ivan Ramirez who will be graduating this Spring as BIC beneficiaries of the 4A's MAIP. Because most graduate students are active professionals, fewer grad students apply for and receive this honor. Nonetheless, BIC is proud to have had a MAIP recipient every year since BIC launched in 2013.

BIC Abroad: London Trip Starts at Abbey Road Studios

2/20/2016 Anonymous 0 Comments


Day ONE: in late January, BIC Program Director Nancy Tag began her 3-day trip by meeting with Universal Music Group at Abbey Road Studios to solidify plans for the Spring Capstone Practicum.  As musicians wandered in and out, Ray Mia (CCNY ’01) and his Advanced Media team, including Iain Bruce, plotted out the semester-long assignment for BICsters to create branding campaigns to promote new artists. Nancy toured the facilities along with Professor Jerry Carlson (Chair of the MCA Department) and got a chance to hang out in the studio where The Beatles recorded and filmed Let it Be. They then headed to Central London for a luncheon meeting on the UMG campus in Central London.















Day TWO: Nancy met with Kevin Read, Chairman of Bell Pottinger Corporate and Brand, at their Holborn offices. Bell Pottinger is a British multinational public relations and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest UK-based public relations consultancy measured by 2010 fee income. She was joined by Quentin Langley, PR Professor and author of Brandjack, who made the connection to Nancy through CCNY Professor Lynn Appelbaum.  Later, she and Quentin met up with PR practitioner and author Pamela Mounter at the oh so charming Chartered Institute of Public Relations .


Day TWO, Part TWO: Nancy wrapped up her trip at the Frontline Club in London (above) where she met with John OwenProfessor of International Journalism at City University London and former head of CBC Television News and Executive Producer for Al Jazeera. The two discussed new frontiers in branding as well as the person they had in common: Angela Chitkara, PR track director of BIC.  

BIC Board Member Hayes Roth Sums Up The Future of Advertising

2/02/2016 Unknown 0 Comments

BIC Board member Hayes Roth has penned a perspective on the future of advertising and marketing. He participated in Wharton’s Future of Advertising 2020 Annual Meeting late in 2015, where 50 thought leaders in marketing communications disciplines around the world gathered to envision the future. Hayes was asked to share his personal perspective on the advertising industry and posted his thoughts in a Q&A on LinkedIn

In the article, Roth explores the changing client/agency relationship and the breakdown of traditional marketing and communications silostwo major topics of study in our Spring 2016 curriculum here at BIC.

Hayes Roth is principal of HA Roth Consulting and former CMO of Landor Associates. As a BIC Board member, Roth has helped shape the program and curriculum, and continuously counsels BIC students on the future of the industry.