PiP PiP Hooray!!

3/21/2018 Unknown 0 Comments


On another blustery day in March, the best Talent Cultivators, Super Star Seekers, and Career Catalysts in New York City came to the CCNY campus to meet the future >> The BIC PiP (Portfolio-in-Progress) is a one-of-a-kind event that not only gives recruiters a sneak peek at BICster portfolios months before they’re done, it's a chance for industry experts to provide valuable feedback as students level up their portfolios before receiving their Master’s degree in May. Plus, everyone is treated to lunch from Dinosaur BBQ.

All BIC students — from public relations practitioners, brand managers and strategists to art directors and copywriters — must create a process + product portfolio in order to graduate from our 36-credit, 2-year Master’s degree program. Recruiters from more the 25 organizations were paired with BIC’s 26  soon-to-be grads in “speed” sessions of 12 minutes each. The end of each session was marked with a gong that Professor and Program Director Nancy R. Tag seemed to enjoy using (way too much). 

This year’s RSVPs were from 360i, ABW Solutions, Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe, Devries, Digo Brands, EP+ Co, ESI Design, IDEAcatalyst, Jack Morton, JWT, Ketchum, McCann Worldgroup, Media Gravity, Mother New York, MRM/McCann, Octagon, Ogilvy, Porter Novelli, Quinn, R/GA, Seymour Recruiting, SS+K, TBWA/Chiat/Day, VaynerMedia, Vision7 Communications, and Y&R. 

“The Portfolio-in-Progress is a BIC innovation. It’s a laboratory in which we invite people from the industry to take a sneak peek of our students’ work before its polished. BIC has the confidence to let recruiters into the process by showing portfolios that are incomplete. This way, they are invested in our students as well as the process,” states Professor Tag, Program Director of the Master’s in Branding + Integrated Communications (BIC).

The BIC students represent multi-talented, multi-disciplined, and multi-cultural students from across our nation and the world. The program, established in the fall of 2013, identified the need for a new pool of applicants to meet the demands of industry and its clients for interdisciplinary leadership. Each May, BIC graduates around 25 graduate students ready to lead this dynamic, ever-evolving world of communications. Situated in the media capital of the world, BIC allows students to study the discipline at its nexus -- a coup for recruiters who can access a deep pool of talent just a subway ride away.

For more photos of the day, please see our gallery. Soon to come: videos of the day!
 









Seven Stories as Told by the Singularly Sensational Rob Schwartz

3/17/2018 Unknown 0 Comments


"Let me tell you a story..." 

That's how TBWA/Chiat/DayNY CEO and BIC Board Member Rob Schwartz began his presentation "The Seven Stories" to a packed audience in the first @BIC Lecture of the semester.  Inspired by Christopher Booker's book, The Seven Basic Plots, Rob took guests on a journey of fourteen different brands from Tesla to Disney that adhere to one of seven archetypal stories. Being faithful to their story and amplifying it dynamically and effectively has been the key to differentiation and success. As Rob stated, "In a world of massive fragmentation, the only thing that holds a brand together is its story."

Storytelling isn't new. And science explains why it won't ever lose effectiveness: according to Stanford Graduate School of Business, people are "22 times more likely to remember something when told as a narrative rather than facts alone."  And Harvard Business Review states that the body produces "cortisone during rising conflicts and dopamine as the story reaches resolution."  As brands begin to more fully appreciate the value of storytelling to brand-building, Rob's application of the Seven Stories as a way to codify brand value was not just a revelation, but a useful tool for BIC students as they develop brand identity and communications campaigns for current class projects.  

Sticking around for Q&A, Rob kept the crowd engaged with stories of his own career that's included working for blue-chip brands including Nissan, McDonald's, Pepsi, Thomson Reuters and Visa, to name a few. Along the way he has won nearly every advertising award including Grand Effies, Cannes Lions, and One Show pencils. He has also been a Cannes Lions Jury President and jury member. As CEO at TBWA/Chiat/Day NY Rob was once described as a "CEO's Creative Director." In other words, the rare creative person who is fascinated by all aspects of a business and finds ways to create breakthrough platforms and campaigns that get results and build brands.