Latest BIC MAIP Superstar is Roxie Xie

3/28/2019 Anonymous 0 Comments



Roxie is rockN it as BIC’s latest MAIP All-Star. This summer, Roxie Xie, BIC Class of 2020, will be a strategy intern at Wondersauce here in New York City.  This is the fifth BIC student to earn a spot in this prestigious 4A's Multicultural Internship Program.


Originally from the Hubei Province of China, Roxie earned her economics degree from New York University in 2015. Her professional experience includes being an independent documentary producer, journalist, and culture curator and writer for YOHO! magazine. She’s studying in the BIC program in order to realize a short-term goal to “create a New York-based marketing and branding agency that serves as a bridge between Chinese and American fashion brands and consumers. I aim to consciously select brands that are not only ethically sourced and produced, but brands that also deliver positive and truthful messages to consumers.”


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.

Roxie joins BICsters Sean Feol-Baugh (BIC ’18) who interned at McCann, Melissa Julien (BIC ’17) who interned at DigitasLBi, Chris Villanueva (BIC '15) who interned at TBWA\Chiat\DayNY, and Ivan Ramirez (BIC ’16) as BIC beneficiaries of the 4A's MAIP. Because most graduate students are active professionals, few BICsters apply for and receive this honor. Nonetheless, BIC is proud to have had a MAIP recipient nearly every year since BIC launched in 2013.

Douglas Rushkoff's @BIC Asks: Are You on Team Human?

3/27/2019 Anonymous 0 Comments


On Tuesday, March 19th, our first @BIC Lecture of the semester, "Are You on Team Human?" followed BIC's Spring Open House as Digital Theorist Douglas Rushkoff offered up highlights of his latest manifesto. Weaving an engaging narrative on the power of human connection and how modern forces threaten our sense of community and well being, Dr. Rushkoff proved why MIT has proclaimed him one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals.”  

During her introduction, BIC Program Director Nancy R. Tag noted that BIC's Fall semester had been jammed packed with an incredible series of @BIC Lectures -- from IPG CEO Michael Roth to design icon Paula Scher, from Ketchum CEO Barri Rafferty on "Notes from Davos" to industry prognostications at "The Future in Five." 

It seemed like too much excitement for one year. But then...out came the publication of Douglas Rushkoff's latest book Team Human and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to invite this amazing author, professor, and theorist to campus for an @BIC Lecture and celebratory book signing.

What does it mean to be on Team Human? This is a question that BICsters ponder in our program as it relates to branding and communications. It’s a debate in the tech world. In politics. And in our everyday life.

On page 199 of Team Human, Dr. Rushkoff writes: “Those of us seeking to retrieve some community and connection today do it with greater awareness of the alternatives. We don’t retrieve collectivism by happenstance, but by choice.”

And so we were delighted that so many people chose to be collectively @BIC on Tuesday evening to connect to this important, very human voice.



ABOUT Douglas Rushkoff: Named one of the "world's ten most influential intellectuals" by MIT, Douglas Rushkoff is an author, documentarian, and professor at Queens College who studies human autonomy in a digital age. Team Human is his twentieth book. His productions include PBS Frontline documentaries "Generation Like," "The Persuaders," and "Merchants of Cool." His book Coercion won the Marshall McLuhan Award. The Media Ecology Association honored him with the first Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

ABOUT The @BIC Lecture Series: BIC's signature forum brings thought leaders and industry icons to campus each semester. Past lecturers have included IPG's Michael Roth, Ketchum CEO Barri Rafferty, Iconic Designer Paula Scher, TBWA\Chiat\DayNY CEO Rob Schwartz, GroupM CDO/CEO Rob Norman, Golin CEO+ Matt Neale, Weber Shandwick President Gail Heimann, as well as authors Michael Farmer, Douglas Davis, Marion Salzman, and Sandra Stahl.

BIC 2019 Portfolio Bootcamp Kicks Serious Butt

3/27/2019 Anonymous 0 Comments


Each year, second year BICsters take a break from classes to participate in a full week of BIC Portfolio Bootcamp. From March 18th - 21st, the Class of 2019 worked intensely on their portfolios with the help of visiting professionals who provided design, content, and storytelling expertise. Nights were themed around a topic such as User Experience, Craft, Dynamic Content, and Troubleshooting -- as well as dinner: Italian, Indian, BBQ, and Breakfast.

Our professional mentors offered invaluable expertise and next-level feedback giving BIC students all the insider tips, trick, and tools they'll need to perfect their portfolios for what we expect will be standout presentations on Portfolio Thesis Defense day May 28th. We were especially excited to welcome back some BIC alums who are now successful pros -- and truly know how to bring a BIC portfolios to life.

A BIG BIC THANKS to our amazing experts, many who’ve done the boot camp many times: Vistar Media's Monique Naoum, Google's Mateo ZlatarSharleen Smith, Digital Lead at MassMutual. com, CarrotNewYork’s Denise BrydLaura Giraudo, Creative Director of Bardo Industries, Jeannie Huang, Senior Product Designer of Adobe, Rafael Esquer, Creative Director of Alfalfa,  Art Director at Droga5 Castro Desroches BIC ’17, Brand Analyst at FutureBrand Andy Kwan BIC ’16, Senior Video Editor at Publicis Vanessa Aoki, Senior Graphic Designer, Yoni Weiss, and Motion Graphics Editor Keith Olwell, Filmmaker and Analyst at Vimeo Christina Schnabel, Creative Director at Assemble Studio, Abraham Espinosa, and Digital Content Specialist, Dilber Shatursun. 

2019 PiP Preps BIC's 5th Graduating Class

3/17/2019 Unknown 0 Comments


Despite a gloomy weather forecast, the sun truly shined on this year’s BIC PiP, our annual recruiting event. New York’s best Talent Cultivators, Super Star Seekers, and Career Catalysts came to campus to review the portfolios-in-progress of BIC’s Class of 2019 for an energizing two hours. Thirty recruiters were paired with BIC students for 12 minute “speed” sessions to review and provide valuable feedback on BICster portfolios months before they’re done and students receive their Master’s degree in May. As a reward for coming to CCNY, everyone got 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. This year’s RSVPs were from Digitas, ABW Solutions,  DeVries, Cramer Kasselt, Droga5, EP+ Co, ESI Design, Fenton, Finn Partners, FCB Health, Jack Morton, Ketchum, Google, Mother New York, Golin, Weber Shandwick, Octagon, Porter Novelli, Quinn, Horizon Media, FBI Talent, Idea Catalyst, Oberland, Publicis, Verizon 140, TBWA/Chiat/Day, Citizen Relations, Vision7 Communications, and VMLY&R. 

“The Portfolio-in-Progress — or PiP —  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 Nancy R. 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 30 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.

See more photos in our BIC Gallery HERE.


International Women's Day Panel Features BIC Professor Angela Chitkara

3/10/2019 Unknown 0 Comments


In honor of International Women's Day and as part of a month-long reflection on issues women face in the workplace, Porter Novelli convened a panel discussion in New York City to talk about the current state of affairs. Panelists included BIC Professor Angela Chitkara, Kendra Clarke, VP of data science and product development at Sparks and Honey, Cheryl Miller Houser, Founder and CEO of Creative Breed, Soon Mee Kim, EVP of Diversity and Inclusion at Porter Novelli, and Joanna Barsh, director emerita of McKinsey who was able to speak directly to the most recent McKinsey & Company 2018 study that shows that women’s representation, especially at the most senior ranks, has stalled or is regressing. 

Expanding on her research which was the basis of an article in Harvard Business Review, Professor Chitkara addressed the need for PR agencies to be more diverse and inclusive. 

"Organizational structures were not designed for those outside of the dominant culture," says Soon Mee Kim, Porter Novelli's leader of global diversity and inclusion.

Read more about this event here in PR Week.

Calling All Humans: @BIC with Douglas Rushkoff on Tuesday, March 19th

3/08/2019 Unknown 0 Comments


Humans of the world, unite!

Pre-eminent digital theorist Douglas Rushkoff is coming to City College on March 19th for our first @BIC Lecture of the semester to  celebrate his latest publication and pro-people manifesto, Team Human. Harnessing wide-ranging research on human evolution, biology, and psychology, Team Human proclaims that when we work together, we realize greater happiness, productivity, and peace.

Walter Isaacson calls Team Human “a provocative, exciting, and important rallying cry to reassert our human spirit of community and teamwork.” The Wall Street Journal describes it as “hopeful suggestions for mending the fabric of society frayed by a ‘state of perpetual distraction.’”

Need a group hug? Come join the conversation in this very human forum. Afterwards, books will be sold and signed (in person, one-on-one, human-to-human) by the author, Douglas Rushkoff.

RSVP here.

ABOUT Douglas Rushkoff: Named one of the "world's ten most influential intellectuals" by MIT, Douglas Rushkoff is an author, documentarian, and professor at Queens College who studies human autonomy in a digital age. Team Human is his twentieth book. His productions include PBS Frontline documentaries "Generation Like," "The Persuaders," and "Merchants of Cool." His book Coercion won the Marshall McLuhan Award. The Media Ecology Association honored him with the first Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

ABOUT The @BIC Lecture Series: BIC's signature forum brings thought leaders and industry icons to campus each semester. Past lecturers have included IPG's Michael Roth, Ketchum CEO Barri Rafferty, Iconic Designer Paula Scher, TBWA\Chiat\DayNY CEO Rob Schwartz, GroupM CDO/CEO Rob Norman, Golin CEO+ Matt Neale, Weber Shandwick President Gail Heimann, as well as authors Michael Farmer, Douglas Davis, Marion Salzman, and Sandra Stahl.  

Procter and Gamble Shines a Light on Diversity with a Campaign Created by BICsters that Spotlights BICsters.

3/01/2019 Unknown 0 Comments

BICsters Kelvin Morales '19 and Natalie Alcide '19 rose to superstardom this summer while working for the Marcus Graham Project (see BIC posts 4/19/18 and 2/12/18). As teammates, they were tasked by Procter & Gamble to develop a social campaign that would inspire the advertising industry to significantly improve racial equity. Working directly with P&G's Digital Communications Manager, Jeremy Smith, Kelvin served as the account manager and strategist handling client relations, planning, and managing a group of 3 creatives. As art director, Natalie came up with the campaign concept as well as designed all the social posts.

Their campaign #MyPerspectiveMatters was pitched to the VP of Global Communications & Advocacy as well as other senior marketing executives from the world's largest consumer products company. It was not only the selected campaign, but was ultimately produced by P&G, running for the first time in mid-February 2019. In less than a week, the Instagram and Twitter posts received over 1.8k impressions. The campaign was amplified on P&G's social media platforms for the remainder of Black History month.

The #MyPerspectiveMatters campaign highlights what Kelvin identified to be the most important benefit of diversity: different perspectives. Their communications goal was not only to inspire the advertising industry, but also P&G's general consumer base in order to highlight the power of having diverse perspectives in decision-making roles.

BIC Program Director and Professor Nancy R. Tag said, "As someone who was chosen to create P&G's very first corporate commercial nearly 30 years ago, I know what a singular honor it is to be selected to represent the largest consumer goods company in the world. I'm impressed by the strategic thinking and creativity of Kelvin and Nat, but not at all surprised that their work was chosen to speak on behalf of P&G's diversity efforts. They're amazing talents and do BIC proud!"

P&G project lead Jeremy Smith is currently overseeing the 2019 Marcus Graham Project's application process. He is an MGP alumnus himself and has a dedicated commitment to closing the diversity gap in this industry. "Sometimes it's hard to think from another person's perspective, but if we did we'd understand each other more and create better products and serve consumers better."


ABOUT The Marcus Graham Project: Inspired by a blog written by Tiffany R. Warren, Chief Diversity Officer of The Omnicom Group and Founder of the AdColor Industry Coalition, the goal of the Marcus Graham Project's iCR8 Summer Boot Camp is to identify opportunities in the industry and those interested in pursuing them. The curriculum design was inspired by the 1969 Agency Primer written by Bill Sharp entitled, “How to Be Black And Get a Job in The Advertising Business Anyway.” Approaching its 9th year, the Marcus Graham Project’s experiential learning methodology is specifically designed to provide diverse aspirants in the field of marketing and media, including advertising, PR & social media with the exposure and experience necessary to solidify careers within the industry.

ABOUT Procter & Gamble: the American multi-national consumer goods corporation is headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.  Founded in 1837, P&G's current earnings is estimated at over $9.750 billion with a market capitalization valued at over $221.5 billion. In 2018, Procter & Gamble was ranked No. 42 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Young Ones Jury Unveiled!! Includes BIC Program Director

3/01/2019 Unknown 0 Comments

 

For more than thirty years, The One Club for Creativity has been passionate about showcasing the ingenuity of students and young professionals through its annual competition, The Young Ones Student Awards. It is considered one of the world’s most acclaimed competitive showcases for advertising, digital communication, and design students. Today, The One Club announced the jury for 2019 and once again, it includes Professor and BIC Program Director Nancy R. Tag. It's an impressive array of professionals and educators (and a hybrid of the two). An email sent to students stated:  “The One Club for Creativity has searched high and low to put together a world-class jury for each Young One competition, and we’re excited to finally unveil them to you! These creative pros and educators come from many disciplines and from all over the globe, but they have the same mission: to elevate the best of the best student work in the world.”

In addition to serving on the Young Ones Jury, Professor Tag has also been selected to serve on The One Club’s Young One’s 2019 Advisory Board.

See the full list of jurists HERE.