Mike Boyce and Fiona Goldstein talk about new media in advertising

Fiona Goldstein is a Digital Brand Marketing Manager for Thompson Hotels, a high end hotel company that rivals well known chains like Hilton and Marriot hotels.  There were many interesting point that Fiona highlighted in her talk, particularly about the transition of marketing and new media in the information age.  Technology has played an integral role in business today, and she has seen first hand the effects of this revolution and how it has changer her role in marketing.  When she first entered the job market, Fiona landed a job working for a boutique firm that specialized in the up and coming area of social media.  Fiona noted that at the time, social media was just developing.  This meant that anyone was involved in the arena of social media was new to the industry because the industry in itself was just starting out.  This meant that she was able to learn with her colleagues about the ins and outs of social media during the inception of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools.  This gave her a tremendous amount of leverage because of all the knowledge she gained as she worked right from the start on implementing social media tools into marketing and advertising.  Fiona now works as a digital brand manager for Thompson Hotels, and she has even more experience and clout in dealing with social media in marketing.  This has allowed her to use these tools to help leverage Thompson Hotels’ marketing and advertising exposure, and stay competitive with their rivals Hilton and Marriot.

Mike Boyce is a Sr. Associate, Copywriter or Rosetta, an advertising and marketing firm located in Manhattan.  Mike is a graduate of Syracuse University, and there is some dumb luck to that.  Ironically enough Mike and I have a mutual friend who was a classmate of Mike’s, and a still a great friend of mine.  It just goes to show that we live in small world, and the world is only getting smaller.  We are more connected than ever in an age where one device can do everything an individual may need when it comes to communication.  Mike has been able to work on a vast number of advertisements from a wide range of companies, non-profits, and public service announcements.  What interested me is that Mike showed us that there is a certain amount of savvy that comes with putting together an advertisement.  He displayed this in the ad he worked on for “Cranium”, which is owned by Hasbro.  Hasbro also owns many of the board games that you grew up playing as a child, and they continue to add games to their lineup of family entertainment products. 

In developing the advertisement for Cranium, Mike and his crew sent out digital video recorders to customers.  These customers were people who were willing to record footage of them playing Cranium with their friends and family, and then send it back to Mike’s agency.  Mike and his team edited the many hours of footage, and put together a television commercial that was different.  It showed real people having a great time playing a board game, and it was their own footage.  I believe the advertisement for a lot of people brought back memories of good times they had when playing a game like Cranium.  In a world where everyone’s lives in some form or another is controlled by technology, it was reminder that you can have a good time with your friends without a television.