Eco-Friendly Digital Marketing Internship

We’ve all been pestered by flies. Annoying critters.

I’m sure some of us, amusingly, have thought about tying a string to them and carrying them around as pets.

However, a Germon book company, Eichborn, dediced to think beyond flies merely as annoyances or pets. They looked at them as advertising media.

“Eichborn’s “smallest commercial gimmick in the world” was simple: attach physical banner ads to actual flies.” You’re kidding? See for yourself @Mashable

Having studied advertising and marketing for four years now, I’ve learned more theory then you could shake a stick at.  However, there is no substitute for real world experience. Some of you may be already familiar with the Bateman Competition, a national case study competition held by PRSSA every year. Each university has a team who acts as an “agency” to develop a public relations campaign for the selected client of the year. This gives students a chance to rack up real campaign experience for actual clients and receive some feedback on their efforts as well outside of a professional setting. The Spartan International Advertising Association over at Michigan State University is pioneering a brand new program, the first of its kind in the country, very similar to the Bateman Competition.

Partnering up with internationally renowned media mogul Mark Carassi, the SIAA is forming a “virtual international agency” to work with real clients on a global scale. Using contacts established by Carassi, the SIAA will work with big name players such as LG, Samsung, and Sony providing advertising consulting services in return for educational grants for MSU. Carassi got the idea from a similar program overseas and saw MSU’s student IAA chapter as the perfect fit. The SIAA is the first student chapter of the IAA in the country and for those of you interested in participating in this virtual agency can attend an informational meeting next Thursday, October 15th at 5:30 in room C213 in Wells Hall.

More and more corporations are starting to combine their advertising efforts with the trend to go eco-friendly, a relationship known to some as eco-advertising or eco-vertising.  This relationship allows corporations to benefit from advertising about their attitude and interventions in regard to eco-friendly business. 

Despite the message the eco-friendly ads these corporations are sending  many are forgetting that the means through which they are sending them are far from eco-friendly.  Using mass print media such as magazines or newspapers, fliers or billboards all of which require paper, printing, transportation, and numerouse other un-natural and environmentally deterring resources to create.  The big question is, is it the profit margin of this new niche market they are trying to capitalize on or are they really hoping to make a difference? 

Although some corporations unfortunately might be making the choice for the wrong reasons there are many out there that are leading the way in eco-vertising. 

For starters Toyota known today for being one of the leaders in Hybrid cars took their eco-friendly outreach to a whole new level when introducing their 3rd generation Prius at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.  Instead of handing out glossy brochures inside large plastic bags to be carried around the show by as many people as they can get their hands on, they chose to continue to make positive changes by handing out paper cards in the shape of their new car with seeds embedded in them.  When placed in soil and given water and light the seeds in these cards provided beautiful flowers for their audience to remember them by all summer long.  Stepping out of the box and into an eco-friendly mindset Toyota not only lead the way with their eco-friendly car but also stood as one of the eco-vertising leaders at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show!

So how many other ways can a company eco-vertise? 

Curb, a natural media company based in London, UK has answered this question with their unique eco-vertising concepts.  Clean advertising and snow tagging are two out of the many I found interesting in their bag of tricks.

• Clean advertising: laser cut stencils are put on surfaces like a pavement and the surface is then cleaned to let the message shine through the dirt and grime.
• Snow tagging: company logos/messages are branded into the snow for a winter advertising.

Despite the out of the box thinking and unique eco-vertising techniques being developed there are other ways to go green which can start sooner than you think.  One niche that I personally have become a big fan of that is growing exponentially is the use of digital media as a platform for advertising.  It requires nothing but the power of technology that is already on the desktops and palms of your target audience.  Digital media eliminates the need for most (or at least some to start with) print material and provides mass outreach like never before, best of all this method of going green saves you some green at the same time!

Derek Mehraban (CEO, Ingenex Digital Marketing) continues to develop the digital media presence for individuals and businesses so they can eco-vertise to reach their audience.  Mehraban is not only focused on providing an eco-friendly service but like Toyota, he supports this green initiative through other parts of his company.  In Mehraban’s case it is not an eco-friendly pamphlet but a unique eco-friendly internship program that helps interns like myself reduce the carbon footprint on the world.  

Deepti Dewan Chowdhry

Consumer generated content (also known as user-generated content or consumer generated media) is “any material created and uploaded to the Internet by non-media professionals.” [1] The earliest forms of CGC were discussion networks in the 1980s and in the late-1990s, rating sites became popular. Nowadays, CGC is flooding the internet with the popularity of websites like Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia. Consumer generated content consists of review sites, wikis, blogs, forums, social networking sites, content sharing sites, and more. With faster internet connections, people are now able to upload more files, pictures, and videos onto the internet.

This growing popularity of consumer generated content has caused good and bad consequences. Consumer generated content has allowed a larger information base on the web[2]. The consumer can now create content and share information and opinions. Websites like LinkedIn and Facebook make it easier to network with professionals and keep in touch with friends. However, despite the benefits of CGC, there are a few problems that are concerning to media professionals. A problem with CGC is its reliability. CGC can be created by anyone with an internet connection. Sources may not be credible and information may be biased².

Consumer generated content, whether good or bad, has its effects on advertising. Advertising has become more interactive as opposed to one-way messages¹. Advertisers must be careful, because there is less control over CGC. Therefore, ads are incorporated with little clutter, becoming just another opinion in the mix. Advertisers are still unsure how to go about CGC ads, but they will be forced to learn because not adapting to this change may bring on worse consequences¹.

MSU Spartan Interns Rock!

The digital marketing interns from Michigan State University have been awesome this summer 2008. Our first class for the Digital Marketing Internship at Ingenex Digital Marketing yielded some incredible results.

Since it was our first semester, we all learned together. But I can say that the class of Grant Heitkamp, Kevin Conlon and Lia Homeister has been wonderful.

Kevin Conlon is an excellent people person. His relationship building skills, and his can do attitude will make him a great addition to any team. He has helped us push forward some big projects this summer, and he has learned all about digital marketing on the way. I see Kevin as an account manager or sales executive. And anyone who can sell, and knows digital will go far in this business.

Grant Heitkamp has a wonderful grasp of digital marketing. If you view his blog and see what he’s posted to the eco-friendly internship blog, you know what I’m talking about. Grant came up with the name Social Harbor for our new Social Media Professional Management product we are launching. Grant also took on more work and spent some additional hours at Ingenex headquarters. You headhunters out there, I would grab this guy. He plans to go to Miami Ad School, but we’ll have to see about that.

Lia Homeister has been a quiet and talented addition to our team this summer. She gets things done. She has done a stellar job of completing every assignment, and she is smart. Her wonderful personality, combined with her work ethic will make her an asset to any agency that picks her up. Of course, they will have to wait another couple years. Lia is a Junior at Michigan State this coming year. I am impressed by her maturity. And I hope she sticks with Digital moving forward. She plans to study abroad in Korea in the fall and you can follow her travels on her blog.

The next class of eco-friendly interns has some big shoes to fill. I am sure that MSU will send another wonderful class. As for what I am looking for? People with curiosity. Smart people. Who want to understand and master the digital media. I know this is where the future of our business lies. And I want students who know this too, and want to be the best. I hope to help Grant, Kevin and Lia all land good jobs in the industry. I want to thank them for their hard work. They are stars!

Have you gotten one of these yet? Busting on the scene a couple years ago, these new USB thumb drives are just starting to get mainstream attention. They are essentially business cards in digital form, distributed by companies big and small (although a little pricey for the small guys). Companies can put any kind of media they want you to see on here, from promotional product pitches to pictures, music, and videos for their consumers. These have a large advantage (except in the dollar department) over those mini-CD business cards you might remember from a couple years back. With these Marketing Thumb Drives consumers can read over whatever the providing company has put on them, and then either erase them or just keep on using the storage media. This is much more Eco-Friendly than tossing those previous mini-CD’s in the landfills. So keep an eye out, these should be popping up more and more in the coming months.

[Via: TreeHugger]