But I must say that I underestimated the difficulty of moving 2,000 miles away, even for a brief three months.  Evanston is just a short drive from my old stomping grounds in Wisconsin.  I can only imagine what this is like for some of our international students!  Living in a new city can be quite a challenge, especially when you don’t have cable TV.  Don’t get me wrong – Portland is a fun city and I was lucky enough to work with a recent IMC grad who helped me learn the area.  But I missed seeing my IMC friends that I had gotten to know so well during the first stage of the program.  As we exchanged emails and Facebook messages this summer, one theme emerged … when we get back for the start of fifth quarter, let’s make it a “September to remember”!

Here’s a recap of my September thus far:

-  I drove all the way from Oregon to Illinois, all by my lonesome self.  Along the way, I almost ran out of gas in North Dakota, and well….have you ever driven through North Dakota and western Minnesota?  Boring and frightening in a “Children of the Corn”-type way.

-  On Sept. 1, my favorite sports team (Milwaukee Brewers) had a 5.5 game lead in the Wild Card race and looked like a lock for the postseason.  Less than three weeks later, they’re on the outside looking in (1.5 games back).  Today they blew a 4-run lead with 2 outs in the 9th inning, losing to the rival Cubs.  For my international friends, the soccer equivalent would be giving up two goals in the last minute of extra time for the tie, then losing the game on penalty kicks.  Did I mention that the last time the Brewers were in the playoffs, I was wearing diapers?  It’s a good thing I have low blood pressure.

-  I moved into my new Evanston apartment.  Great location, but due to a stroke of bad luck I ended up shuttling my furniture into the place through a cold, driving rain that didn’t let up all day.  Less than a week later, Chicago endured a flood-inducing megastorm that exposed a leak in my living room ceiling.  A nice, relaxing Sunday evening of football-watching turned into me catching streams of water with pots and pans.  Fun times.

Luckily I’ve been blessed with the ability to persevere through these types of obstacles without losing my cool – a skill that comes in handy as an Medill IMC student.

So yeah, I could definitely use a few drinks at the Keg of Evanston and the start of classes on Tuesday to take my mind off things.  It should be a great quarter, all things considered … even with the ordeal of finding a job.  I look forward to seeing everyone again and meeting the incoming class of 2009!

……….Paul Krause

A conspicuous thing about the burgeoning city is its chaotic traffic. No one seems to care about traffic signals. Cars, bikes and pedestrians go, pass and cross whenever and wherever they want. I freaked out several times because taxi drivers threaded their way through traffic by dodging cars and sometimes cars almost crashed into a bikes. But everyone seemed used to it and strangely enough there appeared to be order in such utter disorder. Instead of the artificial arrangement or interference of ‘walk’ and ‘don’t walk’ signs we are used to in the U.S., everyone was just going with the flow. I think this natural stream of traffic is indicative of what drives the Chinese. A simple idea that they’d rather let long-lasting customs and old habits take their progressive course and serve as a strong wind that moves society forward.

Shanghai is a city on the go. From the outside, Shanghai’s cityscape of skyscrapers is serenely breathtaking. With all the beautiful buildings including the most popular Pearl Tower, the metropolitan paints a picture of a fabulous city. An insider’s view, however, reveals people striving to catch up with rapid changes. There’s a lot of construction going on one block after another. On every corner of the tall office and apartment buildings, streets are lined up with breakfast stalls from 5am every morning. Early birds in the city buy youtiaos (deep fried bread stick), dumplings and soy milks to grab a bite on their way to work. I saw a lot of commuters in the bus holding a small plastic bag of baos which they’d bought on-the-go. Rarely do these folks have the time to enjoy breakfast with their family. Many people skip breakfast altogether while others fill up their empty stomachs with unsubstantial portions. Observing their lifestyle, I have great sympathy with them who are struggling to keep up such a face-paced society. It’s really tough. Philosophilizing again, I think the rapid growth of China is thanks to these busy, hardworking people. 

Food is one topic I can never forget to talk about after the trip to China. The Chinese have so many different kinds of gourmet food as well as delicious cuisines at reasonable prices all over the city. I want to talk more about one I mentioned earlier – the bao. It is a steamed, filled bun in various Chinese cuisines and usually eaten for breakfast. Xiaolongbao is a kind of bao which is a small, meat-filled bun from Shanghai. What makes is so special is the juicy broth coming out of the meat after steaming. One of the best Xiaolongbao I had was at the Yuyuan Garden. It is one of the must-go places for tourists in Shanghai and there’s always a long line of people waiting to try one. After a 40-minute wait drenched in sweat, I finally got a chance to bite one. It was worth waiting. I just loved it! I have to think that passion and eagerness is to Chinese society what hot steam is to baos. It’s not just 100-degree weather that makes the nation keep boiling… I think it is the great ardor that Chinese people have in their minds that makes it one of the fastest developing countries in the world.

……….Joan Kim

One of the first steps in the integrated marketing communications (IMC) process (and one that separates the philosophy from marketing of an MBA program) is identifying the consumer’s need. Just because a company is able to manufacture a product or offer a service, it doesn’t mean there will be a good market for it. So without establishing a need, an organization can spend a lot of time, money and resources into a project that has no takers. Just like the intern.

Another important moral from the story of the intern is to be very careful when assuming. This again is firmly stressed in IMC and which is why market research is a critical component of the process.

………Ateeq Abdul Rauf

1. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Li and Bernoff
2. Here Comes Everybody:The Power of Organizing Without Orgnizations by Clay Shirky
3. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

Groundswell by Li and Bernoff

So if you head to the beach one last time this summer, make sure to pack one of these fascinating books along with your towel and sunscreen.

……….Whitney Wilkinson

At HSBC I performed analysis on its loyalty card and retail loyalty marketing by using internal and external research. My deliverables included 12 case studies and a presentation to the senior vice president of marketing. I learned a lot about loyalty marketing in America and also a great amount of insight about financial services. It was a lot of fun.

Summer time in Chicago is fantastic … BBQ on 4th of July, art festivals every weekend in different parts of town and wonderful drinks at Mexican restaurants. A few of my friends visited Chicago this summer and all of them loved the city as well. They said Chicago is the clean version of New York and I couldn’t agree more. I am currently in London and I really miss the space and cleanliness of Chicago.

I am really looking forward to the last quarter’s capstone project. I will be working on the HP Snapfish project and couldn’t be more excited. I worked for HP Asia Pacific several years ago and it was great. I believe the course will be wonderful.

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Results of the first (statistically significant) longitudinal study on corporate use of social media reveal some interesting statistics:

• 39% of Inc. 500 companies have blogs, compared to 11.6% of Fortune 500 companies
• In the past year, 20% more Inc. 500 companies started blogging, compared to 3.6% more Fortune 500s
• 44% of Inc. 500s think social media is very important to their business/marketing strategy, compared to 25% last year
• Inc. 500s are most familiar with social networking, while wikis have seen the most growth in terms of familiarity
• 77% of Inc. 500 companies report using at least some social media tool

It’s not surprising that the Inc. 500 companies are outpacing the Fortune 500s in social media adoption. It’s also encouraging to see the increased recognition of social media’s role in a company’s business/marketing strategy. However, simply using social media and thinking it is important is very different from effectively using social media and integrating it into a company’s everyday operations.

At Zappos.com (one of the Inc. 500), for example, almost everyone blogs. The CEO and COO have their own blog, and many other employees blog on Running, Fashion Culture, Outdoor and more. Zappos.com also uses Twitter (not included in the above study) as part of its customer service function, fostering a sense of community between the company and its customers, and between customers themselves.

Contrast that with the list of social media fiascos, like Whole Foods’ CEO hiding his identity and posting comments anonymously. Or Wal-Mart’s fake blog that was financed by Edelman.

An important and often neglected factor in effectively employing social media is the choice of people to “reveal” to the public. Unfortunately, not all bloggers are born equal – some people just have more personality than others. Figuring out who should be the “social media face” of the company is not a trivial matter.

Integration should also not be taken lightly. Social media tactics cannot be stand-alone events, but should instead be part of the execution of marketing strategy designed to meet business goals. I believe metrics for measuring the impact of social media (Return On Involvement?) will eventually develop to aid in the integration process.

Mashable does a nice job of highlighting many more examples of effective corporate social media.

———-

If you’re interested in stuff like that, leave me a comment and I’ll direct you to the rest of my blog posts!

……….Rachelle Goh

I then applied to what I saw as a long shot, a summer residency at Conde Nast Publications in New York City. I had begun my residency search wanting to work only for an agency in Chicago and here I was applying for a magazine company in New York City. While I was nervous about life in New York, the project was exactly what I wanted to do. In the interest of keeping this short, after a few interviews, let’s just say I was surprised and delighted to find out I was chosen to be Conde Nast’s first Medill IMC resident.

To sum up this summer, the only word I can say is: AMAZING. I was challenged and surprised every day. But to understand this, it is important to know what it was like in June when I moved to New York. Before work started, I was interested to find out how “different” working would be after three quarters of graduate school. I didn’t feel any different and knew that my work style hadn’t changed, so how was IMC really going to help me with this residency? If grad school was anything like undergrad, I would only use my social skills and none of the classes. But from the first day, I realized more and more how even the little things I learned at Medill IMC prepared me for my project. The classes that I thought were pointless at the time were helping me make knowledgeable decisions and actionable recommendations. We talk about return on investment as an important measurement in all IMC practices, and from my summer experience I feel I received a great return – higher than expected. While I can’t go into too many details, all I can say is that all of my worries and frustration at the beginning of the process don’t even compare to the end result. I learned that like all things, the more you put in the more you’ll get out; not to underestimate your abilities or what you’ve learned; and most importantly, that challenging yourself can be the most rewarding experience.

As the summer comes to a close and I pack up to drive back to Chicago, I’m now torn between being excited to see friends and finish school, and leaving New York and my project. I don’t know what excitement, frustration, anxiety, or surprises are ahead in the fifth quarter, but I’m ready to find out. Besides, if all goes well, this amazing summer will only be a precursor of things to come after graduation.

……….Megan Edelson

There are two interesting parts to residency grading. Part of the evalution criteria lies in making a short video about the experience. The main goal of this video is aptly summed up by Medill IMC Residency Advisor Caitlin Lyttle Crotty, “…to help you learn how to talk about your residency in terms of a business problem that you solved.” If granted permission by residency sponsors, these videos will also be posted on YouTube, a platform which in the past few years as you may know has become entwined with all things captured on a video camera.

A residency-related special treat also awaits incoming students and this forms another portion of our grades. All summer residents will get to briefly present their work on stage at the Forum during the Fall Quarter. The administration has made these presentations mandatory for newbies – a move that will really help immerse new students into the program.

New students, prospective employers and others intrigued by the nature of the summer residency may wish to explore http://www.youtube.com/IMCResidency2007, where last year’s summer residents tell you about their experiences.

………Ateeq Abdul Rauf

Shanghai was sizzling…in more ways than one. In the more apparent way, the weather was rather warm. It was common to experience temperatures up to 90 degrees during the day and, on top of that, the women among us had to wear business casual and high heels. But Shanghai also sizzled because it was a great trip in terms of the exposure we received to a new culture, new people and, of course, a new way of working.

19 students and two faculty members made the two week sojourn to China. The IMC student contingent was split into four groups. Two groups worked on the corporate side (Pizza Hut and KFC), while two teams were assigned ad agency projects (Draftfcb and McCann Erickson).

The team working on Dannon (a Draftfcb client) led a very healthy lifestyle during the trip as their work involved understanding breakfast preferences for Chinese locals. They woke up very early to be on the streets at 7 AM to observe food stands (and consequently fall asleep by 9 in the evening).

The Pizza Hut group had their entire schedule mapped out by by the client (including the weekends). The Pizza Hut staff also ensured that the team had their fair share of Pizza Hut cuisine!

Serious work in Shanghai

The KFC team tuned into amazing presentations one after the other and visited the offices of three client partners: Ogilvy-Shanghai (a creative agency), Synovate (a market research agency), and Tencent QQ (an online portal and instant messaging service).

The students assigned to Puma, a McCann Erickson client, also found themselves traversing the Shanghai streets to visit sports stores. McCann Erickson had given the IMCers a lot to explore, and they were assigned to build Puma‘s brand image in the face of stiff international and local competition.

IMC’s global residency teams also listened to a presentation by Yum! Brands on KFC, Pizza Hut and East Dawning (a Chinese fast food restaurant). The same afternoon Prof. Frank Mulhern gave a talk on “What is IMC” for Yum! Brands – China employees and had in-depth discussions with them afterwards.

The KFC team with employees of YUM! Brands - China

It wasn’t all work though. Yes, we worked hard, but we played even harder. We went out at night. The students collectively tried many cuisines around Shanghai. Several of us took a trip on Huangpu River to appreciate the magnificent night view.

The IMC Welcome Drink on the night of July 7 was a great success. The venue, Bar Rouge, has a breathtaking view and served as a great treat for the newly arriving IMCers. In addition to the touring group, 7 alumni and 6 from the upcoming class of 2009 joined us (even though only two were part of my contact list). 3 more potential IMC candidates also arrived to pleasantly surprise us, and one of them had traveled all the way from Beijing!

Before returning we also gathered for a Shanghai experience-sharing dinner. We also united once more to celebrate the birthdays of our beloved Prof. Mulhern and classmate Bronwen Murray.

All in all we had a great time in Shanghai.

……….Wendy Hsiao-wen Chen

It’s been a superb fall, winter and spring at Medill IMC. But for now at least, it’s a return to the real world. Nearly all my fellow classmates at Medill IMC have been enrolled in the three-unit summer residency. The summer program, a substitute for coursework, is highly recommended and gives students a chance to exhibit practical application of the learnings over the past three quarters.

Comparing a residency to an academic quarter in the classroom is like comparing an apple to a peach. Both have their pros and cons. But the great thing about the IMC program at Medill is that it allows you the opportunity to experience both. And even though I personally prefer coursework, there is a feeling this 11-week exercise may be equally significant, if not more so, when it comes to my future career.

Residencies are also important to most students as they fund tuition for the summer quarter.

You will find Medill IMC students applying their trade in residencies of every description this summer. From the very best advertising agencies in America located in sky-touching high-rises in downtown Chicago… to a small-scale computer software firm 10 minutes from the Medill IMC home at the McCormick Tribune Center… to the division of a fried chicken, fast food chain half way across the world in Shanghai…to a well-reputed chemical firm in a little known town in the heart of Michigan…to a beautiful office in a small suburb outside of Denver…to the Kellogg Media Management Center at Fisk Hall…to the breathtaking, rustic, mountainous city of sweet Portland… and on and on.

You will also find interesting diversity in the work being done as well, ranging from the very data-centric analytics residency to the tactical implementation of an IMC branding strategy to cutting-edge work in media management.

A notable thing about the residency is that it makes you work hard during the week and relax during the weekend. Working hours are typical of a regular job; in fact, employers of residents are expected to treat students like full-time staff members. And although the long hours leave little time to do anything else during the week, this also means that the weekend is available at your mercy to indulge in whichever way you please.

Talking about weeknights…since I have chosen to pen this blog on one, I think this is an opportune time to end it here.

……….Ateeq Abdul Rauf