Subscribe via RSS Feed Connect with Vitamin IMC on LinkedIn
Medill IMC

Category: Brand Strategy

IMC Grad Checks in for Real-life Night at the Museum

IMC Grad Checks in for Real-life Night at the Museum

When Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) offered the opportunity for one person to become its month-long “roommate,” Kevin Byrne (MS Medill ’10) jumped at the chance to live, work and interact with guests at the South Side cultural institution. More than 1,000 applicants from across the country sent videos extolling the reasons they [...]

Our Picks for Best and Worst Super Bowl Ads

Our Picks for Best and Worst Super Bowl Ads

Vitamin IMC staff and graduate students in Northwestern University’s Medill IMC program reviewed and voted on the best and worst ads from Super Bowl XLVI. Here is a rundown on our top choices. Let us know what you think? Did we get it right? The Best These top ads ran away with the votes, and [...]

Vitamin IMC Live Tweets the Super Bowl

Vitamin IMC staff encourage friends of the blog to live tweet Super Bowl XLVI. Let us know what you think of the ads or chat with us about which ads left an impression. Simply tag your tweets with #vimcbowlads and join the conversation with @vitaminimc. We will start tweeting when the game begins at 6 [...]

IMC Talent Q: Nine attributes behind winning marcom

IMC Talent Q: Nine attributes behind winning marcom

Last Tuesday, Northwestern University’s Medill IMC students and alumni, along with members from the Chicago marketing community, gathered for the IMC Talent Q symposium. Like the name suggests, the Talent Q had a keen focus on uncovering and understanding the talent that stands behind today’s winning marketing and communications programs. To understand the driving forces [...]

IMC Talent Q tackles issue of effective people management

IMC Talent Q tackles issue of effective people management

Organizations need talented people more than talented people need organizations. So says Robert P. Gandossy, one of the world’s foremost experts on developing talent and leadership and founder of the annual Top Companies for Leaders study. But at a time when staffs are less loyal to employers, how does an organization identify, recruit, engage and [...]

Steve Jobs’ marketing legacy

Steve Jobs’ marketing legacy

I wouldn’t describe myself as an Apple “fangirl” (although I do love my iPhone and plan to make an iPad one of my first post-grad purchases) but news of Steve Jobs’ death tonight has me feeling a bit emotional. I’m giving away my age here, but when I heard the news (via my iPhone no [...]

Facebook customer engagement: candles, milk, and their fans

Facebook customer engagement: candles, milk, and their fans

As marketers, we’ve seen many examples of companies and people that have been built extraordinarily successful and active Facebook pages—for example, Zappos and Justin Bieber. However, the success of these pages are not exactly surprising. After all, fashionistas can have endless discussions on the Zappos page, and if you’re a teenage girl who is not [...]

Five ways marketing is like dating

Five ways marketing is like dating

Dating and marketing have more in common than you might think. Think back to some of your best and worst dating experiences and you’ll see why the art of navigating through a relationship is so relevant to marketers today. Here are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to follow the rules of dating [...]

Terry Davenport of Starbucks and Jonathan Blum of Yum! Brands chat with Tom Collinger.

Starbucks and Yum! Brands marketing execs share career lessons

Guest blogger Tom Collinger is chair of Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communications program. I recently had the pleasure of moderating a panel discussion with Medill alumni Terry Davenport, senior vice president of marketing at Starbucks, and Jonathan Blum, chief public affairs officer at Yum! Brands. The format was interview-style in nature, and the questions revolved around [...]

Listening to customers in the age of social media

Listening to customers in the age of social media

Customers have communicated with companies in various formats: a visit/phone call to customer service, a written letter, and more recently, a post to their social media site.  In the early 2000’s, I submitted a letter to GUESS about a GUESS purse whose strap kept falling off.  I quickly received an identical replacement purse and an [...]