Social Media: Changing Advertising Education

Abstract

Creating an academic assignment that closely parallels an advertising agency"s real world business experience is a challenge, but social media has destroyed many of the barriers that historically limited media options and completion of advertising plans. Because digital media is cost effective and easily used, commercials, videos, podcasts, and multimedia messaging can be filmed, edited, and broadcast, within the time frame of an advertising course This article presents an applied advertising project that incorporates YouTube, Flicker, MySpace, Face book, Twitter, Linkedin, Ning, Tagged, Google +, and other online social networking sites as the foundation for an integrated marketing communication strategy. Infusing social media into communication preferences expands the options students have at their disposal to visually display their ingenuity.Engaging students through media they identify with and comprehend augments learning while their familiarity and expertise with social media increases the likelihood of producing a germane product. This project is an experiential learning process where the real world business client benefits from the creative deliverables produced by motivated, technology savvy undergraduates.A basic college advertising course introduces students to the concepts and strategies of integrated marketing communication. Typically, students absorb the theories and regurgitate the information on standardized examinations. Understanding and applying advertising knowledge is the true test of learning and the motivation in developing this project. The primary challenge was to incorporate an assignment equivalent to an advertising agency"s real world business experience. To go beyond simply creating an advertising plan and to require completion of deliverables suddenly became a viable option through social media. Social media has destroyed many of the barriers that historically limited media options and completion of advertising plans.Because digital media is cost effective and easily used, commercials, videos, podcasts, and multimedia messaging can be filmed, edited, and broadcast, within the time frame of an advertising course The arrival of social media has not only brought exciting alternatives to traditional communication methods, YouTube, Flicker, MySpace, Face Book, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning, Tagged, Google +, and many other online networking sites are effortlessly accessed and available for inclusion in integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies. This article presents an advertising project that assimilates online social media into the advertising plan.Social Media is an engaging medium that permits the user to compose, amend and circulate digital information at a nominal cost. Digital native undergraduates have immersed themselves in the technology and this assignment encourages them to transform captivation into marketing potential. Class members are responsible for organizing their own advertising agencies and then competing against other class agencies for the advertising account of...

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