Freebairn Speaks to the UGA Ad Club

Tuesday, March 24, 2009, three of us headed down to Athens, Georgia to speak to students in the University of Georgia Advertising Club.

Speaking to the group was Jean Cobb, Account Management Supervisor, Sandy Chapman, Media Director, and your humble narrator, Christian Griffith, Internet Strategist.

The goal of the presentation was talk a bit about Freebairn and Company, and what makes our agency unique and different, as well as, offer some insight into the advertising agency industry, what graduating seniors can expect, and to explore some of the emerging technologies and advertising tools that are starting to showing up in the client campaign mix.

I've always believed that Freebairn and Company is special, but Jean's portion really drove home the importance and advantages of being a full-service agency, with all of the advertising disciplines under one roof, working together as a team each and every day.

So many agencies now-a-days are scattered across the country, and campaigns split amongst different sister companies, creating fragmentation and less-than-optimal campaign integration.

It's a lot easier to create synergy and integration when everyone is together.

Sandy spoke about the world of media and some of the interesting elements associated with planning and buying media properties. Touching on newer concepts such as behavioral marketing and campaign analytics, Sandy provided very real, relevant and current trends that will only continue to grow as junior advertising professionals enter the marketplace.

I followed Jean and Sandy with a brief presentation on Internet Marketing, and more specifically, Search Engine Marketing and Social Networking.

It's always difficult to present on these topics because although those of us in the business are aware, many people still are not up to speed with regards to search. The landscape changes so quickly, and there are very few college courses associated with concepts like pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, and Internet advertising in general; and of the courses that are available, most are overly simplistic when teaching concepts and techniques.

That might have been the case with me as well at UGA.

My challenge throughout this year will be to develop an Internet Marketing presentation that is exciting, informative and SIMPLE to understand for clients, in-house team members, and any other audiences with an interest in learning just what the heck it is us nerdy SEOs are doing to increase traffic to web sites.

We enjoyed visiting the UGA AdClub, meeting and eating with some of the students, and gaining a better understanding of the new generation entering the advertising business.

We thank the AdClub for having us, and wish all the members much success in their career development.