The Top 3 Things I Learned During the Publicis Health Academy Program

During these unprecedented times, I found myself spending my extra time doing a few things: using it as a mental/physical break that I would not have gotten otherwise, learning new skills and topics, and falling back in love with things I once was before school and life happened. All of these are valid and I’m sure some of you can relate. After all, there is no rulebook to a pandemic.

In an attempt to learn new skills and topics, I participated in the Publicis Health Academy where I got a crash course in advertising, navigating your career and creating content for a positive impact rather than sales. Because I love a good recap, here are the top 3 things I learned that resonated with me.

1. Your purpose should be transferrable between careers and within your personal life

This was apart of our first session called Finding Your Purpose and eight weeks later it’s a tidbit that I find myself continuing to think about. I always knew, more or less, my future would involve creating content that went out into the world. At first it was novels, then it was news stories, and currently it is advertising campaigns. However, this vision of content creation wasn’t transferrable.

When a purpose is transferrable, it motivates you beyond the hours of 9am-5pm. It’s apparent when you’re talking with your friends and family, when you’re engaging with certain types of content on social media and the conversations you find yourself having often. It is quite literally the contribution to the world that you were destined to make.

I now know that my purpose isn’t merely to create, but to create content that provokes important conversations, that advocates for those who are constantly overlooked, and that challenges and hopefully transforms systems that benefit some at the expense of others. Granted, I’m still finding my total purpose but after listening to this session, I know I’m definitely on the right track. 

2. Good creative starts with good strategy

Before this program, I was very naive in thinking creative and strategy were on opposite sides of the spectrum within advertising and if you did one, you would not touch the other during your day’s work. This made me question what career I really wanted to pursue because I enjoyed both content creation and the strategic framework behind it. 

Luckily, Geoff Sheldon, Head of Brand Strategy at Razorfish Health, shared some really insightful information that helped me conceptualize the strategy process. He discussed the different types of strategy such as Business Strategy, Experience Strategy and (my favorite) Brand Strategy just to name a few. He also went into detail about brand archetypes and how they help to define how the brand thinks and acts. This was definitely one of my favorite sessions because it gave me a clearer understanding of the campaign creation process.

3. There are new rules for brand success during COVID-19

Also during Geoff’s strategy session, he ended his presentation discussing new ways in which brands can create campaigns that are culturally sensitive and not tone-deaf during this time of the pandemic. He outlined three specific rules: make it personal, be relevant and timely and don’t be pushy. I took the time to think a little deeper about these rules.

Make it Personal: Advertising gets a lot of criticism for being predatory and simply about selling products to a mass audience. When brands make campaigns personal, it means they take more organic approaches to appeal to their audience and focus on a specific experience that a select group of people can relate to. Although it may not reach a vast population, the small group who can relate to the message will feel seen and personally addressed, and sometimes those are the most powerful messages.

Be Relevant and Timely: This is perhaps the most important one he mentioned in my opinion. During this pandemic when social and physical contact has been limited like never before, consumers probably don’t want to see beer commercials full of people out at a bar -- it doesn’t reflect our current society and nobody can really relate to that (even the ones who have refused to participate in social distancing). So when brands are mindful and quickly adjust to the new normal, it makes the brand appear culturally aware and strengthens the existing brand-to-consumer relationship they have already built.

Don't Be Pushy: A lot of people are overwhelmed right now for a variety of reasons. Whatever someone’s personal situation is, they most likely don’t want to be harassed by a super aggressive campaign. This is the perfect time to give consumers space. That might be difficult for the brands who simply are just trying to sell a product because pushy is their character trait. However, for those brands that are more focused on consumer experience or brand reminders, it may be in their best interest to take a simple and minimalistic approach that gets the message out there but does not trigger any unnecessary reactions within the consumer. 

These were only a handful of valuable lessons I learned throughout this program, but personally they were some of the most impactful. After completing this program, I feel more motivated to create intentional work in whatever industry I decide to pursue. Of course completing tasks for the sake of completion is necessary at times, but I want to ensure that the majority of my work has a purpose and is relevant, relatable and has the capacity to provoke positive feelings within the viewer.