Well, the final day has come. NYC has treated me so well that I am fairly saddened to be on my way back home to Cleveland, later tonight. Friday was fun, but a little more relaxed than the other days. Our first stop, which definitely ranks highly on my favorites list, was with Miami graduate, Amanda Wolfe at the Meredith Corporation. Wolfe is the senior content director for the Health and Parenting section of the corporation. Getting a chance to sit down with Wolfe was interesting because she gave such an stimulating peek into what it’s like to shake the table with innovative and bold reporting on the topics of diversity and inclusion.
Wolfe has done extensive work with the goal of empowering women. She says, “You have to empower, you can’t shame or scare anyone into doing anything.” That is a great point. So many news stories, or advertisements use fear or shame as a tactic to push people into unhealthy fad diets, or other harmful habits. She also told us that Meredith stands for “inclusion, representation and what it’s like to be an actual person in 2019.” Which was highlighted through their campaign “Love Your Shape”, which was then followed by another campaign, “Mind Your Shape” when the segments of the audience had a little too much to say about someone else’s body shape or size.
Following Meredith, the class headed to our second to last visit at The Global Citizen. We met with Miami graduates, Ryan Kincaid (senior growth editor) and Cassie Carothers (Senior content editor). Carothers informed the class that the goal of the organization for the upcoming year is bring the true impact Global Citizen has on the world to the forefront. With a goal of ending extreme world poverty, which is defined by Carothers as living on under $2/day, by 2030. To reach this goal, The Global Citizen works with organizations like the United Nations, and the World Health Organization to advocate for world leaders to pledge large amounts of money to different humane issues that affect the world.
After most of the group peeled off to catch their flights, the final four students went along to our last stop at Group Nine Media, comprised of media outlets like NowThis, The Dodo, Thrillist and Seeker. Paul Ulane (director of editorial), Miami Grad Nicole Theodore (staff writer), Arend Ralph (brandshop, video, director creative), Julia Hoff(NowThis, director of production) and Leanne Butkovic (Thrillist, entertainment editor) took some time out of their day to meet with us. Some of our time at Group Nine Media was revolved around how the company deals with branded entertainment. Which is when a company looking for exposure teams up with a media organization for advertising purposes. The key to branded entertainment however is to create an advertisement that doesn’t feel like one. For example, if Dodo, Group Nine’s outlet that focuses on animal news, was tapped for a branded entertainment partnership then the Dodo would have to come up with an ad that still sounds, looks and feels like it came purely from the Dodo, but still showcases the product.
Time to head back to the hotel and the home to Cleveland!
