The Starship Enterprise week...

No...for all you little geeks out there, this post is not about Star Trek, Star Wars, or any other star for that matter. So if you've found yourself on here by accident, please go boldly where no man has gone before...and kindly buzz off back to Warhammer (or whatever it is you do in your spare time).

This post is solely about the one week of the year we call "Enterprise Week", or as some people called it (me included)....HOLIDAY WEEK! No, I jest. I was unfortunately unable to attend this event, as by the time I got my lazy self round to it all the places on the lectures I would be able to attend had been snapped up. However, had I known that the girls would be running the door I would have rocked up there anyway and gatecrashed my way in.

Anyway, regardless of whether I attended or not, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to give you a bit of an isight on what went on, with the help of a few bits of info and quotes I may have "borrowed" from other people.

Enterprise week basically gave us marketing students a chance to hear the way that the big boys run their companies, their thoughts on the recession and how it could effect the marketing industry and what we (as future PR and marketing gurus) can do to ensure we make the most of our education when we get out into the big, bad world.

Alan Rich set the tone when (directly contradicting the media's opinion) he highlighted the recession as a "fantastic opportunity". His opinion was that rather than having to cut back on expenditure, companies should retain their existing budgets and focus on a more limited number of brands. This means that rather than spreading their budgets thinly on a higher number of brands, companies should spend the same amount of money on a smaller number of brands and really concentrate on the brands that people will keep going back to.

Tom Vick (from JWT) pointed out that at this moment in time digital marketing is killing off television advertising. According to some people, today 117 adverts are needed to have the same effect as 3 adverts would have in the 1970's...that's an immense figure. But when you consider the amount of television advertising the modern generation is exposed to, you can clearly see why it takes such a large amount of exposure to advertisement to make an impact on a person. Mr Vick also advised that with the focus of today's marketing shifting towards digital marketing, there is pressure on companies who wish to be successful to make a push towards this type of marketing and away from other less successful types of marketing.

He outlined 5 key points how agencies should respond;

1. Forget above the line and below the line as marketing concepts.
2. Bring back the dictionary definition of advertising.
3. Re-structure business around brands and it's communications needs.
4. Invest in re-training and re-orientating agency colleagues.
5. Learn from the youth, for example, agencies using younger staff to train the older.

So in hindsight, maybe I should have gatecrashed my way in, as it seems to have been a very interesting and varied week, where we got the opportunity to learn from different sources with proven track records of success in the marketing industry. However, hopefully I've been able to give you a bit of help with what it was all about, and maybe next year I'll actually attend Enterprise Week so you can get my own thoughts rather than those I have stole....er...borrowed off other people.

*This post was sponsored by Datlen, Stokes, Simpson and Fontanoz (2009). However, all images and intellectual ramblings are sole property of Sean Halsey, and as such, any unauthorised use will result in prosecution and/or death by stoning. All rights reserved. *