Rubber Chickens in London

Maybe it's obvious, but I got the job.  I am officially Director of Admissions at the Circus and have been deeply entrenched in SEM and conversion stats and little details that one would assume would have already been covered.  But haven't been.

Not to worry.  There's nothing I like more than to be presented with a big mess to organize.  So that's what I've been spending the past couple weeks doing. 

In addition to the 12 hour days I've been putting in lately, the photo work has been steady.  Like overwhelmingly steady.  Most weekends are spend with a photo shoot or two and then hours n photoshop editing and tweaking the images.  When I had no income coming in, this was a welcome source of money and a nice way to spend my time while the kids were in school.  Now I feel like I'm sort of swimming against the current.  The good news is that the kids are out of school in just a few weeks and that means we get a reprise from soccer, scouts, ballet, homework, the commute to GirlChild's school 20 minutes away, constant birthday parties, and all the uniforms to wash and dry and fold and hang.  

I am hanging on for June 1st.

But the job is great.  I love it.  There's so much to sink my teeth into and change and I've been lucky enough to walk into a team that seems really excited and supportive about what's about to happen.  Who knows.  Maybe they all hate me, but so far, so good.

In an effort to give you a bit of what goes on here, I'll offer this latest example.

Students here are consistently nationally and internationally recognized for their stellar work in advertising.  Open any advertising trade publication and we are winning the awards.  Last year, a group went to Cannes.  They raised money through a bake sale, selling $500 cookies to advertising agencies all over the country.

This year, we are sending 2 of only 4 teams in the country who qualified to participate in the D&AD awards in London. The video gives you a nice insight into the importance and prestige of this event.  

The six participating students are in the process of raising money to fund their trip and pitched to me the idea of creating a facebook group, video, and Twitter feed, detailing their adventure that could be used for Admissions purposes. They would create a video diary that would allow us to show incoming students what it's like to be nominated for such a prestigious award, what it's like to fundraise for that. The pitches, the excitement, the ceremony, and hopefully, the winning.  We bought in and they have started the process.

But that still leaves them with more money to raise.  So the clever students here have created a blog that would allow agencies to "help them pack" for their trip.  Agencies can purchase specific items like a rubber chicken (or a real chicken) for the students to take to London that will be branded with that agency's logo.  The students will take photos of themselves with the item in front of London landmarks which the agencies and send postcards of those images to the agencies who may them use them for promotion.  the idea is that the agencies will compete with one another for the wackiest items.  If you work in advertising, you know how this goes.  

Check out the links, their awesome logo they created for the project and pass it along to your friends who might support them in their quest to represent the Circus.

It's so fun to be surrounded by such creativity.

 

Comments

[Michael Casazza]

Congrats, Shannon, on the new job! Sounds like you are very happy with the new digs and I am certain you will find much success there.