Katie (Fitz)gerald Brand Strategist
who
that
is?
Her status of curious nerd was solidified in eighth grade when Fitz won a paper plate award from her social studies teacher that said “most likely to be caught watching a History Channel show by herself.� At that point, it was too late. Her fate was sealed. She recently graduated from the Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter where she received her masters in Communications Strategy. She studied French and advertising in undergrad at the University of South Carolina. Fitz can regularly be found geeking out over the Internet or a good communications plan.
www.KatieFitz.com www.strategytreehouse.blogspot.com LookitsFitz@gmail.com 803.413.6708 Ashburn, Virginia
Advertising Sales Intern Columbia, SC Spring 2007 Acquired new advertising clients, designed ad for current client, wrote segments for the paper and did research for writers.
Freetimes Newspaper
Corporate Marketing Intern Herndon, VA Summer 2006 Suggested the idea and design for an online game for Time Warner film “The Ant Bully,” which was accepted and developed by the ad agency. Helped coordinate and develop marketing efforts for all TWC service areas. Edited copy on direct mail pieces.
Time Warner Cable
over-arching strategic idea, which resulted in the “Let’s Fix Dinner” campaign for Stouffer’s.
contributed ideas and helped build communications plans for new business pitches to J&J and Unilever. Distilled the ideas of 6 different agencies to create an
Communications Strategy Intern New York, NY Summer 2008 Conducted consumer research, competitive analysis,
Naked Communications
Work Experience
Photography French Coffee Yoga Ballroom dance Hiking
Interests
Integrated Marketing Communications Director, Client: Coca-Cola University of South Carolina, Spring 2007 Led multiple focus groups with teenagers, created nontraditional event idea for campaign and participated in creative concepting with creative team.
National Student Advertising Competition
Other Experience
Intern Columbia, SC Spring 2006 Participated in creative brainstorming and conducted research. Chose media vehicles for campaigns and put together presentations for the Senior VP of Client Services.
Chernoff Newman (Advertising Agency)
Freelance Richmond, VA Winter - Spring 2009 Repositioned the commercial side of a local bank to appeal to small-medium business owners and better align with the retail side of its business.
O’Keefe Brands (Brand Consultancy)
University of South Carolina B.A. in Advertising Minor: French Graduation: August 2007 GPA: 3.67 Université de Pau et Des Payes D’Adour Study Abroad Fall 2005
Graduation: May 2009 GPA: 3.5
VCU Brandcenter M.S. in Mass Communications concentration in Communications Strategy
Education
BRAND STRATEGIST
KATIE FITZ(GERALD)
my
work
The following are campaigns were completed while at the VCU Brandcenter. Other than the MWV piece, this is spec. work that was not done in conjunction with the client. Skype Making them money by rebranding their $10 plan Scope We are all looking for “the one,� Scope gives you the confidence you need to strike up the conversation when you meet them The following pieces are articles I wrote. Remix Culture This article was written for SIXTY Magazine. It outlines major learning points from an interview with three remix/social media masterminds. A Better Way To Be Social This article provides guidelines for brand managers who wish to move their brand into the online social media space.
See more work at www.KatieFitz.com.
Skype Summary of campaign Forget the days of limited minutes, roll-over minutes, or free minutes (to only a couple people). Welcome to the world of Skype, the world of phones calls without limits. By changing the way that Skype talked about itself, from “we do video chat,” to “we do telecommunications,” we moved it into a new category. We were no longer competing with GChat, but now with Vonage and Comcast. Why? Because our $10/mo. unlimited call anywhere plan kicked all their butts. Welcome to the “Bajillion Minute Plan.” Taking the strategy of “phone call without limits,” we rebranded that $10 plan into the “Bajillion minute plan” and explored what the world would be like as a “Bajillionaire.”
Objective Skype makes money through having paid subscribers. They have done very little marketing and that which they have done has spoken solely to Skype’s video chat capabilities. But that’s not making Skype money. Our objective therefore, was to increase the number of paid subscribers.
Change in communications: From talking about itself as a “video chat” module to talking about itself as being a contender in the ‘telecommunications industry.’ Other telecommunications companies will charge you an arm and a leg to call another country. When prices are compared, Skype already provides the best deal with the $9.95/mo. unlimited world calling plan.
Our target audience: “Digital Globe Trotters.” Digitally savvy Millennials who are early adopters of technology and have friends and family around the world. The stages of our communications: Current users
Current free
of the $10
users of
plan
Skype
Their friends and family
General “Digital Globe Trotter” audience
Category Communications Insight Communications from the telecommunications industry revolve around a language of minutes. This language is all about the limitations on your phone plan. It says “you can call for an unlimited number of minutes! But, only to five people.” Or, “your minutes can rollover! If you don’t talk too much this month.” You can hear the discussion about the value of phone minutes by watching the AT&T Rollover Minutes campaign “Milky Minutes” commercial. So what do we say? Well, we don’t have those crazy limits. Skype alleviates the worries of typical phone calls while being the cheapest way to call anywhere in the world at anytime.
Strategy “Phone call without limits” Position Statement “For those who value long calls, Skype is the telecommunications company that lets them call without limits”
Creative To reflect the unlimited nature of the $10/mo. calling plan, we rebranded it to “The Bajillion Minute Plan.”
Tagline “Welcome to the Bajillion Minute Plan”
Logo
Current users
Current free
Their friends
of the $10 plan
users of Skype
and family
Current users will receive a new gold faceplate for their Skype as well as an icon next to their Skype name. Since we know that a lot of these folks travel. We will be
Since current free users are still buying calling cards, we will do a placement there. We created a calling card that talks them through signing up for the plan.
placing gold-painted phone booths in major airports around
We will send an emails telling them “for every Skyper you call and love, there’s a non-Skyper waiting for some love. This email will send them to the Bajillionaire
the world. In the phone booth users can make calls in private while they wait for their flights.
microsite where they can
Microsite
find fun ways to tell their
We showed our Bajillionaires some love by providing them
friends about the Bajillion Minute Plan.
with a “Bajillion Minute Club” online. The site provided tools and entertainment for our Bajillionaires, like a prank call tool.
When free users go to the Skype website. They will see the Bajillionaire Challenge. The challenge is to have the longest unending Skype phone call. The top Bajillioanaires (those who do the most talking) will be featured.
Budget
General “Digital Globe Trotter” audience
An overview of how we would spend the $30MM budget.
Ultimately, The Bajillion Minute Plan will become a cultural meem, connecting this people in ways that extend far beyond their calls. It will be a brand that people align themselves with. Some of our creative work for the general audience aims at doing just that.
(print)
Blinged-out computer wallpaper. note: not all executions are shown.
Media rich banner ads that ask what you would do with a Bajillion minutes.
Measurement
Some of the ways we could measure the success of this work: Unique site visits Click through rates Phone calls from our booth Opt-in Challenge Subscription rates Calls to your mom
Adwords Source: Yahoo Adwords
Spending competitively through buying competitor’s
My tasks for this
Teammates
names:
campaign?
Katrin Babb (Brand
Vonage
Strategy development, aiding in creative concepting,
Manager), Joseph Merkley
Verizon Comcast Time Warner Cable
communications plan
(Art Director), Terrance Foster (Art
development, target
Director), Kelly Diaz
development and analysis as
(Copywriter)
well as media planning.
Scope The Situation Unlike what Axe may tell you, most of us don’t go out in search of the next man/woman of the moment, but rather the one who will make our hearts stop and change our lives for good. Scope had become the grandfather’s mouthwash and was in bad need of a fresh new look in order to attract a new generation of young adults. The competition was telling consumers that all their teeth would fall out if they didn’t use their products or that by using its’ products you’ll instantly attract all the boys to the yard. We decided to take a more realistic approach.
Objective: Update Scope’s image and gain new users Category insight: Communications by our main competitor, Listerine, injected fear and worry into consumers with information about medical and scientific reasons to use their product. In general, the fresh breath category sends the message that “if you use our product, you will be awesome.”
Target: We are speaking to a crowd of young, urban professionals ages 21 - 34. Target insight: We are all looking for “the one,” but when you first that person it can be nerve wracking.
Communications strategy: “Scope is the confidence builder you need to start the conversation”
Tagline: “Prepare for the unexpected”
The Microsite The microsite, scopestories.com, provided a platform for people to share the story of how they met their significant other. People could tag the spot where they met on an interactive map. Scrolling over the map, you could see where others had met their “special person� and read their story.
The storyteller Smart Phone widget enabled interaction with the map on the go. And if you needed some Scope, it could point you to the nearest store.
Bus shelters, sidewalks, airplane trays
Special Note Bottle redesign
This work has been chosen by the Director of the Brandcenter,
The new bottle design would provide two benefits:
Rick Boyko, as an example of student work to show to planning and creative directors at several agencies throughout the U.S.
1. It would differentiate Scope on the shelf where it currently blends into all the knock-offs that use the
as well as at the Brandcenter Board of Directors meeting. This
Scope bottle shape.
work is also featured in SIXTY Magazine as well as on the walls
2. This design has a hand-grip on the side and a pour
of the Brandcenter.
cap which would make for easy use.
What were my tasks for this
Teammates
Due to the fact that 70% of purchase decisions are made at the point of sale, the packaging is the
campaign?
Jessica Colbert (Brand
last chance to speak to the consumer. Proctor and Gamble, the parent company of Scope,
Strategy development, communications plan
Manager), Jay Adams
development, target
Wood (Copywriter)
recently changed the packaging of another one of their brands, Head and Shoulders, and saw a 30% increase in sales. If Scope saw a 10% increase in sales as a result of the new bottle design they would take back their position as the #2 mouth wash.
development and analysis as well as media planning.
(Art Director), James
1
According to the 2009 Digital Outlook Report by media agency Razorfish, brands spent 16% of their online marketing dollars in 2008 in the “community” category (i.e. placing advertisements on social online networks). Spending in the “news” category, on the other hand, has been on a steady downfall in the past four years and in 2008, during both an Olympic and an election year, “news” (i.e. placing advertisements on news websites like CNN, MSNBC, etc.) spending was only 7%.
1
Given that the definition of social is “the interaction conversation but rather to facilitate conversation of living organisms with other organisms,” between people. and that a brand is not a living organism, Brands but rather a collective of thoughts and The trend of social networking is being gut feelings that a person has, a talked about as though it were a new can’t be a brand cannot be a member of a idea. The truth is, social networking member of the conversation. That fact, though, is a practice that has been around conversation and has done nothing to dissuade since the days of the caveman, who brands from trying to infiltrate the relied on communal interaction in social networking online social networking space. order to survive. It hasn’t always isn’t a new Countless brands have built been limited to the computer screen. concept MySpace pages and Facebook Since the advent of the internet, social groups, while some have even tried gatherings have transformed from facebuilding their own networks from scratch. to-face encounters into screen-to-screen Instead, brands need to understand that the “relationships.” opportunity is not to be a member of the
Brands just don’t know it yet
THERE IS A BETTER WAY TO BE SOCIAL
Image courtesy of Razorfish Feed
ALEX ALOISE & KATIE FITZGERALD
A BETTER WAY TO BE SOCIAL
Thanks for your time.
www.KatieFitz.com www.StrategyTreeHouse.blogspot.com LookitsFitz@gmail.com 803.413.6708