McGarrah Jessee
Wes Young
Followup Questions
McGarrah Jessee: Our “oath” reads: I will take responsibility, I will get obsessed, I will seek the best way over the easy way… Can you provide examples, one for each, for how those describe you?
Wes Young: “I will take responsibility” This is my second year on the Oklahoma State AAF National Student Advertising Competition team. As the only returning member from last year’s team, the advisers chose me to be the account executive. It’s my job to keep the team on schedule and make sure each department – creative, integrated marketing communications, media and production – has everything prepared for meetings with the advisers. I also meet with the advisers throughout the week to keep them updated on how the campaign is coming along. When the advisers are happy with what the team has done, I give the team the credit and pass along whatever praise the advisers have. When the advisers are unhappy with progress, I feel personally responsible and work with the area the advisers think needs help. Sometimes, this means giving direction or interpreting the adviser’s advice for them. Other times, it means lending a hand by designing, writing, doing calculations or whatever else is necessary to make sure we’re on schedule and are producing the best quality work. I juggle this position with two jobs, my position as the president of the OSU AdClub and being a full-time student. All are equally important to me and I am responsible enough to make sure the demands of one does not interfere with the quality of my performance in another.
“I will get obsessed” While working on the NSAC campaign, there have been some late nights that have turned into early mornings. I rarely notice the time while we’re working as a team, because it’s the greatest feeling in the world working with my team and watching a project evolve from ideas into reality. If I don’t get much sleep, that’s OK, because it puts me in a better mood knowing work is finished. “I will seek the best way over the easy way” During the summer of 2008, I worked at one of the public pools in Ponca City, Okla., as the head lifeguard and later assistant manager. Within a few days of opening the pool, the managers and I realized many of our 15 lifeguards lacked the confidence to do their jobs properly, had forgotten necessary skills, or simply didn’t realize the consequences of not being prepared. It would have been easy to hope nothing bad happened or to assume that if something bad were to happen that those of us with more experience would be able to handle the situation. But we knew it wouldn’t have been the best thing for our patrons. We decided to institute our pool’s first in-service lifeguard training program. I worked with the manager to write develop the curriculum and write skills tests to measure our guard’s progress. Every other week we held training sessions. Some were several hours long, and others were only one or two hours. After the first session we were already seeing improvement. The first week of July we had temperatures above 100 degrees. Around 4 p.m., one of the guards carried in a young boy who had fallen on the deck. She recognized his symptoms as heat stroke. We called 911 and started to care for him. Before 911 arrived his condition he started to go into shock, but everyone was prepared. We laid him down, covered him with dry towels, elevated his legs and kept him calm, even as we prepared to start CPR if his condition became worse. The paramedics arrived, the guard explained what had happened and we detailed the boy’s condition. The paramedics took him to the hospital. Later, one of them came back to let us know the boy was fine and that he thought we had done an excellent job of handling the situation and caring for him. I’m not sure what would have happened if we weren’t doing in-service training, but I’m glad we didn’t have to find out.
McGarrah Jessee: Describe a time when you made a major mistake at work or on a project. How did you resolve it?
Wes Young: Shortly after I started working at American Eagle, a woman came in to the store to make an exhange. She didn’t have a receipt and she wanted to use a coupon. I told her to leave the items she was returning on the counter while she shopped for her new ones. When she was ready to check out, I thought I remembered how to do an exchange without the receipt. It turns out I didn’t, and despite my best attempt to figure it out on my own, I failed. Despite being flustered I apologized to the woman for taking so long, then called the manager over. She too apologized to the woman, then walked me through the steps of the exchange. I thought we were finished, but the woman pointed out I hadn’t used her coupon. I again apologized, explained that I hadn’t worked there for very long, and proceeded to re-ring her entire transaction. She was polite and didn’t get angry or upset. I’ll admit, this isn’t what I would call a “major” mistake. This was the most difficult question for me to answer. It’s not that I don’t make mistakes, because I know I do. Maybe I haven’t had the opportunity to work on a project important enough where a mistake was “major.” What I do know is that I always try to do things correctly the first time, and have learned enough to know when I need to ask for help.
McGarrah Jessee:
Wes Young:
Who has inpired you in your life, and why?
Dr. BobbiKay Lewis, advertising professor at Oklahoma State University, is one person who has inspired me. BobbiKay is paralyzed from the waist down and can only use her thumb, index and forefinger on each hand, but she never lets that get in the way of anything. She is comfortable with who she is – often making jokes at her own expense – and even though she is able to do just about anything without any help, she’s not afraid to ask for help when she needs it. She’s easygoing and always willing to talk with students, as both a professor and a friend. She’s also committed herself to a lifelong study of advertising and strategic communication. If you want to know what some of the biggest technology developments are, she’ll know. When you’re curious about which agency does what advertising, she’ll tell you. Should you wonder about creative media choices, she can point you in the right direction. It’s easy to be inspired by Bobbikay, and easy to look up to her, but difficult to mirror her.
McGarrah Jessee: Provide me with an example of your creativity.
Wes Young: I hope designing this booklet and publising it on Issuu has served as an example of my creativity, because that was my intention.
McGarrah Jessee: Tell me about a product that you believe is being marketed extremely well, and why
Pásala bien. Wes Young:
I’ve recently been impressed with Domino’s Pizza, because they are engaging consumers. First, they listened to what customers were saying about their product. Then, instead of jumping up in defense of it, they changed it to make it better. Now, they’re inviting consumers to try their new pizza with an honest, straightforward message using “facts, not puffery” and enticing them with a sales promotion. They’re still listening to consumer feedback, using social media like Twitter and Facebook to give people direct access to someone at the Domino’s headquarters. They also sponsor www.gamesthatgive.net, a free gaming Web site that gives 70 percent of its advertising revenue to the favorite charities of the people who play the games.