Hi fellow AdBare readers! My name is Katerina Pappas I am from the States. I go to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and I am currently a senior Advertising student. As I am in the process of a research project with a professor, I stumbled across Adbare. U of I (as we call it) is in the R&D stage of making a blog for Advertising students, similar to that of Adbare. My professor and I agreed, Macleay’s Adbare blog was the best benchmark/goal blog we saw! I had the pleasure of exploring the site’s content quite a bit as well as having a Skype interview with Ian Thomson, the head of faculty and chief editor for the site and would love to share my thoughts!

The overall content the site provides is wonderful. I love the “Ad Speaks section” as well as the “Not” bad advertising section. The “Ad Grads” is great because it is not only an appreciation to Alumni from the school but also serves as a great Networking tool! I also think it is wonderful that student’s work and portfolio’s are displayed. I know as a student we create lots of unique/exciting projects and I can only imagine how great it is to see hard work pay off! Also, if prospective students are seeing the work Macleay’s students do, I am sure it is great to help them narrow down their school/major decisions if they see potential work they could be doing!

My conversation with Ian was not only interesting but thought-provoking, eye-opening and inspirational. He walked me through how the blog started as well as the logistics behind how the posting works. I was furiously taking notes to understand how this great blog came to be! I really liked how he explained the blog was a learning tool. How it is more than just a blog and how students are taught blog etiquette, the blog spark conversations and dialogue as well as even help students contribute to their portfolio. I also liked Ian’s key point of, “students are engaging in real-world valuable skills. Having skills in a social media sphere where you’re often expected to write and update posts makes them really employable.” This is very true and I have seen it in previous interviews and internships where students are expected to elaborate on their experiences. Also it is special if you can bring skills to a position and continually build on them.

Overall viewing the Adbare blog and speaking with Ian has helped me have a strong benchmark for our potential blog but really think about how as a student we have so many resources and learning opportunities available to us. Our industry is evolving every single day and let’s be honest we are so fortunate to be part of a hip, fun, engaging industry and culture of Advertising. Macleay’s blog really exemplifies this idea of the “different” people we are and being run by students makes it that much better! Thank you Ian for your insightful talking points as well as Adbare for being a role model for our blog. Looking forward to keeping connected, even 9,183 miles away!

AdBare = Goals

Katerina Pappas. University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign | Class of 2016