Working In Digital Media – Maria Brown (Interview Skills)

Next week we’ll all be sitting mock interviews as part of our CA for Working In Digital Media. Some of us have sat many interviews, but some – like myself – have close of no experience of sitting an interview. To help us prepare, Maria Brown came in to talk to us this week about preparing for an interview. Maria is a Careers Development Manager and works within in the college, and will be one of the people doing the interviews next week.

she first spoke to us about our CV’s. It is vital to bring a copy of your CV with you to an interview. The employer should already have a copy, but just in case they don’t. A CV is all about you and your qualifications on a piece of paper, and so should be prefessional. It is also very important to dress appropriatly for the job interview.

It is also vitially important to prepare for an interview. Do your homework and research the company. It is very likely the empolyer will ask you what you know about the company, and it is very impressive if you have an answer prepared. You can research the company online, or you could contact the HR department for more information. It is also important to know your CV like the back of your hand. They will ask you questions from your CV, and if you dont know exactly what you wrote down – they wont be impressed.

Prepare answers for as many questions as possiable. You can look online for frequently asked questions. Some questions an interviewer may ask are;
Tell me about yourself?
What do you know about the company?
Tell us about your work experience to date.
Where do you hope to be in 5 years?
Can you give an example of when you have worked under pressure?

It is also important to prepare questions for the interviewer, and to know what kind of questions are suitale. For example “How many people work within the department?” would be a suitable question, while a question about the salary would not.

Working In Digital Media – Robbie Ward

This week Robbie Ward from BPM (Beats Per Minute) media company came in to speak to us. BPM is a company that specialises in advertising in pubs, clubs, shops, banks etc.

Robbie first showed some an example of some of the advertising BPM does. BPM create “in-house channels”, which are basically screen that air adverts and music videos directed towards the customer. Robbie showed us an example of the type of music-videos that they would display in a bar directed at younger people. The idea is simple – play modern music, complete with scrolling text and adverts (eg “2 for 1 now!”, “get 25% off within in the next 10 mins!”) in order to attract the customer. It’s a win for the client because the adverts appeal to the customer more than a poster/flyer and the system can also work as a DJ system, which in turns saves the company money from hiring a DJ.

Robbie told us that the saying “Content is King” is no longer relevant, and in fact “Relevance is King” is the new rule. The content is unimportant if the relevance is not there. For example, having a 25% discount on Jager Bombs is not going to help you if your target audience are men between the ages of 30-60. In order to get it right, you need to build up information on the client. You need to pick a fixed target audience, how often they visit and when they visit. Only then can will your adverts begin to shape and take effect. Robbie told us that they would normally spend one week observing and collecting information off a client before going ahead with the adverts.

What I liked about BPM form of advertising is that it is interactive. Adverts can change depending on the day, and even the time of day. For example, in a café – the screen could advertise a breakfast deal in the morning, and then change to a lunch deal later that day. The content of the advert is of course important as well. The customer only looks at the screen for approx 7 seconds. So, you have a 7 second time frame in order to get the message across. The advert must be clear but effective.

Robbie spoke to us about the use of music in their adverts. In-store music can be used to either keep the customer in the store for as long as possible, or in some cases for them to leave once they have what they want. For example, in a store like Tesco – modern, catchy songs are played. By doing this, the customer may sing-along or hum-along as they shop, making the time go by faster and leaving them thinking they haven’t been in the shop as long as they may think. By keeping the customer in the store longer, the more likely it is that the customer will buy more as 70% of the stuff we buy is unplanned.

However, in a café or restaurant – like McDonald’s – they use faster, louder and heavier music. They play this kind of music because after a while it can become a pain to listen to. They do this because they want customers to eat and leave so that they have room for more customers. Restaurants like McDonald’s may also use uncomfortable seating so that the customer leaves and doesn’t stick around after they have finished eating.

I found Robbie Ward’s lecture really intresting, and I found the use of psycology in the way BPM advertise to be really intresting and something I would like to learn more about.