Kelly's NM4226 Journal

As the social media component of our marketing strategy is kicking off and most of the marcoms tasks have been completed, Trena, our new team head suggested for me to join the social media team as more manpower is needed there. Though this also means added responsibilities and tasks on my plate, I'm really glad that I've the opportunity to try out something new - managing social media accounts and coming up with content etc. Thanks Trena, and of course, the social media team (Minyu, Hai En & Ryan) for warmly welcoming me! (: I joined in on the social media team meeting this week, where we discussed in detail how to go about with the Isabelle & Breathing Bags video interviews, Humans of CNM series, posts about artworks, promotional posts, potential collaborations with influencers & Facebook pages. After discussion, we split the work and got down to getting the work done. All in all, it was a productive meeting and a great start to taking on social media tasks f...

6 works were selected by the curatorial team, as special featured works for the Interceptions showcase. With the information from the curatorial team, I wrote the artwork and artists description for each of the featured works  Trigger, Cracks, Depression, The Struggle, Breathing Bags and Isabelle using a marketing tone to generate more hype and enthusiasm for the reader . A total of 2 different copies were prepared - one for ArtScience Museum (with interesting facts about the works) and the other for the media, to be sent along with the press releases. The process of preparing the "Featured Artworks" document was quite challenging in a few aspects. Firstly, there was a lack of information which made it hard to craft components such as the artwork and artist descriptions. I coordinated with some of the artists personally (some were my friends), to obtain additional information that made writing easier. Secondly, we faced difficulties obtaining installation shots of the feat...

During the Tuesday of recess week, the marketing team attended a talk by the NUS Marketing and Communications Team, arranged by Prof. Nancy. It was such a nice gesture by the NUS Marcoms team, as they had to take time off their busy schedule to meet with us. Using the example of their 'Brave New World' campaign for this year's NUS Arts Festival, they shared with us how a school event can be publicised through both the various offline & online channels. It was truly very interesting to hear about their experience right from the early stages of brainstorming the campaign's branding, to finally executing their campaign strategy. For instance, they developed and executed creative offline strategies such as the placement of the 'Brave New World' cubes & DIY cube "decals" at the various NUS faculties to increase brand awareness. I personally felt that it was a great idea, as it created opportunities for students to take photo with the setup...

A press release issued to media outlets is a must-have, and is absolutely necessary in creating buzz for our Random Blends showcase. If our target is to get media coverage, both pre- and post-event, the sending out of a press release to the various traditional and non-traditional media outlets is very crucial. As part of the Marcoms team that I was allocated into, one of my first few tasks was to craft the pre-event press release along with Reynard, our marketing team head. I personally felt that the process of writing the press release was rather challenging, as I had only taken 2 modules in NUS that touched upon the mechanics of PR briefly. I was honestly, rather unsure of how to start on the press release. Headline, summary, dateline, lead paragraph, body, boilerplate and contact information ; this is the skeleton of a traditional press release, as I could vividly recall from taking NM4228 Crisis Communications, the previous semester. Thankfully, after drawing upon the referen...

The CNM cabinet and Prep Room is an important part of our Random Blends showcase. The former allows all visitors who pass by a glimpse of what the showcase would be like, and the latter is a space where the curators can brainstorm and visualise how the different artworks can be pieced together in various ways. The marketing team was tasked to decorate part of the CNM cabinet, in consistent with the Random Blends theme. During the brainstorming session on WhatsApp, we threw in many interesting ideas, such as creating a "string map" that passes across various different words symbolising the intercept of social issues at Random Blends. I was ecstatic when the others were supportive of my suggestion, however, due to the limitations of the cabinet's size & hinderance of the inner glass panels, it was very difficult to execute. Eventually, we decided to print out some relevant quotes and photos that were in line with the dark theme of Interceptions, and use that to decor...

During this week's lesson, we had a guess lecture by the very experienced Tracey, who provided us with great insights on how we could come up with a marketing strategy for Random Blends. She also introduced a few useful concepts such as the JTBD (Job To Be Done) statement, components of the creative brief, and the importance of building personas. This was what I came up with after the lesson: My JTBD: To project Random Blends 2017 as a unique art exhibition that combines artworks from NUS CNM students to highlight the presence of the many societal issues in both the local and global context. My persona: Daren is 25 years old, and is a Year 4 student who is currently studying Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore. Daren’s hobbies include photography, videography and gaming. He is a fitness junkie, and is very passionate about weightlifting. In particular, he is very interested in exploring cinematography and colour grading of films and docu...

The Marketing Team's first task was to come up with the branding and logo of Random Blends 2017: Interceptions. As it was pretty early on during the preparation process for RB, our team was unsure of what form the exhibition would take. Hence, we came up with the idea of creating a mood board on Pinterest, where all members of the team could collaborate and add pictures they think would be suitable for RB into the 2 "boards" of "Logo Design" and "Art Direction". I really liked this idea of individually sourcing for inspiration, and coming together to discuss and determine which art direction we should go for. Out of all the pins, the ones with a glitchy effect stood out the most to the team and thus, we decided to go for a glitchy effect, combining it with the "E3, B" illusion style (pic above). We went ahead with that art direction having received good feedback from Prof. Nancy, Eve and the curatorial team during the presentation in cl...