Fresh Off Hollywood
Posted by ablack on May. 5, 2015 / Subscribe 0
Not too long ago, I was rubbing elbows with several Hollywood A-listers…like Christian Bale, Olivia Wilde, Steve Carrell and funny-man Zach Galifianikis. Hell, I once brought Jim Carrey his apple juice and took Steve Buscemi’s lunch order! And when Dave Franco was in Scottsdale promoting his 2013 release for “Warm Bodies,” he asked MEif it was ok to have an adult beverage at 11 AM in between his interviews with the press. Of course, I answered with a resounding “Yes!”
Before coming over to the A/E/C industry, I worked for Hollywood. More specifically, I was a publicist at a Public Relations agency that represented movie studios in the Southwest region, along with the studio’s stars and their films. The job offered some insanely glamorous opportunities, like flying to Las Vegas to work a press junket, coordinating film premieres and wining and dining actors, actresses, directors and filmmakers when they were in town on tour in support of their films.
When I mentioned my history in Hollywood to BeatBlogger, her eyes practically fell out of her head and she asked me why I would give up such a glamorous gig to market for A/E/C ….an industry, which she was quick to point out has not been known for its glamour as of late. Which got me to thinking…was the grass really greener working for Hollywood?
Truth be told, my history is not really all that glamorous. Yes, I matriculated to A/E/C from a Hollywood PR agency…but I did so with absolutely NO experience to speak of within the professional services world, let alone the engineering side of things. And being “fresh off Hollywood,” I was a little intimidated to start a job where I was responsible for leading projects in an industry that was entirely new to me. BUT my dad is an engineer…and I literally grew up with his “engineer speak” (or rather lack thereof), and I soon found that my ability to translate this jumbled techno-jargon into actual understandable English was an asset here…in the real-world of A/E/C.
My confidence boosted by a little engineering “street cred,” I was quickly realizing that the best practices that I once used for Hollywood to build the foundation for a big-budget film campaign were exactly the same as the ones that I had been using to build an effective marketing plan for A/E/C. The need to understand the ultimate end goal and the strategy that goes into finding the best and most effective solution to achieve that end goal (whether it be a successful movie opening or securing a project ‘win’ for my firm) actually ran parallel to each other, despite variances in industry. The basics of marketing remained: it was STILL all about understanding your audience and communicating value in a way that causes them to stop and take notice.
My day-to-day “bread n’ butter” as a publicist was to interact with the major decision-makers in Hollywood (i.e. the studio executives), to plan and execute promotional events and deliver publicity opportunities to market a specific film. But if you just change out a couple words within that sentence, you actually get what I do today: My day-to-day “bread n’ butter” as an A/E/C marketer is to interact with the major decision-makers in the built environment (i.e. engineers, architects, contractors, etc.), to plan and execute winning proposals and deliver marketing collateral to market a specific team.
Just as the A/E/C marketer receives periodic RFQ/Ps, chock full of requests for project descriptions, scopes of work, project approaches and team resumes, a PR representative receives a set of directives that details what sort of promotional activities the studio would like to see, who the targeted demographic is, and what the proper formatting will be for final reporting. Just like the popular 90’s saying goes, “same diff.”
So let me be the first to tell you that there are more similarities than there are differences between what I was doingthen as a publicist and what I’m doing now as a practice-area marketer. There! Have I dispelled the myth of all the glitz and glam that comes with working for Hollywood?
I only mention this because I suspect that at some point in our A/E/C careers, we all get to thinking that the grass is greener elsewhere…like in another industry. And maybe we start to see marketers in those industries through rose-colored glasses. We get to thinking that they get to do all the fun stuff in the marketing world (like put together a nifty press junket) while we get stuck with translating techno-jargon for selection committees …WOOPIDY-DO! But realizing that their harsh realities are mirror images of our harsh realities should help bring us back TO reality…in A/E/C that is.
No matter how you choose to spin it, everyone’s job under the marketing umbrella is to discover and build upon their strongest and most creative strategy. Whether you’re trading phone calls with the “top dog” at Sony regarding a film, or trading emails with the leading wastewater firm about a project, you are being called upon to provide your insight. And ultimately, you are the middle man between the public’s eye and the client’s, no matter WHO that client is. And, that’s not something to take lightly.
Maybe we are EXACTLY where we are supposed to be. And maybe sealing the deal on that huge proposal (you know, the one that took you three years to land) really does hold the same weight as sharing a ride with an actress as she narrates the text messages between her and Daniel Radcliffe regarding their next big film (true story). OK, so one might not sound as fancy as the other, but consider your audience…
About the Blogger: Lauren McConnell has a ton of flair; and no, not like Jennifer Aniston’s ‘pieces of flair’ in the movie Office Space. She has a flair for details that has taken her far in her short period of time in A/E/C. Outside of the industry, Lauren splits her time between epic classic video game play a la the original Nintendo Entertainment System and long walks with her furry four-legged children, in failed attempts to keep them from eating her couch.
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