The Director, Marketing and Communications, provides and implements a strategic and integrated marketing and communications plan for the Division of Health Sciences (DHS) and the University of Nevada School of Medicine (UNSOM) at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). The Director develops, leads, implements, and manages a plan designed to provide consistent visual identity, organizational voice, and institutional messaging on health science matters. An integrated marketing plan increases, strengthens, and improves internal and external relationships with constituents and stakeholders, generates revenue, and increases patient base for the clinical practice of UNSOM, and increases philanthropic giving for UNSOM and DHS. The position acts as chief communications officer and spokesperson on statewide UNSOM and DHS public relations matters and serves as liaison with communications peers at the University, affiliated hospitals, community partners, and other organizational stakeholders. The Director is responsible for staff supervision and budget management. The position reports to the Vice President, DHS/Dean, UNSOM.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree from a regionally accredited institution with emphasis in journalism, advertising, or marketing and five years of experience in marketing, public or media relations management or integrated marketing or a Master’s Degree and three years of experience.

Contact Information for this Position

For inquiries regarding esearch, please contact Marlies Radtke, Recruitment Coordinator mradtke@medicine.nevada.edu For specific position inquiries, please email Stefanie Scoppettone at scops@unr.edu

Special Instructions to Applicants

You must attach the following documents with your application to be considered for the position: resume/CV, letter of application (cover letter), and contact information for three professional references (include name, title, company/organization, phone number, and email address).

Note to All Applicants

A background check may be conducted on the candidate(s) selected for hire. HR will attempt to verify academic credentials upon receipt of hiring documents. If the academic credentials cannot be verified, HR will notify the faculty member that an official transcript of their highest degree must be submitted within thirty days of the faculty member’s first day of employment. The University of Nevada, Reno is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action in recruitment of its students and employees and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, creed, national origin, veteran status, physical or mental disability, and sexual orientation. The University of Nevada, Reno employs only United States citizens and aliens lawfully authorized to work in the United States. Women and under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.

Technology has advanced the advertising industry incredibly; however, as with any positive, there are negatives.  As a young professional in advertising sales, you can imagine the amount of emails that fill up my inbox.  My least favorite: emails to/from
clients.  I don’t mean that in the way you might think; rather, emails can blow a door wide open to interpretation (potentially and often: interpretation that’s not in your favor).  I love my town and my clients which is exactly why I’m in the field nearly 75% of my work day.  Yes, I understand that many of you are not responsible for recruiting business or interacting with the client.  I bet some of you are even thinking, “I’m a designer, my AE speaks with the client, so I don’t have to.”  On the contrary, I’ve found it very beneficial for my clients to meet with our designer and the three of us will then brainstorm.  In doing so, your client will end up much easier to work with and feel invested to make deadlines.  In addition, I’ve found that my clients are eager to meet the creative mind, and they trust not only me, but they put much more trust in our designer.  Finally, they’ll likely remove their grip on the creative process (at least a little).  Just try it once.  You’ll love it! In advertising, not only is a deep understanding of the business operations necessary for success, but a deep understanding of your clients is crucial.

Let’s do an exercise:

1. Imagine yourself in front of the computer

2. Think of your best client (I know, all clients are our best clients, but there’s no denying that we have stronger connections
with some more than others)

3. Make a list of three things that have helped
build that strong connection

4. Now ask yourself:

-“What type of pet do they have?” (You should
know this type of information even if it’s not directly related to the business
at hand)

-“What do they like to do when out of the
office?”

-Most importantly, “Why do they trust me?”

Now try that exercise once more with a client that you have not met in person.  I would bet it’s much
easier for you to think of their less desirable qualities than the positives.  I would also bet that it’s very difficult for you to answer those three questions listed above especially the last question (why would they trust someone they only have an email bond
with?).  I would encourage you to develop that type of understanding solely through an email relationship, and see if you
can achieve the same results. To be frank, it hasn’t happened for me as of yet.  I truly believe that face to face interaction can iron out any potential conflict.  The next time you anticipate misunderstanding, difference of opinion, etc. take them to lunch or schedule some face time.  Notice the key word in the previous sentence: (anticipate).  If you can develop a proactive approach to all situations and start anticipating what your clients will want or how they will react, this will help you to avoid a potentially nasty email.

Check out this great article below.  Our sales team uses it periodically and we
find it very useful.

http://www.inc.com/rene-siegel/five-reasons-you-need-to-meet-in-person.html

To succeed in this position you will need:
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in journalism, communications, marketing, public relations or closely related field
• Minimum 2 years professional experience in public relations, public information, journalism, Web content production and social networking with demonstrated experience writing/editing news release and generating news
• Knowledge of communication & PR tactics, ethics, press releases, media, and Internet development
• Proficiency in use of personal computer and current software applications including but not limited to Microsoft Office (Work, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), social marketing concepts
• Excellent oral and written communication skills

If this sounds like the job for you, visit our website at http://www.jobs.dri.edu for a complete description, required qualifications, and how to apply online. DRI is an EEO/AA employer.

MARKETING PRODUCTION SPECIALIST

Seeking a creative individual who has a desire to promote recreation services. Candidate must have strong computer skills and preferred experience with Adobe InDesign/Illustrator/Photoshop/Acrobat, Microsoft Word and Publisher. The specialist designs and coordinates requests for fliers, printing and assist with design layout on larger projects. Maintains flier racks, bulletin boards and distributes promotional material.

This position requires additional office duties and public relations duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications: Must be 18 or older, a high school diploma, driver’s license and six months experience paid marketing, public relations or related experience.

This position is a maximum of 20 hours per week (temporary position without benefits). Pay Range is $9.25 per hour to $11.00 per hour.

A completed City of Reno application is required. Submit applications to the Parks, Recreation and Community Services, Administration Office at 190 E. Liberty Street, Reno.

Deadline to apply: April 23, 2012. For more information, call 334-2260.

Applications may be downloaded from www.reno.gov or picked up and submitted at the Administrative Offices, 190 E. Liberty Street. Call (775) 334-2260 for additional information.

The Pitch

Writing a great press release is crucial to it being noticed
and published, however, the media has to be intrigued enough by your pitch to
even give your press release a chance, so the most important part of getting
your press release noticed is pitching it correctly.

The most important part of the pitch is when you pitch it
and who you pitch it to. It’s a big PR no-no to send a press release on a
Friday, the weekends or after about 3:30pm during the week. Monday’s aren’t
great either; people are returning to work from the weekend and are catching up
on emails. It’s more likely your email will get lost in the mix. The best days
to pitch a release are Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Don’t blast your press release. The media hates this. Do
some research on the best person to send your release to. If it’s a technology
announcement, don’t send it to the sports editor. Adding a name to an email
pitch shows that you care about where you’re pitching it and you’re not just
sending it to the masses.

Have a strong subject line. The media is inundated with
press releases and emails all day long, so your email has to have an intriguing
subject line that makes the reporter want to open your email.  Your subject line should highlight the most
important part of your press release: the main announcement you are making.
Example: (Ad2 Launches New Website).
Now that the media has opened your email, you want to
provide them with a short pitch of what your press release is about. It’s
important to highlight the who, what, where, when and why. The media should be
able to know all the details of your press release just from your pitch.

Lastly, let the reporter know that you’ve attached a press
release with more details about your announcement and to let you know if they
need anything else.

Writing a great press release

If you’ve gotten the media all the way to the point of
opening your press release, the last thing you want to do is lose their
interest with a poorly written release. Here are some press release writing
tips:

Don’t waste your headline. Your headline is the first thing
the media will see. Think of your headline as the subject line of an email. You
want to say something that gets the media to open your email and read more of
your press release.

Say it in the intro. You want to give the who, what, where,
when and why in the introduction of your press release. A lot of writers think
this information needs to be sugar coated, but the media is busy and they don’t
care about fluff, they want the facts.

Add a quote. Adding a quote to your press release makes it
look credible and adds a element of personalization to the release.

Keep it short. If they want more information then you’ve
provided they will call or email you. You shouldn’t need more than a page.

My last bit of advice is to follow up with your media
contacts. If your press release gets run, shoot a note out to the reporter or
editor and thank them for picking up your release. Public relations is all
about the relationships you build and if you have a good relationship with the
media you won’t have to try so hard the next time you pitch something. They’ll
get used to seeing your name and will know you produce good releases and you
won’t have to stress about a great email pitch to get it picked up. So keep it
quick, simple and good.

First, let’s take a quick look at some the features on Google Plus that you can’t really find anywhere else, then we will explore some of the reasons you really should be using it both personally and as part of your social media plan.

Google Plus has several features that are worth checking out, the first is “Circles”. Circles allow you to organize all of your contacts into different groups, which become important when you begin to post content to your profile. Each post you make to your profile can be made completely public or you can set it to only be able to be viewed by people in the circles you indicate. For example, a local pizza place could announce publicly that they are having a free pizza day or they could organize all of the people who spend over $100 a month on their pizza into a circle and invite just the people in that circle as part of a customer rewards program. This feature is extremely handy if you have multiple audiences or just want to share different content with different people.

Another interesting feature on G+ is the way that it incorporates hashtags. Google Plus hashtags are a little bit different than the ones you are used to on Twitter. While clicking a hashtag on Twitter will only show you other tweets that have used that hashtag, G+ takes it a step further by using good old Google know how to show you all of the relevant results containing the words in the hashtag, even if no one else has used the exact combination of words in your hashtag. For example, if you click on hashtag #socialmedia in someone’s G+ post, it takes you to a sortable list of all relevant posts, pages, and profiles that contain the words social media.

The last feature of Google Plus we are going to talk about is “Hangouts”. Hangouts allow you to host a live video chat with up to 9 other people (for a total of 10, including you) where you can all interact, watch videos, listen to music, share your screen, or even collaborate on a Google Doc from anywhere you have an internet connection. Oh and if you have a front facing camera on your smart phone, you can use that to hangout if you don’t feel like hauling your laptop around. This feature can be used in combination with the Circles feature so you can let as many people as you would like know that you are available to “Hangout”.

As you can see, some of the things you can do on Google Plus are pretty cool, but what really helps to set it apart are the benefits you get from using them.

Let’s be honest, Google Plus IS Google! Regardless of your personal feelings about Google search results, with over 60% of search engine use in the United States, they are still the big dog on campus when it comes to finding what you or looking for. What does that mean for you or your brand? Well for starters, how would you like your picture and profile to show up on top of the search results the next time a prospective employer (or first date!) runs you though Google? Set up and use Google Plus and it can be accomplished fairly easily (check out my mug below, you can see my profile directly next to the search results.).

Granted, that’s pretty cool for personal branding, but Google didn’t stop there. They are applying this to brand pages and “subject experts” as well. Which means, the next time someone looks up your brand (or in some cases a related keyword) these results will show up along side the traditional search results. Pretty neat huh? On top of Google showing G+ profiles on the sides of search results, Google has started to use its +1 button (similar to the Facebook Like button) as an indicator of popularity, which means companies with active profiles have started to experience a bump in their search position for keywords that are important to their brand, a result I can personally attest to.

In addition to the effect G+ is having on search results, there is another benefit that is arguably more important for those of us in the Ad/PR/Social Media world. Social Media marketing is all about the interactions between customers and brands right? Remember the “Hangouts” we talked about in the features section? They are not just for personal profiles. That’s right, brand pages can have live face to face chats with their customers on Google Plus. It doesn’t get much more interactive then a live conversation, does it?

These are just a few of the things you need to know about Google Plus, before you start using. Still not sure you should be using G+ or think we missed something? Let us know in the comments section below!

Kony 2012. It’s swept the interwebs for at least the last 24-hours. If you haven’t taken the 29 minutes to watch, I’ll give you a link at the end of this post because I want you to watch it with the grain of salt I’m about to hand you.

It’s a powerful piece. It should be no surprise to those of us who have studied and worked in advertising though, right? How a thoughtfully written script, skilled editing and the right positioning can tug on our poor little heart strings.

If you watched this video already, did you have a voice in your head saying,

“Wow, it took nine years to get here?” or

“There sure is a lot of strategy behind this charity video.”

I did. I left the video open in my browser as reminder to look into the MANY organizations affiliated with the video, and make a decision later. I had to go and research it. Thanks to the internet though, the research found me. This article, though I have no idea how credible the source, cites dozens of articles contradicting, and in some cases completely eliminating the credibility of the video.

It really doesn’t matter who is right. Share the video if you feel compelled.. Raise awareness, by all means! But please just do your research before picking an organization to promote and financially support . Remember, we work in advertising. It’s our jobs and our livelihood to make materials that move people to action.

You scrolled down, didn’t you? Ok fine. Watch it now, but please come back and finish reading, mmk?

Basically, be curious about your community. There are a lot of beautiful places within the Truckee Meadows, both public and hidden, that may inspire your creativity. Take a walk near the river, stroll down city alleys that feature murals by local artists, attend community events, and (my personal favorite) eat at a new restaurant. Food cures all creative ruts.

Here are a few of my favorite places and things that inspire me to strive for creative excellence:

Midtown Eats
Absolutely love this restaurant. From homemade light fixtures made out of recycled bottles to candles to book covers used as receipt holders, Midtown Eats is a DIY, Pinterest-worthy mecca. Did I mention they have great food?

Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum
Inside one of Reno’s newest attractions — a museum dedicated to teaching children about science — is a three-story cloud-like jungle gym. And like the four-year-old boy climbing to its top, I was just as inspired watching action from afar. So for a little inspiration, and a $10 entry fee, take a stroll through this facility and simply play.

University of Nevada, Reno
From its classic brick buildings to a vibrant campus community — from student events to art exhibitions — there is always something going on at Nevada’s oldest (and best) college campus.

Bibo Coffee Shop
This is a personal favorite. I love sipping on a large cup of this Reno coffee house’s Chai tea on my lunch break to unwind from a busy work day, regroup my thoughts and come back re-energized. Locations near the university, downtown and the Old Southwest.

Random Acts of Art
Have you noticed the art behind The Ross Manor? Behind Ceols?  Have you noticed the beautiful sketchings on downtown newspaper bins? There are many other samples of random acts of art. Have you noticed any?

Ad2 Reno…of course
The people. The ideas. Being around each member reminds you why you’re in the ad business. And having others to chat about business, bounce ideas off of and celebrate the successes of our tiny, but tight, community is inspiring in itself.

There’s always something to be found in Reno that may inspire creativity. Some places are obvious, some are hidden. You just have to be curious enough to find it.

If you have a spot that inspires creativity, share it in the comments.

Then he showed that same room of doctors a video of him asking the same questions to a room full of kids. “Raise your hand if you know how to color, sing and dance!” ….“YEAAAAHHH!” – Erupting as if they were at a rock concert. He laughed at this point, “If only you could crowd surf over third graders.”

Brian is the founder of Think Kindness, and this story opened his keynote at Ad2 Reno’s nonprofit workshop this past Sunday.

He begged the question – Somewhere between third grade and age 40, adults forgot how to color, sing and dance? What happened to the creativity? What happened to the dream big, be anyone, do anything attitude we had when we were little? The theory: negativity in the media. The solution: non-profit organizations.

He reminded us non-profits that we’re the dreamers, the ones who promote good in our community, the ones who fight for what we believe in. We work hard at creating positive messages, rallying for a cause, and sharing them with the world.

Non-profits in the room were uniting around causes like autism, butterfly houses, health and fitness programming, technology for students, girl leadership, railroad safety, horses, and more.  They’re the rock star third graders coloring, singing and dancing.

Big thank you to our marketing professionals for sharing their industry secrets, and to Brian for setting such an inspiring atmosphere.

Working from home, telecommuting, whatever you call it, is dangerous business.  There’s no supervisor breathing down your neck, manager keeping you on task, or co-workers to keep pace with, and these are good things - if you have the cojones for it.  It takes a tremendous amount of personal discipline to stay on track when so many distractions surround you.

-The most important thing I’ve learned about working from home is about preparing yourself for the day as if you were going to the office. Schedule an hour you must be up by, wash your face, put on some make-up if you wear it, and put some clean clothes on. It doesn’t have to be professional attire, but if that makes you feel more professional, then do it.  You’ll feel refreshed and ready to start the day.  Stumbling to the computer in your PJ’s just doesn’t work.

-Set up an office.  This is your space and no one else’s.  This space is also only for work, not for pinning photos or video chatting with your mom…

Conversely, you might be like me and need to do your work in a different place every week. Working at home can be lonely. For some reason I do better on the couch one week, or at My Favorite Muffin the next. There are studies that say changing location helps focus as well.

-If you’re very easily distracted, especially if you check Facebook or Twitter too much, set an alarm for every 20-30 minutes.  It’s a reminder to return to the task at hand should you drift off.

-Get a part-time morning job.  You have to get up, get ready, and when you get home you’ll be awake and energized.  The social interaction really helps as well if you’re extroverted.

-Set a time when you’ll be done for the day.  Turn off your computer for a couple hours, stop checking your e-mail and relax.  If you don’t clearly separate time for work and your personal time, you’ll feel like you’re always at work.

Take advantage of the flexibility of working from your home, or wherever else you might choose. Hit the bank when it’s slow, cook a healthy meal for lunch, but keep the distractions at a minimum. You’ll know when you haven’t put your best day’s work in.  You won’t feel professional and ultimately your work suffers.  There’s nothing more satisfying than putting a good day’s work in with nothing but your own drive and motivation.