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Ashley
Mabry: All the Right Stuff to Succeed |
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When Ashley Mabry began working for a media planning and buying
agency, she served as extra help around the office. Five years
later, the soon-to-be graduate works five days a week, blending work
and school and using the job to apply lessons learned in class.
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“In the beginning, my job consisted of a lot of data entry and
invoice reconciliation,” she said. Eventually, it helped her see
the close relationship between marketing and advertising.
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“Even though media buying would be considered more advertising than
marketing, I have been able to apply many of the principles that
I’ve learned from my business and marketing classes into my work,”
she said. She was able to blend marketing and advertising on
campus, too. Marketing instructor Jill Solomon encouraged
Mabry to try a cross-college opportunity in Mass Communications’
Zimmerman Advertising Program.
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“I had a little hesitation not really knowing what exactly this
program involved, knowing that marketing students had never been
part in the class before,” she said.
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ZAP students learn as if they worked for an ad agency. Students
develop a full campaign complete with research, strategy, creative,
media, and ROI for the biggest brand in the nation: Coca-Cola. With
her marketing background, Mabry became part of the research and
strategy team, developing and executing research methods with her
fellow students.
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“Research allowed us to figure out who we needed to target, why we
were targeting them, how we could reach them, and most importantly,
how we were going to position Coca-Cola...to reach our audience and
increase sales.” The class won second place in the district
and first place in strategy.
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Mabry is now enrolled in Jim Hensel’s marketing capstone course
requiring students to play the role of corporate
decision makers. It is structured like a corporation: students create
marketing and strategic plans; Hensel plays the CEO role.
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“I push students to defend their recommendations and support
decisions with data,” he said, admitting some students find the
course quite challenging. “They must support their findings with
analysis and documentation.”
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Hensel calls Mabry a “bright, motivated, a quick learner who can
handle challenge and get work done on time and on target.” He
envisions success for her: “Ashley is a great example of the kind of
student who graduates from USF. She has all the right stuff to
succeed.”
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