Marketing Course & Traineeships: MFA (Media Federation of Australia)

Looking for a career change? Want to be an indentured slave to a marketing agency? ho ho ho. MFA (Media Federation of Australia) has some traineeships coming up – and a course. Have a look through and then read my “extra month” at the end. 🙂 – traineeship applications have to be in by NOVEMBER 8th!!!!!!

MFA 2008 Trainee Program
The MFA is calling for applications for the 6month traineeship. The program offers extensive training and provides experience in all facets of the media communications industry. For an overview of the program please review the training manual. Applications must be lodged by November 8, 2007. Please apply here.

INTERESTED IN A CAREER IN MEDIA?
Check out this video for inspiration and information and don’t forget to read the Guideline on the left for a helpful insight into what the industry does.
Students may also be interested to get a copy of the ‘Marketing Media Survival Guide’ which is a great resource for marketers, agencies and media students. This is a 172 page publication that you can obtain either from newsagents for $17.50 or order online at www.niche.com.au/subscriptions or call 1800 804 160.

MFA AWARDS
Entries are now closed for 2007 and judging is taking place in August. The celebration dinner will be held on Thursday November 1 and for more information please contact mfa@twodeforce.com.au

WORK EXPERIENCE APPLICATION FORMS
For graduates looking to undertake work experience with a media agency, please complete the following application form and submit to carol@mediafederation.org.au where all members will be informed of your request.

MFA MEMBERSHIP AND ENQUIRIES
For any information about the MFA, please contact Carol Morris, Executive Officer on (02) 9583 9610 or email carol@mediafederation.org.au.

I had a poke around to see what their work experience/traineeships courses had to offer.

First Month
Media Training
o Introduction to Media training
o Agency to allocate time with Group Manager to help educate on the role of an Assistant
o Agency to schedule time to explain the core operating system (ie. BCC)
Awareness and broad understanding of
o The role of a Media Agency
o The Company structure and client listing
o Media Terminology
o The agency core operating system (ie. BCC)
o The functions of a Media Assistant
Second Month
Media Tours / Training
o Magazine, Newspaper tours
o ABC, Roy Morgan, Nielsen Adex training sessions
o Agency to allocate time with strategic planners and relevant research people to help educate on the process and systems used for developing consumer insights and strategic planning solutions
Awareness and broad understanding of
o Industry research tools used for print media and what they offer
o Print Strengths and Weaknesses
o Print rate card structure and negotiation variables
o Agency planning process and what it offers
o Proprietary research the Company offers
Project Tasks
o Prepare a listing of the top 20 magazines in terms of performance and cost efficiency. I.e. total readership, Men 18- 24 and Women 18-24 readership, by total circulation, cost per readers (CPM) based on full page. Identify which titles appear in the top ranking of all these criteria
o Produce a competitive expenditure report as instructed by the team and identify some key insights
o Evaluate media consumption habits against 40-54 market using a combination of industry research systems (ie Roy Morgan) along with any agency proprietary systems to identify the best media combination
Third Month
Media Tours / Training
o TV, Radio station tours
o OzTAM, Nielsen Radio Advisor training sessions
o Agency to allocate time with Buyers and Buying Managers to help educate on the role of a Buyer and provide further education on rate card structures
Awareness and broad understanding of
o Industry research tools used for TV and radio and what they offer
o TV and Radio rate card structure and negotiation variables
o Buying practices and processes applied by the agency
o Rate negotiation and variables by client
o The basic steps of Media Buying (i.e. information required, process for buying and managing the buy)
Project Tasks
o Prepare a listing of the top 20 TV programmes in the last month in terms of performance and cost efficiency. I.e. Tarp rankings on Men 18-24 and Women 18-24, Cost per TARP (CPT) rankings against the same criteria. Identify
which programmes appear in both lists and therefore offer best performance and efficiency.
o Prepare a report on the station shares (Sydney only) for the most recent week using the demographic as Women 25-39. Identify which programmes would have influenced the top stations performance.
Fourth Month
Media Tours / Training
o Outdoor and online publisher tour
o Online planning and buying workshop
o Nielsen NetRatings training
o Agency to allocate time with Buyers to help educate on the process of monitoring a campaign and reviewing objectives
Awareness and broad understanding of
o Industry research tools used for online and what they offer
o Outdoor measurement system proposals and what it aims to deliver
Project tasks to be completed
o Undertake a TV post analysis and identify major variances in performance along with details of any discrepancies
o Prepare a review of shortfall programs over the campaign and provide recommended solutions for future weeks
Fifth Month
Tours / Training
o Training on sponsorships, events, and other communication activities
o AdStream training for material despatch
Awareness and broad understanding of
o The process of despatching material
o The creative process and integration with media agencies
Sixth Month
Tours / Training
o Creative Agency tour
o Marketing Client training
o Agency to allocate time with Finance team to help educate on the role
Project tasks to be completed
o Complete an essay response to a brief (winner to be published in Adnews) Evaluation throughout the period that demonstrates skills on
o Attention to detail, Time management, Computer skills, Enthusiasm on the job

Well, darlings, I just thought you might find it interesting. Basically,
Month1: General
Month 2: Magazine/Newspapers
Month 3: TV/Radio
Month 4: Outdoor/Online
Month 5: Sponsorship/Events/Other
Month 6: Creative Agency

History repeats itself. Which may explain why it’s so boring.
Suppose I put together a SEVENTH MONTH? What would it look like? Oh I know:
Month 7: Online Communities/Social Networks
Seventh Month
Tours /Training
*Social Network tour – understand social media, blogs, wikis, consumer generated media, ratings and rankings, widgets and other distributed marketing tools.
*Marketing through social networks – establishing dialogue, respect and conversation. understanding consumer created advertising.
*Social Network to allocate time to educate Marketing students in understanding branding in vocal communities and managing relationships with members.
Project tasks to be completed
*write a blog, develop a marketing “Brand of One” (the student is the ‘brand’), gain readership
*engage with members of communities, establishing dialogue, developing rapport identifying customer trends in “anti-marketing”
*manage not to be named as an “infiltrator” or otherwise “outed” for not being transparent
*write a piece on ethics in communities including using creative commons/copyleft copyright

…and so on and so forth. what do you think? Is this what a marketing course of the future might include? How many courses have this now, d’ya think?

Sneaky Disclaimer: The above is NOT a course outline for the one day University of Sydney course I teach : Web 2.0 – YouTube, blogs and Marketing which is coming up November 8th. But it is a nice little segue into a bit of self-promotion. Heh.