On December 3rd, 2019, members of the BOLD agency had the opportunity to pitch a campaign to the executives of Culture Shock Miami at the Miami Dade Cultural Affairs building in Downtown, Miami. The purpose of this campaign, set for the 2019-2020 season, is to help raise awareness of all the benefits Culture Shock Miami offers among college students.
Culture Shock Miami, the audience development program of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs is designed to introduce the next generation of audience members to live arts and cultural experiences. Culture Shock Miami is founded on the premise that, when teens and young adults make the arts a regular entertainment choice, they are more likely to become full-price ticket buyers and subscribers in the future. Through the website, teens and young adults (ages 13-22) can purchase $5 tickets to top music, theatre, and dance performances, as well as admission to museums, landmarks, and cultural destinations in and around Miami-Dade County.
What made this occasion so special was the fact that this was a project BOLD had the opportunity to work on aside from its regular semester clients. This was a unique experience due in part by the rigorous process that BOLD members went through in teams to be one of the two finalists who would pitch to the client. Before the client presentation, there were weeks of preparation, where members were placed into teams, given the client brief, and then asked to create a campaign and pitch it to the E-Board members. After the pitch trial, the teams were given feedback for their work and ultimately two out of the seven groups were chosen to pitch their campaign to Culture Shock Miami. Having the opportunity to pitch a campaign in front of a client is very rare for college students, and with BOLD, these two teams were able to gain first-hand experience.
“As a strategic communications agency, we have a responsibility to find ways to give back to our local community. Partnering with Culture Shock Miami is an absolute win-win. Our BOLD interns gained invaluable experience through preparing and presenting their campaign pitches, and Culture Shock Miami was provided with fresh, new ideas aimed towards their targeted audiences of 13-22-year-olds. I personally love that we can make an impact on our local community even as college students!” said the Director of Accounts, Dillon DiBartolomeo, after taking part in this experience.
BOLD is a student-run and faculty-managed strategic communications agency where students gain hands-on, real-world experience in a professional agency environment. The experiential learning opportunity helps students develop and sharpen their skills through real client work, workshops, team-building exercises and networking engagements with professionals and thought leaders in the communications industry.
Want to learn more? Visit https://boldfiu.com/.
Written by Maria Vargas