New Breed Marketing

This summer at New Breed Marketing, we've invited James Mckee, a professor at Champlain College, to work in our office part-time. Jay brings years of experience both in the field and as an educator, and we are thrilled to have him. He has shared with us a brief background of how he ended up here and what he will be doing.

This whole thing started several years ago in 1997. While teaching advertising at Champlain College, I realized how fast things were changing in my field and, despite reading Ad Age and Adweek, and making every effort to keep up, I was feeling a little out of touch.

Since I had been setting up internships for my students, I was in touch with a number of ad agencies and marketing firms in Burlington, Vermont. I thought, what if I offered my services to one of them on a limited basis for the summer?

The first firm I approached, Peter Jacobs at Shark Communications, said that he had a project for me and that I might really be of benefit to them. My project consisted of overseeing the design and construction of some panels highlighting client work. It was great “working” in my field, and the employees at Shark Communications were great to work with.

Fast forward to 2011:

Much, much more change has occurred in the field since 1997. As an academic, it is extremely difficult to keep up with those who are working daily in advertising or marketing. Yet it is so important to be up to speed.

This time, I asked Brian Mullins, Executive Creative Director at New Breed Marketing in Winooski, if they might be interested in having me do some work for them this summer. One of my former students, Katy Kent, works at New Breed. The tables turned when she gave me my first assignment; I was to write for a blog about using social media to generate leads for B2B companies, a significant portion of New Breed's client base.

I've also been able to contribute and lend my expertise in other areas. Each week I sit in on the sales/business development meeting. One of the recent topics to come up was dimensional mailers, which is something I've had success with in my career. I was happy to share with the New Breed Marketing business development team some of what I've learned based on my experience. I'm looking forward to the rest of my summer here, and hope to share some of what I learn with my students this fall.