Miami Ad School: Bootcamp for Account Planners -- Past and Future

[Courtney Kuehn]

This past summer I went to MAS's planning program. I was recently asked by the new assistant admissions director (for the Minneapolis school location) "what worked? what didn't? how can we improve?" so I responded and also gave this some more thought and posted on my blog (http://courtneykuehn.wordpress.com). It is my hope that my posts are a resource for potential Bootcampers, and hopefully, for MAS planning program initiatives.

I won't re-post my thoughts on my Bootcamp experience here. Instead, I invite you to read about it on my blog if you want. But also, if you could plan a 12 week planning course, share your thoughts as to what you would want to see in such a program. How would you design it? Would certain topics be discussed? How many briefs would you want to crank out? Would you have any quant assignments/work? How structured should it be to be effective? (or loose)

I'd love to see thoughts on this...

[Sean Miller]

Courtney, I just read your posts. I think you raise some very important and fundamental points about your experience. This type of feedback is a gift from a student and, if embraced, it can only make the program stronger. I hope they give you the depth of response that is deserved and make a difference to the program - not just to your personal disappointment.

As for what a program would contain, here are a couple quick thoughts. I have to say though, I did not attend any ad school program so forgive me if there are overlaps.

- Repeated Socratic interrogation of briefs. The biggest value I see in writing and helping others write good briefs is that the more you do them the better you get. We hold 'brief clinics' every week in our agency to help planners and others write them better. People show up with a draft and we go through them together. I've found that learning fundamentals of planning is more of an exercise in supervised experimentation than didactic / traditional study. And requiring people to support them in a conversation requires taking a point of view. In the end they're always stronger.

- It's not all about the briefs. Writing a good brief is the price of entry for any planner. But you can write the best briefs in the world and still be a lousy planner. So a course would put equal emphasis on the act of briefing itself (some even argue that the brief is simply a leave-behind at a good briefing) and creating a briefing experience(s) that conveys the crux of the brief, engenders empathy in the target, and inspires the creative process.

[Courtney Kuehn]

I appreciate the feedback. It was (is) my intention to give potential students information, aside from what is on the Miami Ad School site. I do hope it helps the program. I am continuing a dialogue with school and I will keep your suggestions in mind as I share thoughts with school.

I agree, repetitive brief writing exercises would be helpful. Unfortunately, the Minneapolis location had only 4 brief assignments, while past programs have given 10-12.

I am getting a response and some of it has helped fill in the gaps of frustration. On the flip side, I can't help but feel I'm being made to feel afraid and intimidated because I have shared my experience. I recall a thing called freedom of speech...It seems my motives for speaking up 4 months after the program has ended are also being questioned. This I will react to later. And I'll add further details on my blog but I need to think about this a bit more...

[Courtney Kuehn]

Any other thoughts, planners and future planners?

What would be the most important things in a 12 week program? With limited time, what would be the best take-away you could have? (aside from contacts/networking benefits)

[Venky]

Hi Courtney,

My name is Venky and I work in Account management in ad agency named mudra in india. I realize that this post is quite old but I'm considering doing the BC at MAS SF or Hamburg this year and I started doing some research on the same some time back and there is no one else who has created quite a stir like you have with regards to this program. :) Has opened up discussions within my group of friends and we had quite a debate.

I was hoping to get your help & maybe some guidance on this move I am planning to make.. My e-mail is [e-mail] or [e-mail]. Could you please send me a mail so that I can reply to the same with my questions?

[Courtney Kuehn]

Hi Venky,

I think each school/location runs the program differently. I don't know anyone who has done it in San Francisco or Hamburg. (I don't know if they offer it in Hamburg.) Yes, I suppose I did create a buzz...when I was looking into the program, I couldn't find any user-related experiences (somewhat frustrating). It's interesting to see I still get messages on my blog posts, though yes, I wrote these a while ago.

I might suggest you get in touch with people who have taken the program more recently, or even those who are just beginning. They may have different (I hope they do anyway) experiences and can give you more up-to-date information.

[nina r]

Hi Venky -
I lecture classes in some of the quarters at the MASE in Hamburg and have also done some teaching on one of the former bootcamps. Just send an e-mail to Niklas Frings-Rupp, he leads the Hamburg branch, and ask him if there is a bootcamp up this summer. They also very much value feedback and input from former and prospective students on such a class/ program. It all is a living thing and should get better every year!
Hope this helped - greetings - Nina

[Venky]

Hi Nina,

Thanks so much for replying firstly. I did contact Niklas and he did confirm that there is a bootcamp coming up and that I can apply for it. I am applying in Hamburg for 2 reasons: the need to study/live/work in Europe and a personal need to travel. I am kinda sceptical on whether the program is Hamburg is as good ad the program in the U.S. So maybe you can shed some light on that subject.

Also, I have been in advertising for just 6 months and was in CRM in investment banking for about 3 years. But I have loved being in advertising so far and I eventually wanna become a planner in a big agency. So would this bootcamp be a good launchpad for my ambition? Would this be a value add to my CV? These are the kinda questions that I'm pondering over.

[Courtney Kuehn]

I'd say go to Miami, just because this is where the school started and also where Bootcamp started. They've been doing it the longest.