During May and June, the Texas Advertising Department, in partnership with UT's Center for Global Educational Opportunities (CGEO), offered students the opportunity to study global brand communications in Spain through the Maymester Program. Dr. Minette Drumwright taught the International Advertising (ADV 334) course to 29 U.T. undergraduate students. The majority of the students were Advertising and Public Relations majors, but students from other majors within the College of Communication (Radio/TV/Film, Communications Studies) and from majors in other colleges (Business, Liberal Arts, Natural Sciences) also were in the course.
The Maymester course provides undergraduate students with an invaluable opportunity to gain experience in global communications in a short period of time while also receiving U.T. course credit. Since most Advertising and Public Relations students will likely work with global brands at some point in their professional careers, the Maymester experience enables them to be more competitive and successful marketing professionals post-graduation. As stated by Dr. Drumwright, "You can read about other cultures, study cultures, but there is nothing like being there."
The students were in Seville for the first three weeks of the course, and during the fourth week, they traveled to Madrid and Barcelona. In Seville, students attended seminar-style class sessions for three and a half hours a day in which they analyzed and discussed case studies of global companies such as Zara, the Spanish clothing retailer that is similar to GAP. They also engaged in various experiential learning exercises that involved analyzing brand communications for global companies in the local environment. Among the brands that student teams analyzed were Coca-Cola, Converse, Diesel, Heineken, ipod, Puma, Smirnoff, Starbucks, and Volkswagen. Students also met with global marketing and communication professionals from global advertising agencies (DDB Madrid; Ogilvy & Mather Barcelona; Foote, Cone & Belding Andalucia), global media firms (Carat Madrid; MindShare Barcelona), and global client companies (Ford Spain; Burger Kind Spain and Portugal).
Dr. Drumwright will teach the International Advertising course during Maymester 2006. However, this 2006 course will be in London, which is the headquarters of many companies and agencies that initiate pan-European and global communication campaigns. To learn more about the upcoming course, visit the Center for Global Educational Opportunities at http://www.utexas.edu/student/abroad/ and click on the Maymester link.
9/2/2005