subject: Marketing manager seeking position part 6 KPA [print this page] The Las Vegas real estate bust was taking down the entire economy. People were losing their jobs, losing their homes, and many were having to leave the valley. At the time we were moving it was difficult to find a moving truck because so many were being used for one way relocations, move out of state.
It took me a record 3 weeks to find a new job and I couldn't have been happier. I thought we had justified our move and the new job was going to pay off. Shortly after starting this new job we rented a house and started flying our kids out to visit.
I was doing well at the new company. They needed someone who could come in and start working without much training. I was given 3 days of orientation with the person leaving and after that was on my own.
This was not an issue at all because I have a clear and solid understanding of the workings of an agency. They used the same systems I had been using for years. The real difference and learning curve for me was the client base. I had worked on hospital marketing at IDG and had worked in a hospital for 5 years as a unit secretary and had some basic medical terminology.
The clients at this new company, KPA Healthcare Advertising, were medical device companies. Some were start-ups and others were large internationally known. I was able to handle all of the agency coordination and worked with clients to get projects done.
The largest client was preparing to launch a new product and required multiple tactics. I was coordinating medical journal ads, interactive videos, tradeshow booth graphics, and a sales tool that included multiple elements.
At the same time I was learning about the client's products which included atrial fibrillation ablation treatment, human stem cell technologies for cryopreservation and treatment, equine regenerative treatments, and degenerative disc disease treatments. I was being challenged in a whole new way and I was loving it. I was bringing home research on all the products and even with my current medical terminology was having to learn a new language.
A large part of my job was to manage the client budgets and make sure that the creative department team was not going over the time allotted on each project. I was fortunate to have experience with this and was able to talk to the team about what the client needed and what I needed from them. Nothing will get an account service person on the bad side of the creative department faster than unrealistic deadlines and unclear directions.
I was working well with the creative team managing budgets and trafficking the various jobs to make sure we were meeting timeline requirements. When I think back to this experience, I know that my impact for the agency and our clients was positive and immediate. Once again I was part of a team where my experience and abilities were having a positive impact and that is the most satisfying part of what I do.
Then about 4 or 5 months into the new job, our clients were cutting budgets, trimming expenses and all of that effected the amount of work we were doing for them. For the first time, I was going to be furloughed, which was much better than being laid off. And shortly after that, my supervisor, after working at the agency for over 16 years, decided to leave.
We had started doing some new business projects and I was helping by providing prospective client lists and information. Most of my time at this point was spent researching companies who fit in our area of expertise, getting information on what products were being developed by them, finding contact information and handing this all over to a newly hired creative director.
We were also working on getting our company website up to date and changed from a flash only site to HTML so that we could optimize for better rankings. It is common for agencies to not do for themselves, what they do for clients. You get busy and stop paying attention to your own needs as a business. This is common and as we were experiencing, deadly.
It wasn't long before we were ranking higher on Google, had accounts with Twitter, LinkedIn and were signed up on various registries. One of the first things I had done to the website was the addition of Google analytics so that I could measure the traffic I was driving to our website. In July 2009 our website traffic was up 36%.
I was working on a blog article as well to increase our visibility and demonstrate our expertise when it came to web 2.0 technologies and the FDA and what role social media would play in medical device marketing.
After working for the agency 12 months almost to the day, I was again laid off. Even with all the work we were doing and new business presentations, medical device companies were struggling with getting the funding they needed to complete trials for FDA approvals.
I learned a lot during my time with KPA and I miss my colleagues. We keep in touch and I wish them all the very best.
