留學文書寫作范例－媒體研究（個人陳述）

Personal Statement
Program Applied: Media Studies

    As the merger of media operations of J. Walter Thompson Advertising and Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, MindShare plays a paramount role in the area of media communication the world over. It is very fortunate that I, a female who has graduated from the School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University, have been qualified to work at its Beijing Office. On account of my professional dedication, my academic background and solid knowledge in media communication, I have now become the youngest media planner in the IBM Team, the elite team in the Mindshare’s Beijing Office. As media planner, I have been responsible for taking care of one of the most important parts of the entire advertising business of IBM Company in China—eServer. Specifically, I am in charge of formulating all the media advertising campaigns for IBM eServer product in mainland China.

    This major responsibility is as challenging as it is exciting to me. This is because IBM’s advertising campaign covers a wide range of media channels, ranging from the conventional media of TV, Print, and Outdoor to new forms of media such as Internet, plus the creation and adoption of Creative Media. On the other hand, the media market in China is both immature and complicated, with very different characteristics of media consumption on the part of the general public throughout the nation on account of cultural, economic and geographical differences. To grasp the rapidly changing circumstances in this fickle market, to understand precisely the complicated media consumption habits and the psychology of the audience, and to come up with corresponding plans within the shortest time possible, it requires tremendous market sensitivity, business courage, as well as very professional and specialized knowledge background. I congratulate myself that I have proved myself very competent for this challenging job because I have taken a series of concrete steps. I have tried consciously to exercise my rich media knowledge that I learned from my undergraduate program. I have tried to bring the experience I acquired from my undergraduate internship to bear on my present work. I have tried to following developments of the media market closely by doing a lot of research on a daily basis. Specifically, I carry out survey studies of the main media forms including TV, Print, Internet and analyze target audience’s habit of media consumption, and the advertising campaigns undertaken by IBM’s main competitors. In this way I try to find out the most effective approach of conveying our advertising message to our target audience. By applying the media analysis software developed by ACNielsen Company, I obtain a wealth of statistical data. I also study IBM’s target media consumption by employing the highly object-oriented Gallup Software developed by IBM itself. With my dedicated efforts, the eServer advertising of IBM has achieved very encouraging headway. Apart from giving me a strong sense of pride and achievement, this initial success has also considerably strengthened my confidence in performing successful research work in my future media studies.

    As a novice who has just been initiated into a major multinational company, the fact that I have performed so well in its elite team is totally inseparable from my well-preparedness—prior to my employment, I had the experience of doing nearly one years’ internship at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising (O&M) Beijing office. As the Top 1 advertising company in China, O&M offers undergraduates very limited opportunities for internship and potential interns must compete against each other fiercely to win the opportunity. As a junior, I passed several rounds of competitive screening tests and became the only student in my class to be accepted by O&M as an intern. My internship was conducted at O & M’s Knowledge Center, an individual department responsible for providing best practice and market research to support the whole O&M Group—including advertising, public relations, interactive, direct marketing and promotion. My responsibilities is to collect and summarized the market information of specific industries such as e-business and FMCG. By exchanging with various departments of my company, I developed a comprehensive understanding of each step in the integrated marketing communication. Meanwhile, I also improved my ability of communication with the staff of the Customers Service Department. I came to be seriously interested in the psychology of target audience and the consumption differences determined by cultural and economic differences. In order to probe into how advertising appeals to the inner impulse of the recipient, I made extensive research concerning the consumption behavior by using P & G as a case study. With the support of extensive research, I carried out special case study concerning the website construction of P & G and my research findings became a standard part of O & M’s training program. They also provided information support for O & M’s Interactivity Department when constructing the Unilever Website.