MMA

Q&A Session About ‘Second Life’ and the Metaverse

By Ally Polner On April 11, Wagner James Au, the author of The Making of Second Life (available in the Richter Library) and The Metaverse Blog New World Notes (https://nwn.blogs.com) responded to questions about Second Life and the metaverse from members of the Media Management Association. Below is a summary of these conversation exchanges, with slight editing for clarity. For recall, Second Life was created by Linden Lab in 2003 (nearly 20 years ago) and is described as an online community of avatars--a second life for its residents. Your book, [...]

2022-04-18T16:00:17-04:00April 18, 2022|Media Management|

MMA Meeting: How to Gain Access in the Media Business

By Vivianne Martell In Feb. 2022, Brian Norris, senior vice president, direct to scale & commerce partnerships at NBCUniversal’s Advertising and Partnerships division and a frequent Media Management Association speaker, shared his advice with students for entering the media business. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in advertising and sales, including nearly 15 years in leadership positions. Norris began the presentation by retracing his own professional journey, which started at Lifetime Television as a sales assistant. A key trigger for his interest in advertising sales occurred when, [...]

2022-03-11T16:03:38-05:00March 11, 2022|Media Management|

There Are Many Layers in Intellectual Property Protection, Expert Says

By Ally Polner Intellectual property (IP) lawyer, Allison Lovelady, shared many insights with aspiring media professionals at the virtual Feb. 2022 meeting of the Media Management Association. As a partner at Shullman Fugate PLLC, Lovelady primarily litigates and counsels clients on copyright, trademark, defamation, and related privacy disputes. She graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in Public Relations and Business Administration and earned her JD from Nova Southeastern University where she was an editor for the Journal of International and Comparative Law. Lovelady started off her [...]

2022-02-09T14:41:49-05:00February 9, 2022|Media Management|

The New Standard for TV Ad Measurement

By Micaela Wenger In November, Brett Jensen, director of solutions at iSpot (or iSpot.tv) joined the members of the Media Management Association over Zoom to discuss the company's approach to measuring TV ads. After earning a degree in electronic journalism from Kansas State University, he decided to orient himself toward the media business, including radio sales, interactive advertising, and consulting, and never looked back. In 2017, he began to work at iSpot, an 8-year-old U.S. measurement company with more than 200 employees. Unlike other measurement firms, iSpot specializes itself in [...]

2021-11-30T10:47:57-05:00November 30, 2021|Uncategorized|

Alumna Shares Career Journey in Programmatic Advertising

By Jalyn Hamilton At the October meeting of the Media Management Association, Rachel Blank, a UM media management alumna from Long Island, New York, and presently a senior programmatic account manager with ShareThis, shared her insights, knowledge, and advice about her journey through the media industry and how she got to where she is now. In 2014, Blank graduated from the University of Miami where she used her network and experience through internships to secure her first job as an assistant media buyer at Horizon Media. There, she helped strategize [...]

2021-11-15T17:20:52-05:00November 15, 2021|Media Management|

SyFy Founder Shares Entrepreneurial Insights with MMA Members

By Micaela Wenger In October, Laurie Silvers, who earned her B.A. and J.D. degrees at the University of Miami, shared her expertise about her career as a serial media entrepreneur from Boca Raton, Florida. As a UM student, she had big dreams and always knew she wanted to achieve great things. Every time she was told “you won’t,” she responded with a positive “I will.” In 1989, Silvers and her husband created Syfy (originally called the Sci-Fi Channel) before selling it four years later to USA Network, which was owned [...]

2021-10-18T10:58:48-04:00October 18, 2021|Media Management|

Changes in the Advertising Sales Environment

By Melissa Mendez On March 15, Brian Norris, senior vice president of Ad Sales and Direct To Scale & Commerce Partnerships from NBCUniversal (NBCU), spoke to the members of the Media Management Association over Zoom to discuss the evolution of advertising sales throughout his career. Before joining NBCUniversal, Norris worked at Lifetime Television, Viacom, and Dish Network in advertising and media sales. During his last three years at NBCU, he has led the first direct-to-consumer sales team, which was designed to enable brands to scale from social platforms to ones [...]

2021-04-06T12:27:21-04:00April 6, 2021|Media Management|

‘Change Brings Opportunities,’ WarnerMedia Executive Says

By: Raul Cruz "Change brings opportunities," is one of the key messages that Jennifer Mirgorod, head of Sales and Account Management at WarnerMedia Sales and Distribution, delivered to the members of the Media Management Association during a popular Zoom session about her company’s streaming service, HBO Max. Mirgorod graduated with a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and spent nearly two decades working for Turner Broadcasting in various executive positions in advertising and sales. Prior to her current position, Mirgorod was an executive vice president in Partnership [...]

2021-02-22T14:52:14-05:00February 22, 2021|Media Management|

The Power of Brand Advocacy in the Streaming Business

By: Raul Cruz Michael Fernández, vice president of marketing for V-Me Media, spoke over Zoom with the members of the Media Management Association about the importance of branding strategy in the increasingly competitive streaming space. Simply stated, branding refers to a company's ability to create a unique identity for a product or service in the mind of the consumer. Fernández held previous positions with Viacom International Media Networks as senior manager in advertising and brand solutions for the Latin American market and with Sony Pictures Television as marketing manager in [...]

2020-11-05T10:37:29-05:00November 4, 2020|Media Management|

From UM to Sony Music Entertainment: Alumna Shares Her Path to Success

By: Micaela Wenger On Sept. 21, 2020, Michelle Ben-Reuven, a 2015 undergraduate Media Management alumna, shared her insights about her professional journey with the members of the Media Management Association. She chose the University of Miami because she did not want to go too far from home for college. After graduating from UM, she went down many different career paths until she found herself at Sony Music Entertainment. It was only after her internship with Capitol Records that she knew she wanted to work in the music business. Ben-Reuven was [...]

2020-10-05T15:28:36-04:00October 5, 2020|Media Management|