I Am Victoria Burbridge

I am a dedicated, positive and commercially aware media enthusiast, who enjoys the logic attached to advertising. I have highly extensive experience in assisting production, editing, planning, delivering audience insight, and tailor made market research as well as people management. I am currently an undergraduate studying ‘Advertising and Media’ in the hedonistic haven that is Newcastle. Currently employed as a top level at Topman where I assist the running of the store, including online promotion and sales, I have worked alongside various teams at Box TV, an amalgamation with 4Music – a joint venture between Channel 4, the UK’s number 1 music TV network and music television group.

Recent success stories include supporting the digital marketing communications, overseeing the creation of an innovative cross media campaign targeting the youth, 13-34 audience demographics, launching the enterprise of The Box+ app, a creative on-air refresh of 4Music. I am experienced in balancing and executing multiple projects and handling them at any given time, in line with agreed deadlines.

I opted to take a placement at Channel 4, working under the roof of 4Music with Box Tv, an industry which is totally committed to being the UK's no.1 innovator in music TV.
I knew that it would leave many doors open for when I confirm which career path is going to be ‘the one’ in the foreseeable future. Working there allowed me to develop myself professionally from celebrity clienteles to industry specialists and display a level of proactivity in marketing strategies to strive for established company objectives. I was given the opportunity to have responsibility in monitoring and analyzing ‘BARB’ analytics to present and report trends in user behavior in conjunction with the social networking team. Working with this team allowed me to extend my knowledge in achieving frequent, timely and positive media coverage across all available media channels, an element which I have been able to hone back into my part-time job at Topman to push services and expand our revenue by identifying market requirements for current and future products within the area.  Likewise from the potential strategic partner relationships, I conducted research in order to identify and implement some 4Music branded merchandise within the agreed budget.

You can download my CV here or get in touch:

 

 

 

Kick start your media career

 

"We are delighted to offer you a placement here at Channel 4"

 

  

It's no secret that as a first year undergraduate of 'Advertising & Media', there is a burning ambition to successfully thrive after graduation. The degree title itself, paints a glorious picture of an attractive and promising career prospect, idealised by many, who day dream of writing content for highly sought after magazines or news articles, or perhaps creating award winning films, or even breaking the casket on the next big online viral sensation.
Yet, increasingly there is a wealth of graduates who support the pessimistic claims that this saturated and competitive industry, contributes towards a progressive preoccupation where the vast majority will fall by the wayside and give up on their aspirations.

The key point to make here, with regards to becoming a media graduate, is to do it the right way, a graduate who showcases promise and who will be more likely to succeed.

 At the core of this hyperbole from April 2012 came Glynn Ryland, the industry talent manager at Channel 4, who preached to us through his glossy 4Talent presentation, that if you position yourself above the uninspired and invisible masses, then your prospects get infinitely brighter. Granted, if you can research, be specific about where you want to be in the industry and create your own opportunities, then you can leapfrog thousands of rivals who are looking to climb the media ladder.

This was a portrayal of what was going on in my head right about now...

My enthusiasm to work at Channel 4 was instantly elevated

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18 . 02 . 13

C H A N N E L 4 / Application.

After a lengthily debate in my own head, one year on from Glynn's inspiring lecture, I took the plunge and began to submit myself to the online 4talent pool, an invaluable platform with which to express yourself and your talents. I spent enough time getting myself acquainted with every open ended question and engaging with every 'ticky' box. I had so much determination not to be one of the infinite, bland clones who lacked individuality, clogging up their responses inbox.

12 . 04. 13

C H A N N E L 4 / Judgement Day.

It was judgement day and I was feeling sceptical. There was no life within my inbox, at times it would have seemed that my phone was almost surgically attached to my face and admittedly I was just
 steps away from resorting back to the drawing board.
Needless to say that as the day dawned on me; my afternoon was quickly consumed by copious amounts of time and effort spent emailing any kind of 4Talent recruitment team address available. At the time I was by no means an expert or even slightly knowledgeable in the field of firing off emails to industry professionals, however I was taking no prisoners. I'm a big advocate for Twitter, I believe that creating online presence is absolutely paramount and tweeting is perhaps most essential, so at the time it didn’t hurt to tweet @Gylnn4Talent, I realised if I didn’t do something conventional about the matter at hand I was going to be disappointed. Shortly after I tweeted about how I was willing to embark on a work placement...

 

the unthinkable happened.

The subject box read: 'Work Placement: Open day invitation' with a bundle of itinerary emails to follow, as I absorbed this wave of excitement, I recall reading the closing statement, the kind regards of "Congratulations once again! Have a great weekend." I could not have felt happier. 

Guess it was time to develop the mantra that patience is a virtue.

Next stop, Channel 4.

First Day For Thought

 

19 . 05 . 13

C H A N N E L 4 / The Avid Traveller.

So there was something a little different today. I was on my way to London! I look to my first placement with enthusiasm. As a guise from being an utter newbie to London, I was able to fit into the role of a tourist, getting myself better acquainted with the city and of course, go a little snap-happy at the city's attractions. Amongst the fast pace streets of London, there is such a healthy spirit of enterprise, and imbued recognition of business meets the values of innovation, everybody I met was not just a complete design savvy but also had the same attitude, a story to tell, or had otherwise established a viable business goal for life, this made me very career conscious. Coming to work in London made me versatile, it was another indication of that 'real world' fear that needed to be confronted, underpinning this advance was just the beginning of equipping myself for life after graduation. 

Day 1. What Does Nicki Minaj's Butt Feel Like?

 

 

20 . 05 . 13

C H A N N E L 4 / 4 Music @ Box Television.

 

 

 

 

From humble beginnings came 'Box Television', a musical phenomenon!

My first day for channel 4 could not have gone any better! Having been at university the last two years, the 6am alarm was a shock to the system. On my first day I was scared about boarding my first array of over-ground trains and tubes, however it was not long until I became used to that sardine-like feeling of rush hour central London.

The variety of questions that I got asked on my first day generally summarise my experience quite well, they ranged from the complex to the absurd. "Welcome to 4Music Vicky, *Soft handshake*, what do you think our brand personalities are here?", "What do you think is right/wrong with our business tone of voice?" and my personal favourite "What do think Nicki Minaj's butt feels like?". The 4Music office could only be described as a state of hyper-productivity spread across a large floor, fresh young talent certainly excelled here and there was a real sense of camaraderie in the air.

 

My first day was spent with the web team at 'Box TV', they are responsible for all elements of 4Music.com. The teams manage the media presence behind '4Music', with a strong focus on Facebook and Twitter. They also create video and written content for the website. The Box team amalgamate across the board with other  music channels, such as Kiss, Magic, Heat, Smash Hits, The Box and Kerrang, combining the efforts of production, programming, the music team, commercial sales and TV promotions to ensure that 4Music.com offers users all the latest music news and popular culture gossip, as well as a variety of information readily accessible about '4Music' shows. Their mission statement is to represent the '4Music' brand in an exciting and fresh way online.

‘Melissa Pine', floor director for the Box Television’s online sector, provided me with a light introduction to life at 4Music, she implemented my first initial task. This was to oversee and develop a brand ethos, which detailed the services from ‘BoxTV’ in conjunction with the organisation's fast output demands; I had to meet Melissa's agreed deadline which was the end of the day. In order to do this, I was advised that I analyse the relationships with partner channels, look for weaknesses within their existing content and conduct some research in order to identify market requirements for current products, how the company achieves positive media coverage across all available media channels and use ‘BARB’ analytics to present and report trends in user behaviour.


Not only was it my first day, it was my first cooperate media based industry role that I'd worked for, executing everything I'd learnt throughout my Advertising and Media degree. I'm nervous, I tried not to show it, everybody around me specialises in their niche, this is a big deal here, and I had to get this right. Where did I start?

 To a degree I had read through a stream of branding and brand equity literature, I noted a few simple critiques and typos, arguably relatable to the 4Music's brand identity, whilst evidentially absorbing the professionals around me. 'Box TV' was difficult to find a niche on which to focus ones efforts & cognition on because the objective of the brand, was to manifest into diverse personalities, I was able to comply existing theory such as 'Al Ries & Ries (2000)' to generalise the community as having 'The Law of the word' however arguably the brand disputes 'The Law of Contraction'. ..But then I paused for a second. It was almost as if I was trying TOO hard to incorporate second year knowledge, I was being too theoretical for this stage, so instead I utilised my points of view as an outsider ready to feedback to Melissa.

Having linked a layer of theory to my instinctive understanding, this was my result: Click me.

 

Whilst executing my primary task of the digital strategy, I took the time to engage and integrate myself with my stimulating desk space neighbours: 'Trent', 'Jenny' and 'Nicol' who's intent it was to increase the hits and dwelling time spent on the 4music media drivers, they do this by exceeding themselves to reference quality content, whether that is producing pregnant Beyoncé speculations to Madonna flashing her pins on the red carpet. Their pioneering ideations really drive the digital marketing world to upper the ante from their competitors, such as MTV, and innovate the music celebrity online presence. By excelling 4music's resources to regularly execute and update the content on social media, they make this beneficial with a steady stream of interesting and witty material, consistently suitable for the needs and wants of the brands target segmentation.

 

 

Digital media becomes complicated, if I've learnt anything from my own experiences of running social media for my part-time job at Topman, I would urge them to remember that the digital world and the trends within it are always changing. I should refer to it as a universe, as it is never ending. Change with it and change your formula, don't be scared by it, embrace it! You can't loose out.     
     Monitoring 4Music as an outsider, the sufficient tools and wealth of media the brand has to offer in this regard, heavily optimises their equity. However, truthfully my beliefs of the popular culture music broadcasters are stigmatised. It is apparent that BoxTV corners the music market on all levels and caters for more traditional revenues of music television. Channels such as 'Kerrang' seemingly have less of a profound measure of consumer traffic and popularity, having collectively noticed from 'BARB'. In addition, how long will it be before this profound threat establishes the other channels. Matters at hand suggest a loss of traditional routine, contemporary culture today is heavily dependant on travel and the tangible experience, hence there has been a marketing boom in devices which convey readily available information, especially amongst the youth culture. This can be transcended into user-generated content such as 'Youtube' which provides users with that sense of tailor-made taste and less of a focus on celebrity. 'Youtube' is user friendly and suggests 'videos you may like' to its viewers as opposed to having to wait for the preferred choice's airtime.
Nevertheless in despite of the criticism, subsequently it appears that 4Music acts to ensure music stays for the long run, it is ubiquitous and fan driven, the artists mature with their audience and the most dominant USP is the nature of celebrity adornment, this will continuously provoke commercial interest for the brands long and prosperous reign.

Bibliography: Ries, A. and Ries, L. 1998. The 22 immutable laws of branding. New York: HarperBusiness.