Posted December 1, 2017
Jamie Hoffman Brooks, B.A. ’05 and MMC ’07, is an account director at Westgate PR and Digital Marketing. She’s also marketing director for Adventure Cats.
What do you do in your current job?
I work as the account management lead on select retainer and project-based clients
within our agency, overseeing their media relations, digital marketing and influencer
campaigns. Basically, my goal is to make you aware of my client’s products or services
however you consume information, whether it’s traditional media like magazines, newspapers
or TV, online ads or social influencers. Currently, my clients include a French cosmetics
brand and an automotive accessories company. And in my spare time, I work as the marketing
director for Adventure Cats, an organization working to challenge negative stereotypes
of cats to increase cat adoptions.
What’s the most interesting or significant thing you’ve done since graduating?
Since graduating, I’ve had to chance to work at many great agencies on several regional,
national and international brands including banks, restaurants, furniture, and health
and beauty products. One of the most interesting is a campaign I did with Purina last
year to build buzz for their Pro Plan line of cat food and encourage cat owners to
create safe indoor and outdoor adventures for their felines that keep them mentally
stimulated and physically active. We created a holiday, Take Your Cat on an Adventure
Day, which included an event for media such as People magazine to walk leash-trained
cats through Central Park and a social media contest where users shared photos of
their cats’ adventures for a chance to win a year’s supply of food. Participants’
photos were used to create calendars that raised money for animal shelters. As a cat
lover, it was a wonderful opportunity to spend a day surrounded by cute cats and help
spread some cat love online.
What are you passionate about in your work?
The thing I enjoy most about my job is that every day presents a new challenge. Each
industry and brand within that industry is unique, so there is no one-size-fits-all
approach to helping a client achieve their marketing and communications goals. And
if you like change, every day is different. One day you’ll be walking cats in New
York, the next you can be packaging products to send to influencers or hanging out
in Texas overseeing a food photo shoot.
What did you learn while in school at the CIC that still resonates today?
I focused on print journalism as an undergraduate, and I use something I learned in
copy editing, news writing and PR writing every day. In today’s working world, we
communicate more electronically than in person or on the phone. You can have a brilliant
idea, but if you can’t write about it in a way that makes sense and is grammatically
correct, no one will see the brilliance.
Do you have a favorite professor or a favorite memory from your time at the CIC?
There are three people who had a huge impact on my life. Cecile Holmes was my undergrad
advisor and helped give me direction and advice during those early, confusing years.
She also introduced me to my husband, who was one of her students. Lisa Sisk recommended
me to one of her former students, and he helped get me my first job at Mullen. I worked
at that agency for four years and learned so much. And I was able to get that job
because I did so well on their writing test thanks to Doug Fisher’s copy editing classes.
I keep in touch with all of them.