How Michelle Morgan is Transforming Advertising And Media
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Seventeen’s How I Made It features professionals across various industries that are making waves in their careers. In the series, Seventeen Editor-in-Chief Kristin Koch interviews these leaders to answer your career questions.
Michelle Morgan is an award-winning media strategist who has developed inclusive campaigns for brands like Dove in the beauty space and beyond. Surprisingly, a career in advertising is not what Michelle had intended on. Her best advice? Be your own mentor. Read on for Michelle’s entire interview to feel inspired and learn all that comes with being a media strategist.
17: Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Michelle Morgan: I'm Michelle Morgan, I work at a media agency called Mindshare and I work for an incredible brand with Unilever and Dove. As a media strategist, my job is to create stories through advertising for brands and the campaigns that they're excited about.
So, we look for the best placements; whether that's in print magazines, social media, or working with different publishers on partnerships to get people aware of some of the campaigns and get them excited to do more.
17: How do you help brands like Dove and Unilever create impactful campaigns?
MM: It all starts out with a brief. Our brand will say, "Hey, we have this women empowerment message about real beauty. How can we get this out to different consumers — and women — to think about beauty differently?"
So, we use a lot of data as well as, kind of an art, to figure out the best way to share that message. It's really exciting to think creatively to find the best placements in a magazine feature or work with Facebook or Instagram to promote a social post and amplify that out to different people.
17: Were you always passionate about advertising and marketing, or is it something you discovered along the way?
MM: I kind of discovered it along the way. I would say that my path and my career is very nontraditional. I majored in journalism at the University of Iowa and my track, or my goal, was to be a fashion editor. I would intern at different magazines in New York every summer with the intent of graduating as a fashion assistant and doing all that.
When I came to New York, I worked at W Magazine and transitioned over to Wall Street Journal and different fashion publications. But then I had a moment when I was seeking something more. I really liked advertising and some of the marketing that a lot of brands were doing — I wanted to see how I could break into that industry. So, I switched over to media planning because it gave me that storytelling skill but still using data to think strategically.
17: What is a day in your life like?
MM: I would say a day in my life has a lot, a lot of meetings. So, if you're an extroverted person and like to talk, advertising is a place you would thrive. I do a lot of meetings whether it's with the client or the brand, learning about their goals for their next campaign, figuring out the budgets, and using data to determine where the best place is to reach that person or their target market.
I also do a lot of meetings with different partners to learn about their new capabilities or what's trending or what are some new technologies that we can use within advertising to make people excited. So, it is a lot of collaboration between different teams and different people. It's really fun to always be thinking creatively or going in a brainstorm to throw things on the wall and see what sticks!
17: What was your moment where you were like "This is it. I'm in the right place"?
MM: I love the creativity that comes in advertising where we do the brainstorms. I would say my "aha" moment was a campaign we did these last two years called "Project Show Us," where Dove worked with Getty Images, a stock image bank.
So, if you were to Google "beautiful women," it was always a certain beauty standard that would come up and it wasn't always diverse. Dove created these more inclusive, authentic images where people could search online to find, and our job was to get these out in the real world. We worked with different Hearst magazines like Cosmo and Harper's Bazaar and worked directly with the editors to swap out these images that are typically seen in magazines and put more real beauty in there.
That was a really exciting campaign. I think it really brought to the surface some of the ways that we can think about beauty differently and it really clicked to me that this was the place to be.
17: You have really made an impact not just on the advertising industry and the kind of campaigns we're seeing, but also in editorial with imagery so that everyone can see themselves reflected. We're celebrating real skin, real bodies. Can you talk more about that?
MM: There's a campaign that we're working on right now that has a personal connection for myself. Dove has been leading the charge in terms of hair discrimination and bringing awareness that it's still an issue, particularly for black women in the workplace or at school. So, they developed this bill called The Crown Act.
The Crown Act is something we've dispersed in advertising, whether it's in partnership with BET or in magazines, to get people more aware of this issue that's still happening. I think, even for myself, I didn't always wear my natural hair, and that was definitely a journey of learning to love that part of myself and still feel beautiful. I think it's still a journey, but I think it's important to show those images and show that it's okay to look a different way and still be beautiful. It's awesome to have Dove taking action in that way.
17: How did you get bigger brands like Dove — brands that have been around forever and have such a big audience — behind change that you wanted to bring?
MM: Dove is really great where they are really leading that conversation. They come to us with The Crown Act bill — that was something that they worked on — but we have to find creative ways to bring that to life. So, it's really a collaborative effort in terms of meeting with those partners every week and figuring out what they are announcing new, and figuring out how to collaborate with Dove to make the message authentic.
17: It's clear you have a passion for creating a more inclusive version of beauty and centering women and minority experiences in your work. What advice do you have for others who want to bring that same passion and purpose to their jobs?
MM: I think it really isn't limited to just advertising. I think, in any industry that you're in, there are so many companies that have diversity initiatives within their employee groups. I would highly encourage you to raise your hand, if you're an intern or starting out at your first job, to participate. It's a great way to learn about other people's cultures and their backgrounds and also celebrate everyone's inclusivity at work.
17: What qualities do people need to make it in the advertising industry?
MM: I think it's really important to have that analytical skillset, working with data — like you're going to be on Excel a lot of the time. I would also say communication skills and presentation skills are important. There are ideas that I have a lot of heart for and I have to go to the brand and say "Hey, this is why you should do it, this is the rationale behind it, and this is why it makes sense." So, being able to communicate your ideas clearly and having a strong support for it is important. Learn Excel and get really good at that, and also learn how to present.
17: What experiences, in terms of internships and first jobs in the industry, are good ways to get into this industry?
MM: If you're in college, or about to start college, I would really focus on internships. As a person who hires newcomers or people fresh out of college, I'm always looking for some kind of experience or skill. Having that experience in the corporate world already is a pretty big deal. So, if you're able to get internships — they don't have to be at these large companies at the start — work your way up and work on those skills that'll give you the data mindset and creativity.
Don't discount your day-to-day job, if you work at McDonald's or you work at a clothing store, those are great ways to build those skills of how to talk to people, how to sell, and adapting to different things. So, don't discount that either.
17: If you could give your 17-year-old self some advice, what would it be?
MM: Try not to plan out your life 10 years in advance. I was always very on a one-track mindset of "I have to be a fashion editor, I have to work at this magazine" and have these different steps in mind. If you would've told me 10 years ago that I would've been in advertising, I wouldn't believe you because it didn't fit the track. So, instead, I would tell myself to focus on my passion. If you looked at my resume, my passion has always been shining through, and that's storytelling. Through journalism, through fashion, editing and now advertising. Storytelling was always the thread. I would not stick to the script, or not stick to steps, but your passion instead.
17: What questions should you ask your interviewer before accepting a job?
MM: A good question to ask is "What do you see as success in the first six months or 90 days?" I think establishing and getting on the same page about what the expectation isn't only really important for yourself, but it forces your potential manager to think about it too before you start the job. It gives you some set goals to reach so you know you're doing well.
17: Does your college major matter?
MM: I'm going to be nontraditional and say that college majors don't matter at all. I don't think GPAs matter at all. It really is about the experiences you have when you're in college. My biggest recommendation is to get the grades you need to progress, get the grades you need to keep your scholarship and keep you in school, but use that time because it unlocks you being able to get internships and it unlocks your network that you're going to start to build as you progress in your career. Use that time wisely instead to build the skills that you need for your dreams and your goals.
17: How important is networking and do you have any tips on how to do it?
MM: Networking is so important. A lot of the jobs that I've had weren't posted on Indeed, they were through a friend or through my network. I think it's important to keep that in mind, and it doesn't have to feel inauthentic and like you're trying to get something. Think about the people that you're going to be graduating with — you're all college seniors or about to start your first job and you're going to grow with those people. So keep in touch with your friends, because you never know where you guys are going to end up and they know you best.
In my experience, I came from the University of Iowa and I did not have any connections in the East coast for the dreams that I wanted. So, I would highly suggest being your own mentor sometimes. Sometimes, I'd go on LinkedIn and type in the dream job that I wanted and look back and see what patterns those people were having. I'd look back and see what kind of jobs they were securing all the way from the start of after college.
If there's somebody that you want to reach out to, send a LinkedIn instant message or send an email. You'd be surprised to how open people are to just giving advice if you just want more information about the job.
17: Do you have any last words of advice?
MM: Be persistent. Thomas Edison did not figure out the light bulb by doing the same thing twice. I would highly suggest to keep progressing even though you may have challenges.
When I wanted to be a fashion editor, my dream was to work at Vogue; I wanted to intern at Vogue. So, my first year of college, I applied and didn't get a call back. I took that and I went and did an internship somewhere else. I applied the next year, no call back. The third year, I decided to do something different and looked in the masthead, figured out the email address and just emailed without a job posting and I got the internship. It's really about persistence and just trying different ways because you will get it one time.
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Parts of this interview have been edited and condensed for clarity.
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