Windy city workforce

This department spotlights a relatively recent addition to the workforce, focusing on the person’s educational or working background, daily responsibilities, challenges, passions, frustrations and outlook for his or her future in the field.

Name: Kelcy Hale
Age: 23
Company: Clear!Blue
Title: Assistant Account Executive
College Path: Bradley University
Communications/PR, Marketing

How you ended up here: I grew up in Omaha, Neb., and went to school in Peoria. I traveled between Omaha and Peoria over my four years at Bradley and interned in communications capacities with companies like Bozell & Jacobs, Hult Fritz Matuszak and the Peoria Symphony Guild. After working with the Chicago Auto Show in February of my senior year at Bradley, I had the opportunity to apply for an internship with Clear!Blue beginning in June 2006. Upon receiving the offer, I moved to Chicago to check it out. I was offered a full-time position three months later and have been in Chicago with Clear!Blue since.

How long you’ve been at it: Two years in June.

Who you answer to, if anyone: Everyone — I am the youngest employee in an office of 10 people on a good day (we are headquartered in Detroit, where about 50 more Clear!Blue offices are located).

Hours you expect to be at work: 8:30 – 6:00 p.m.(ish). Every day is different, so you never can tell!

Breakdown of what people anticipate from you: My job responsibilities are to provide support — project coordination, research, media relations, managing vendors, creative brainstorming, writing, event support, etc. — to the team on a variety of clients and projects. That said, I’ve been door to door recruiting for the world’s largest game of Simon Says and asked to approach the mayor of Chicago about joining in the fun on the same project (he respectfully declined), gone on the road to award a newborn baby with a brand new car and helped with the search for the nation’s worst commute (and subsequently helped wreck his old car with the help of a monster truck)… so really, its hard to anticipate much in this business.

What your friends assume you do all day: They have absolutely no idea (and I don’t blame them).

What are some of the crazier promotions you’ve tackled? Crazy is kind of our game plan around here. Most recently, we invited engaged couples to enter for the chance to win an SUV and a wedding at the 2008 Chicago Auto Show and then hired a comedian (who subsequently was required to get ordained) to marry our winning couple on the show floor. Last year, we covered seven Jeep vehicles in chocolate and invited consumers to “lick for a Liberty” in Cleveland. We broke the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest photo album in Orlando (look for us in the 2009 GWR book) and worked with Emmitt Smith to challenge consumers at the State Fair of Texas to “Durango Tango” until they dropped. This month? I am headed to the NASCAR race in Talladega, Ala., to help with a picnic basket-packing contest and to Las Vegas for the Food Marketing Institute Show.

I know it’s a good day when... we’ve been exceptionally creative or had a breakthrough moment or two, and leave the office feeling like something big is coming on. Or, after the successful execution of an event — those are always great days.

Best perk: Beer on tap. Our company was founded in 2000 with the values of inspiration, intelligence, innovation, integrity and fun. We live (and work) all five values every day, but we do take the fun part pretty seriously. Another great perk that Clear!Blue offers is a three-week “Inspiration Vacation” after you’ve been with the company for five years. We also take a three-day company trip each summer to Yarrow, Michigan (roughly halfway between Detroit and Chicago) and have “camp.” And the fun events… we’ve taken trips to White Sox and Cubs games, taken each other on in bowling, board games and pumpkin-carving contests, cruised the river and even played a scripted mystery party. Ok, I didn’t pick a “best” — there are a lot of cool perks!

I have trouble dealing with… criticism! I wasn’t used to getting a lot of criticism in the past, but I had to learn (quickly) that starting out, everything wouldn’t be as perfect as I was used to and that everyone was very willing to offer answers and help when I needed it. That’s a tough hurdle for me, but I’m learning to take it for what it’s worth and it’s making me better.

The first thing to know about public relations is... the profession is constantly evolving. I think that to succeed, you’ve got to be someone who is comfortable on your toes, willing to adapt to and accommodate for change and wants to constantly learn new things. Even after taking all of the steps to be as prepared as I could have been coming out of college (internships, a variety of classes and seminars), my first year out was (OK, every day is) a complete crash course in all things PR. In my opinion, the best way to learn is to do something.

How do promotions bring consumers closer to the product? Most of my experience has been in automotive PR so far, and our programs have invited consumers to interact with vehicles in a variety of creative ways. Basically, after a vehicle is revealed at an auto show (usually an amazingly creative live theatre event at which Clear!Blue’s Detroit office specializes), there is lag time between when the vehicle hits dealer showrooms, making it available to consumers. In that period of time, the PR team activates programs and pitches trend stories to the media to keep the new vehicle top-of-mind and create buzz.

Things can get tense when... it’s the dead of winter in Chicago and things slow down. A lot of clients get a little slower in the fourth quarter around the holidays. We are a company/team that loves to be crazy busy, and we thrive when we are, so it’s a challenge to stay new, creative and fresh in the face of the blistering Midwestern freeze on both coasts of Lake Michigan.

Why you have a smile when you come to work: We have a great team and an awesome company culture. While we are a really small team in Chicago, everyone is creative, super smart and really good at what they do. The team makes it easy to genuinely enjoy going to work.

What might you change if given the chance? I would add another guy or two to the mix in our estrogen-filled office (no offense to our current one-man-show)!

Where can you go from here? With experience in public relations, experiential marketing, project management, creative writing, etc., I’m definitely excited to see where my career will take me, but of course can’t predict the future.

Advice for joining the field: Intern. Most people are so interested in getting a job — any job — that they don’t take a step back and realize that as much as you are being evaluated during an interview, you’ve got to ask the right questions and determine if the company is right for you. By interning with Clear!Blue, I was given the chance as an intern to prove myself as an asset to the team, but also learn that the company, team members and culture were a great match and exactly what I was looking for. I know it’s not necessarily what you want to do after graduation, but I would definitely recommend it.

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