Brianna Vieira ’16, Junior Associate Strategist

This spring, Brianna Vieira (COM’16), recent graduate and former president of operations for PRLab, was honored for her work in communications and public relations by receiving multiple awards, including the William M. Cavanaugh Student Grant at the Publicity Club of New England’s Bell Ringer Awards, and recognition from The Scarlet Key Honor Society and the Blue Chip Award. While she now works as a junior associate strategist for Jack Morton Worldwide, a global brand experience agency, Brianna credits her success to her time spent at BU.

What were your favorite classes at BU?

My favorite classes were Media Relations with Professor Amy Shanler, Mass Com Research with Joe Panepinto (who formerly worked at Jack Morton) New Media and PR with Todd Vanhoosear and PRLab with Amy Shanler.

Media Relations caught my interest because I learned how much research and insights were required for successful media relations. Also Professor Shanler provided real-life examples and simulations, which helped give me the confidence and better understanding of media relations put into practice. Mass Com Research ultimately opened my eyes to opportunities at Jack Morton and gave me more insight into strategy work. New Media and PR gave me a good basis for how marketing and social applies to organizations.

Last, but not least, PRLab gave me the most hands on experience and leadership opportunity. I took PRLab for three semesters—one semester as director of operations and two semesters as president of operations. I loved helping to grow the organization and working with other students to do so.

My favorite professor was Professor Amy Shanler. I had Professor Shanler for Media Relations and PRLab, but she continuously acted as a mentor to me over the past two years and continuous to be a great mentor.

Tell us about your new job as a junior associate strategist at Jack Morton Worldwide.

Jack Morton is a very unique and exciting place. As an agency, our service offerings include integrated marketing/advertising campaigns, digital/social/mobile, consumer promotions, retail experience, employee engagement and sponsorship marketing—all of which are areas that I am passionate about and thrilled to learn more about.

As a junior associate strategist at Jack Morton, I am responsible for helping identify patterns, trends and insights to help develop solutions for clients including Subway, Intel, Fidelity, Liberty Mutual and Eaton Corporation.

As a strategist I predict how events will affect individuals and groups within organizations by using elements of audience alignment. One of my favorite parts about the position is communicating visionary ideas and creative solutions to a wide variety of internal and external audiences.

So what parts of the job are you most excited for?

I am most excited to be working with an amazing group of people. Since I interned at Jack Morton from June 2014 through May 2015, I have really had the opportunity to get to know everyone in the office and participate in the incredible culture. For example, we scoot around the office on Razor scooters, participate in a yearly Halloween costume contest (the past October our strategy team was the Flintstones—being the youngest in the group, I was Pebbles).

We have strategy lunches, ice cream Thursdays, yearly health initiatives and other fun surprises throughout the year. I can’t wait to be working with such smart, creative, supportive people who truly care about my growth as a professional.

Additionally, I am excited—alongside my boss, Ben Grossman—to advance the agency’s reputation through speaking engagements. In February, Ben and I spoke at PRSSA’s PR Advanced conference on viral and content marketing. It was a great experience that will allow me to push myself as a professional and add value to the company. I am psyched to be back at Jack Morton and start full-time in September!

What is the most valuable thing you learned about working in the PR industry during your time at BU?

Honest and clear communication is the key to success. Whether you’re talking to a client, supervisor or co-worker, things run much smoother when you are honest and clear about the point you’re trying to make. That also means not being afraid to ask questions to clarify information. Even though it might be out of your comfort zone sometimes, it will help you be a good PR professional in the long run.

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

I am passionate about theater and was an acting major in the College of Fine Arts before I switched into the College of Communication. In high school, I would go into the city for auditions and acting classes almost every weekend. My favorite part of acting was connecting with other people and the amazing opportunities such as being in an Off-Broadway play and in a movie with Winona Ryder and James Franco called The Letter. I hope to do some more community theater on the side in the future.

If you had one piece of advice to give to incoming students, what would it be?

Take full advantage of all COM has to offer, but also make sure you are having fun and are passionate about what you are doing. Do not let fear or intimidation get in the way of you trying new things. Everything I’ve accomplished during my time at BU has been done because I was curious about something, took a chance, and did it. That’s not to say I was never afraid—I was. I still feel intimidated approaching certain projects, but I would tell myself to look at what the outcome could be, no matter how awkward or scary something seems.