What's DMC all about?

Yes, DMC incorporates the aspects of TV, radio and journalism. But is that it? What do we learn, exactly  - and what do the terms "PR' or "Advertising" mean? How is Psychology related to our course?

So. Let's take a look at what are the main categories that our course revolves around: Public Relations (PR), Advertising, Writing, Psychology, Design and Production and Integrated Marketing Communication (yes, we agree that they sound chim (: but they're essentially pretty simple to understand)

#1 Public Relations

Public relations is basically how you handle your company's image. Think of crisises that have happened, and how companies dealt with it.

Currently, if there are SMRT breakdowns, we are given free bus rides and are redirected to the right places, plus the breakdowns are announced on twitter, giving you live updates - that's good PR, because despite the crisis, they're taking steps to remedy the crisis. 

PR is basically, free, and can be done in times of peace or times of crisis.
In PR, you don't pay for your good image, like you do in advertising. For example, sometime in late 2011, there were some hot Abercrombie and Fitch models standing near Orchard (in Singapore) and you could take pictures of/with them for free? 

That's PR - because, they technically didn't pay any money for an advertisement, or to boost their image. They didn't do a feature on the newspaper. However, people took pictures of them, upload them on Facebook, Twitter etc. and KA-BOOM! You have a million people who suddenly know about Abercrombie and Fitch and are talking about it. There was news coverage of this on many sites - and A & F didn't pay for the news coverage, it was free. 

#2 Advertising

Okay, so the closest we knew of advertising before joining DMC, was …well, an advertisement on TV, like the Mocha advertisement. But, hey, we learnt that advertising isn't all about just filming some random video with a product in it. And, it doesn't just include TV advertisements. 

Posters, brochures, banners, web banners, youtube ads, SBS, SMRT ads - these are all an integral part of advertising. 

Key Point: Advertising, doesn't need to be boring.

For example:

Credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/prosales/4219293984/

The challenge for advertising - is that it's got to be something that stands out. Doesn't that snake look real?!

#3 Writing. 

That's pretty much self-explanatory: we do report writing, article writing, and feature writing. So, it could be covering news pieces (crime, sports, politics,) or like entertainment news (celebrity gossip, interview with a famous person etc.) We also learn what kind of questions to ask, how the flow of the article should be etc.

#4 Psychology.

Why learn Psychology? Well, by understanding consumers mind-set, we can appeal to them. For example, why do people buy Nike over Adidas? It could be the same water bottle, but is it the brand that affects the purchase, or the price, or how their image will appear to be by buying a certain product? 

By knowing the answer, we can advertise or do PR more effectively, as we understand how people think and work better. Ours is a people-oriented industry, hence, understanding people is the key.

#5 Design and Production

Design and Production varies from learning photoshop, down till learning how to use profession cameras, how to edit videos, making short films, acting as the cast, learning about lighting, sound and so on and so forth. (: It's a pretty fun module to learn.
For those of you who aren't technical, this is a good time to learn some basic technical stuff, or do other stuff like script writing, or being in-charge of logistics, etc.

#6 Integrated Marketing Communication.

So, you hear this word everywhere. What is this?!

Okay, to put it simply, it means combining all these modules together to form one main massive module. It means using PR, advertising, psychology, Design and Production - all together, to create campaigns.

So, for example, your assignment is to create a campaign around a water bottle. What can you do? 

We've broken this up into the different course modules/content:

For Psychology: What are the factors that people consider when they buy a water bottle?

For advertising: What is the main selling point of this water bottle/How is it different from other water bottles? (Create an idea, and where you want to advertise)

For Design and Production: How are you going to design/produce this ad? (Video, brochures, banners? Make samples/prototypes)

For PR: Is there anything you're going to do, to create free publicity? (Like people doing a flash mob about the water bottle, or giving out free water bottles?)

So, in a nutshell, IMC combines all the modules, to create a campaign. You finally learn how all these modules sync together. (: 

With that, we hope that whoever is keen on joining DMC,  will have a clearer idea of what this course offers. 

It's an amazing course - because we learn varying modules, and learn to put them to practical application and meld them together.

So, any questions about DMC? 

Tweet us, Facebook us, or just leave a comment below. (:

For more info, on the specific modules for DMC, check out our SP DMC official website.

See ya later!