Mindshare Unplugged: Meet Betsy Bender

Mindshare Unplugged spotlights and interviews #TeamMindshare’s rising talent across North America. Everything we do is about Provocation with Purpose. We’re a team that is radically honest – we call this our Authenticity Quotient. We are curious and competitive – that’s our Passion Quotient We embrace teamwork and adaptability – that’s our Emotional Quotient. This week, we meet Betsy Bender, Associate Media Director from our Atlanta office. 

What inspired you to go into the media industry? 

While I was at college (University of Georgia), one of my professors started an annual trip to New York City, with the American Marketing Association (AMA). The purpose was to give us exposure to different perspectives in marketing. We visited a media agency, a PR agency, the Wall Street Journal, and a creative agency, so that we could see the different paths that we could go on from our marketing degree. I was a marketing major (vs an advertising or communications major), so we sat as part of the business school, and most of our courses focused on what it was like to work for a client and manage a brand. This trip was a chance for us to see a whole different side of advertising and understand the relationship between clients and agencies, and it is ultimately what led me into media.

What is the most exciting thing happening in media right now?

My favorite thing about media is that it’s constantly evolving. One of the more recent transformations is the consumption habits of video. For example, we are all still watching TV, but we have so many options on how, when and where – live, on-demand, streamed, on mobile devices, etc. Our role as agencies has evolved to think beyond ‘traditional’, and we’ve had to adapt our advertising to reach the same consumers, but across these different platforms and different devices. It’s a cool evolution, as we are in a consumer-led world!

If you could give one piece of advice to your college-senior self, what would it be?

Don’t stress! I was so worried that I didn’t have a job lined up graduating college. I remember attending a meeting for people that were planning to move to NYC post-graduation, and everyone stood up and talked about the job they had accepted already. I went last, and was the only person in the room that didn’t have a job! I wish I could go back and tell myself not to stress and that everything will work out. Especially in the media world, jobs happen quickly and are not planned out 6 months ahead!

Last one: if you got a blank plane ticket today, where would you go – and why?

Bonaire! It’s a really small island, north of Venezuela. We used to go there when I was younger and we haven’t been back since I was in high school. This was my favorite place to vacation because it’s not so crowded with tourists, and the scuba diving is amazing. I’d go back in a heartbeat.