Period Three of the GROW Program Is Here: Meet Our Visitors

Alex Pedersen
Bonnier Title/Location: Nordic Product Manager, Multimedia and Spin-off, Bonnier Publications, Copenhagen, Denmark
GROW Title/Location: Marketing Project Manager, Winter Park, Florida

What duties do you have while you are at the Bonnier Corp. Winter Park office, and how do they differ from your duties at Bonnier Publications?
I will be working on a project for three months, where I will do research and make a strategic recommendation for a specific cause-marketing project that Bonnier Corp. will benefit from.

In Copenhagen, I am a product manager in charge of creating marketing campaigns and making sure that they are continuously executed while being profitable. This means a lot of financial supervision and coordination among the various activities and products.

It’ll be great to have the opportunity to put all of my focus and time on a specific project.

What goals would you like to accomplish while you are here?
My overall goal is to learn new ways of thinking in terms of marketing that I hopefully can apply to my job back in Copenhagen.

I enjoy the strategic aspect and the potential of the project that is my work for the next three months, and I will work hard to present a result that can benefit Bonnier Corp.

What are you most looking forward to during your stay at Bonnier Corp.?
On a professional level, I’m looking forward to learning a different approach and a new way of thinking in terms of marketing.

I’ve only heard good things about the people working at Bonnier Corp., and I’m looking forward to meeting and working with you.

The cultural aspect is also a unique opportunity, so I plan to explore Florida and the exciting adventures that your state offers.

How will you use what you have learned here and apply it back in Copenhagen?
My hope is to learn how you approach and use marketing in the American market and see if that can be applied to some of our ways of working in Scandinavia. GROW is a fantastic opportunity to think outside the box and see things from a different perspective, despite the fact that our markets may be very different. I hope to gain new insights into how you can utilize the potential of partnerships and sponsorships, which is an area that I feel Bonnier Corp. excels at.

Jussi Hakanen
Bonnier Title/Location: PR & Publicity, CANAL+, MTV Media, Helsinki, Finland
GROW Title/Location: Digital Content Specialist, Winter Park, Florida

What duties do you have while you are at the Bonnier Corp. Winter Park office, and how do they differ from your duties at CANAL+?
I’ll be floating around the Web department, helping out where needed. Online producer/Web editor seems to be the closest description of my role.

Back home, I handle PR and act as the social media guy and the Web editor for www.canalplus.fi. I also have a hard time keeping my nose out of marketing and sales stuff.

What goals would you like to accomplish while you are here?
Basically, I wish to take something valuable back home (no worries, boss, I don’t mean hardware) and give back something with at least equal value — whatever it turns out to be.

I have two specific goals in mind though. First, I’d like to learn more about how you as a big company manage all of your multiple brands in social media. CANAL+ belongs to a bigger unit called MTV Media that consists of several other brands, both huge and tiny ones. Some are constantly creating sweet stuff in social media, but some are nowhere near maximizing their brand potential. You guys might have some ideas on how to coordinate all that.

Second, here, you’re thinking about how the Web can help to increase magazine subscriptions. Back home, we’re trying to convert the Web presence into pay-TV subscriptions. So we’re in the same ballpark with that, and we can share some ideas.

What are you most looking forward to during your stay at Bonnier Corp.?
I’m hoping to get to know a load of new buddies, learn a few new skills and have no worries.

How will you use what you have learned here and apply it back in Helsinki?
My goal is to utilize everything I learn about social media and Web not only within my CANAL+ team, but also on a bigger level regarding all of MTV Media. I have some big plans for it already.

You can follow my Florida experience via the following:

twitter.com/winterperk
winterperk.wordpress.com
winterperk.tumblr.com

... or join it by tapping me on the shoulder.

Tina Cliffoord
Bonnier Title/Location: Production Manager, Bonnier Tidskrifter AB, Stockholm, Sweden
GROW Title/Location: Associate Production Manager, Carlsbad, California

What duties do you have while you are at the Bonnier Corp. Carlsbad office, and how do they differ from your duties at Bonnier Tidskrifter?
As an associate production manager, I try to be helpful to the production managers. We do prepress on all the adverts for the magazines, do all the maps for every issue and place all the content in the magazines. We work closely with the sales department, agencies, printers and editorial department.

The difference from my work at Bonnier Tidskrifter is the graphic work. We do the same work at Bonnier Tidksrifter as production managers, but we work more with graphic content in our prepress treatment. In Carlsbad, they have art directors in the production department who do all that. At Bonnier Tidskrifter, we as production managers also help the advertisers with their adverts, if they need it. We also have a department called logistics that has the pre-contact with the printers when it comes to budgets and summary. Here at TransWorld, the production managers have those contacts.

What goals would you like to accomplish while you are here?
I am working at TransWorld with the same tasks I do back home, but it is so different when it comes to using programs for it, or small things like how we use templates in InDesign. My goal is to learn more about how to make us better back in Sweden — if we can use routines from Carlsbad, or maybe TransWorld production managers can learn something from me? That would be fun! Also to see California, of course!

What are you most looking forward to during your stay at Bonnier Corp.?
Same as previous question, but also to hold the first issue in my hand that I have helped make, to see the result of the work we do here and to experience the American everyday life, culture and holidays. I get to experience Halloween and Thanksgiving — it will be fun!

How will you use what you have learned here and apply it back in Stockholm?
I have only been here at TransWorld for a week, so I haven’t gotten around all the routines 100 percent yet, but as I can see right now, there are a few things I would bring home and try to use. Hopefully, I will bring home more after staying for three months. I am having a blast and really like everyone I work with every day, and I am very happy to be here!