Most academics I know use the summer as a period of research hibernation – all of those projects and ideas that couldn’t get executed during the school year come alive during the dog days of summer.

In this spirit, here is a nice relaxing video to get your mind settled before you begin – it was taken on the grounds of the Kimbell Museum of Art in Fort Worth, Texas. You can have the place almost entirely to yourself on a weekday evening :).

A happy reunion of UT Austin PhD graduates at the recent American Academy of Advertising conference in Atlanta, Georgia. From right to left: Harsha Gangadharbatla, Mark Yi-Cheon Kim, Steve Edwards, Glenn Griffin, Jennifer Ball, Laura Bright, and Barbara Phillips.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Jef Richards.

The Strategic Communication faculty at Texas Christian University (TCU) is excited to announce the launch of the School of Strategic Communication effective June 1, 2014. The School of Strategic Communication will be part of the newly formed Bob Schieffer College of Communication, which also includes the School of Journalism and the departments of Communication Studies and Film-Television-Digital Media.

Strategic Communication majors can pursue advertising, public relations, or integrated degree plans and have access to a variety of programs including the National Student Advertising Competition, a student-driven strategic communication agency (Roxo), and the PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition.

For more information, visit http://www.communication.tcu.edu/.

It has been another busy Fall with many fun projects underway in the areas of research and teaching. Here are a few things I have been working on this semester:

• Bright, Laura F. (2014 – forthcoming). Taming the Information Beast: Content Customization and Its Impact on Media Enjoyment. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Vol. IV, Issue 3 (July 2014).
• Landreth-Grau, Stacy, Laura F. Bright, Kelty Logan, Chris Wilson, and Arnel Santiago (2014). So Long Don Draper?: Account Planning, Big Data and the Implications Inside and Outside the Advertising Classroom. American Academy of Advertising Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, March 27th – 30th, 2014.
• Logan, Kelty, and Laura F. Bright (2014 – forthcoming). Deal Me In!: Assessing Consumer Response to Daily-Deal Websites. International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising (Details coming soon).
• Ranked as one of “Top Marketing Professors on Twitter” by Social Media Magazine
• Continued launch of new co-teaching format of Research and Evaluation course
• Launched Digital Academy Internship Program with Online Performance Marketing
• Launched second cohort for Certified Public Communicator Program at TCU

Happy holidays!