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H-E-B advertising team discusses creative process for Mass Communication Week
By Chelsea Seifert
Texas State University student
Maureen O’Donoghue and her team of creative designers and copywriters discussed the full circle in the design process involving marketing, advertising and digital media to students Thursday for Mass Communication Week.
O’Donoghue, director of creative services for H-E-B Advertising, is originally from Scotland and has spent almost 13 years in this position. O’Donoghue spoke about each facet involved in the design process with her in-house team. “We like to control what we can manage,” said O’Donoghue. “We have 70-75 people (advertising team) who are designers, we do production, art directors, we do photography, we do social media, we have an account management team, and we do proofing and printing.”
Gabrielle Knepp, mass communication junior, was excited to see the panel discussion to gain insight into the business as an advertising major.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing the creative side of advertising and what they do for H-E-B,” said Knepp. “It will beneficial to know everything that goes into making an ad campaign.”
Emphasis was placed on working as a team in addition to the influence these professionals have in and around H-E-B stores.
Flyers, banners and danglers set the tone for buyers and what will be seen throughout the rest of the store, and that is what this team focuses on.
“We all sit in a room and think, what’s our strategy and who’s our customer,” said O’Donoghue. “Anything that’s not permanent is from this team.”
Betsy Farmer, mass communication junior, connected with the passion each speaker put behind describing his or her daily job descriptions.
“The job descriptions were diverse, and although they had structure, you could tell each one of the speakers really enjoy what they do,” said Farmer. “Real world jobs can seem so lifeless, and they kept me engaged and gave me hope as an undergrad.”
The H-E-B advertising team is also very involved with the community, holding community events and eight corporate events a year where all of the stores throughout Texas participate.
“We a have a public affairs team where we give five percent of our pretax profit to communities. We also support hunger, we support education and we have a free Thanksgiving dinner day where last year we gave about 17,000 dinners in five hours,” said Christine Mahr, director of account services and production.
This advertising team is growing and students can complete an internship with them in San Antonio.
Chelsea Seifert is a mass communication-journalism junior at Texas State University and can be contacted at cps1@txstate.edu
MC Week
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