Penn State Smeal branding panel impacts students beyond the classroom

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. –– When the Smeal College of Business’ 2019 “Forging a Career in Branding” panel concluded, the organization’s president, Michael Murphy, struck up a conversation with one of the panelists, Amazon account executive Brittany Auer, following up on some of the topics of discussion.

That conversation led to Auer setting up Murphy with an interview with Amazon’s advertising department, and though he did not pursue that role, he wound up landing a position with the company’s category management team.

Penn State Prime, the Smeal College of Business student organization that hosts the panel, will do so for the 10th time on Sept. 18 in the Atrium of the Business Building, continuing a tradition that has given students real-world perspective that has helped to inform their career paths and, in some cases, provided connections that started them down those paths.

“I think the range of careers in the marketing space is so broad,” said Murphy, who is now a senior product manager at Amazon. “And sometimes it’s kind of hard to see that until you actually hear from people who are on the ground.”

In 2015, students in the BA 496 course taught by assistant professor of management Gus Colangelo wanted to create an organization that provided opportunities to develop skills and knowledge in brand management, advertising and consumer insights that would supplement their coursework. From that, Penn State Prime was born.

Clinical Professor of Marketing Jennifer Coupland joined as faculty adviser and created a companion practicum course, MKTG 495A, during the spring semester for about 20 students. The three-credit course puts students in charge of projects for real-world clients, assigning them to one of two agency teams or two branding teams, and taking them through the entire campaign process with assistance from Coupland and alumni mentors.

“A lot of people at Penn State talk about the brand side, because those are most of the companies that come to the career fairs, but nobody talks about the importance and the effect that the agency side has,” said current Penn State Prime president Federica Roo. “Through the course, you understand what brand and agency is and how they work together to create outcomes.”

Prime’s major event of the fall is the branding panel, which annually features 5-6 panelists — most of them Smeal alumni — who hold branding and agency roles at a variety of marketing and advertising organizations for a Q&A followed by opportunities for students to chat with the panelists. Timmy Garde, a 1978 Smeal graduate who is currently the chief growth officer at Ardelis Health, worked with Coupland to develop the concept for the panel and moderates it each year, crafting thought-provoking questions based on current marketing issues meant to put the panelists on the spot. Garde also sees tremendous value in the 10 months of preparation the students put into the panel each year.

Through the previous nine panels, over 2,000 students have attended to hear more than 60 alumni participants share their insights on branding.

“While it’s about bringing alumni back and talking, these kids are learning how to build an event at the same time,” he said. “All the things that are required to create an initiative from conception to execution, timelines and agendas and communications. They’re going to be prepared as soon as they throw their caps in the air.”

Ashley Au, a 2020 graduate, got involved with Prime during her sophomore year and appreciated the way the branding panel and the spring practicum course helped her understand the rapidly changing nature of marketing in ways that went beyond her regular course work.

“It was a huge piece of my professional development,” Au said. “I didn’t know quite what I wanted to do. It opened my eyes to real world case studies and what would come out of it.”

Au’s first job after graduation was with Scotts Miracle-Gro, an opportunity that arose when a connection of Coupland’s visited Penn State and had a conversation with Au.

“That was a really impactful moment,” Au said. “Those career fairs can really be overwhelming. With a smaller group like Prime, you get to meet some of these alumni who are specializing in careers you’re interested in.”

Roo, who had an internship with TikTok this summer, served as one of the brand directors during the spring course, a role that allowed her to have weekly one-on-one conversations with Brian Wise, the global marketing director of CeraVe.

“That’s something you don’t see in any class,” Roo said.

Caitlin Rush, a 2009 Smeal graduate who served on the panel in 2018 and 2024, enjoyed speaking at the latter panel last year about brand safety, which she deals with regularly in her position as a marketing manager for Meta.

“Not only is it a newer topic, it’s also a rapidly changing topic that I would argue could be one of those that as soon as you are writing a textbook and getting it into print, it may be outdated,” Rush said.

Since the first panel in 2015, more than five dozen alumni from companies including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, United Airlines, Google, Amazon, and Yahoo! have participated as panelists, speaking to a total of more than 2,000 student attendees. This year’s panel, themed “Prime Time,” will feature only panelists who have participated in previous panels. It will also be the first time the panel has been held in person since 2019, which organizers hope will allow for more of those 1-on-1 conversations like the one Murphy struck up with Auer.

“Not everybody’s going to report how this impacted them and maybe not everybody can articulate how it’s impacted them,” Coupland said. “But I am certain that this has guided the direction of a lot of students.”