It sounds like something straight out of reality television: a marketing manager for a consumer health care company in Philadelphia switches places with a manager at one of the nation’s top tech companies in Seattle. For four months they work through the challenge of trading places and come away with new insights on marketing. While this premise could be television’s next big hit, the marketing job swap was reality for one BYU alumna.
As part of a new externship program facilitated by her employer, Whitney Seamons, a 2004 Marriott School MBA graduate, left Philadelphia and a marketing position at Johnson & Johnson to spend the summer in Seattle working with Microsoft. The experience not only took her to the other side of the country but also helped her gain a fresh perspective on marketing.
“It was definitely a win-win situation,” she says. “I was able to expand my knowledge of digital marketing, and I’ve been able to come back and apply what I learned to enhance Johnson & Johnson’s marketing efforts.”
While at Microsoft, Seamons was involved with several projects; she worked on a team to create custom content for web sites promoting some of Kellogg’s new offerings and provided recommendations on how to implement a new television advertising platform for Xbox Live.
She says it was interesting to see the contrast between Microsoft, which has been steadily increasing its use of digital marketing in the past several years, and Johnson & Johnson, a well-established company that tends to stick with more traditional marketing efforts.
“It was exciting to work at a company that is very forward thinking in terms of what they want to do in the digital media world,” she says. “The people there are very passionate.”
When she returned to Johnson & Johnson, Seamons delivered a series of recommendations on how the company could better spend its media dollars, and she resumed her position, with new responsibilities for Children’s Zyrtec and Children’s Benadryl. Although she enjoyed her previous positions as brand manager on Tylenol’s Hispanic marketing and associate brand manager for Tylenol, Seamons says it was definitely a positive change.
“I’m responsible for everything from advertising and media to packaging and performance, so I have a lot to juggle,” she explains. “There is never really a typical ‘day in the life,’ but that’s why I like what I do—I have new challenges to work through every day.”
Seamons has worked with Johnson & Johnson since 2004. She notes that she couldn’t have accomplished what she has without her Marriott School education. It was an MBA marketing class that inspired her to pursue brand management, and the foundational knowledge she gained during school has proved invaluable, she says.
She also expresses appreciation for the support from her family—they were certainly on board when she chose to participate in the externship program with Microsoft. Her husband, Tyler, is no stranger to traveling; he has been a pilot for SkyWest Airlines for ten years. And for her two children, ages four and two, the summer in Seattle was simply an extended vacation.
And does life as a marketing manager and mom ever feel like a reality show?
“I have a lot going on, but it’s fun,” she smiles.
