This week, students in Adam R. Pope's course, ENGL 49003 Content Strategy and Online Writing, had the chance to interview Charlie Cooper, marketing director of the British amplifier brand Orange. The conversation gave students a chance to hear real-world examples of how companies coordinate social media channels, content creation, and influencer and artist relations in the modern world of content strategy and digital marketing.

Cooper works primarily in the marketing side of the company, coordinating the relationships the brand has with artists, building marketing campaigns and strategies around the launch of various products while concurrently working to build the brand's overall image with consumers across a variety of musical genres and product categories.

"Having Charlie talk with the class," Pope said, "is such a great opportunity for students to hear from the brand's side of things in the world of content strategy. This semester we've had a chance to talk with sponsored creators, creators who coordinate with brands and other creators, and now the chance to get yet another perspective on the process from the side of the brands that leverage the content creation/influencer sphere to carry out the modern work of branding and marketing via their content strategy." 

As an amplifier company, Orange has worked with artists across genres and decades, including Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin, Geddy Lee of Rush, Stevie Wonder, Orianthi and the Gaslight Anthem.

As Pope explained, "Giving students the chance to see how major brands with well-defined identities work in social media spaces and how they build strategies around maintaining and expanding their footprints in those spaces provides students with a level of insight that is critical in understanding how the practical systems and methods we're studying in our course are applied on a national and international scale by organizations and brands."           

ENGL 49003 is part of the rhetoric and writing studies area of concentration in the Department of English as well as the minor in rhetoric and writing studies.