Renata Salas (IMC21)

Sr. Analyst – Local Marketing & Execution, Burger King U.S.

Tell us about your career path. How did you get where you are today?

I believe that my time in the Integrated Marketing and Communications Full-Time program helped me to be where I am today. Having the opportunity to make an impact in a company such as RBI allowed me to come back as a full-time employee after my graduation.

What are your main responsibilities in your current role?

I support franchisees through specific strategies and marketing campaigns with measurable results to promote sales and traffic at a regional level. I also manage and support all local marketing campaigns across the U.S. by allocating funds, coordinating with vendors and partners, strategizing, and conceptualizing the tactic approach, monitoring results, creating assets and optimizing activations.

How did the Medill Integrated Marketing Communications Full-Time program prepare you for your career?

Medill was a key element in my preparation for this job. Everything that I learned during the IMC program, case studies, tight deadlines, and constant iteration, are skills that I translate every day into my work and how I react to the different challenges that I face day-to-day.

What did you do during Immersion Quarter?

During Immersion Quarter I worked with a wonderful team on mapping Burger King’s guest journey across touchpoints to understand the main points of the guest experience. For ten weeks we created an integrated guest-centric strategy focused on three major pillars with an estimated timeline for execution and implemented a guest-centric committee focused on defining, refreshing and executing strategic guest experience initiatives.

What is a class or experience that stick out in your mind and why?

Design Thinking and Architecting Brands were two of the classes with concepts I still use today. These are very mindset-focused courses that taught me skills not only from theory, but on a very practical level. I’ve taken that learning and bring them into everything that I do, applying that mindset to every setting. Learning how to approach challenges and how to organize a team to develop solutions that get the results we want are things that have stuck with me and helped me solve current problems.

How have your identities influenced the way you navigate your professional career?

Being an international student has helped me in my career in the U.S. by bringing a different perspective and understanding the Hispanic market. Needing a VISA has definitely influenced the companies that I applied to, I looked for companies with a high number of international employees, with offices in different countries and that were proactively working on having a diverse workforce.