Good Karma: Janna Glenn markets creative solutions

Posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2018

Janna Glenn graduated from the Creative Advertising program more than 20 years ago, but she has never stopped attending classes at Algonquin College.

With decades of experience in marketing and communications, Glenn, as the Co-Founder of her own multimedia marketing firm, Karma Creative Solutions, is now in a position to hire graduates from the School of Media & Design. She could be forgiven for thinking she knows everything she needs to know about the business. But that’s not the attitude she learned at the College.

“I’d say the most important thing I learned was that you have to be adaptable,” she explains. “You have to adapt to your clients’ needs and to the changes in the industry.”

There have been a lot of changes in marketing since Glenn was designing and selling newspaper ads as part of her course load in the early ’90s. The digital revolution has changed just about everything, she says.

“I still go back to Algonquin for Continuing Education… just to see what’s new in the industry and keep abreast of the latest advancements,” she says. “I always keep my eyes out for the Continuing Education guide that comes out to see what’s happening – what’s the latest and greatest.” Glenn has taken courses in HTML, advanced Photoshop techniques and various aspects of photography.

The College not only prepares you for your industry, but for how it might evolve, she says. “(The Creative Advertising program) really did prepare me to shift as my career shifted. I’ve worked in the corporate world, I’ve worked for not-for-profits, I’ve worked for an agency, and now I run my own agency – which is really rewarding.”

“The program itself taught us so much. It was a really broad understanding of the industry,” she says. “The teachers were fantastic, many of them professionals working in the industry who could bring their experience right into the classroom.”

Glenn was a passionate photographer from childhood, and as a teenager wanted to make a living as an artist. A high school marketing course made her realize she could be creative and get paid for it.

She considered going to university to study mass communications, but the College’s program seemed more practical. “I whole-heartedly believe I made the right decision in going to Algonquin and doing this program because it was quick, it provided a full view of the industry, and it got me working within two years, which is phenomenal.”

Moreover, her education was hands-on. “You didn’t just write a report about the research involved in creating a (marketing) strategy, you went out and did the research and you did the little case study, and came back with your report,” she recalls. “When you set up an ad, you actually created your ad and went through the best practices for that. The hands-on work by far was my favourite piece of it.”

At Karma Creative Solutions, Glenn and her partner have been serving small to medium-sized businesses for the last five years. They handle multimedia, marketing, PR, and events for organizations like Caneast Shows, Mermaid Pools, and the local chapter of Cystic Fibrosis Canada.

“Every project is different and that is part of what I love about this job: you’re never doing the same thing two days in a row. And even if you’re doing the same task in itself, the focus is always different,” Glenn says.

“The secret to great advertising is to know your audience, who you’re talking to, and talk to them in the language they want to hear. You can’t force things down their throats and you can’t jam so many things into to your ads that nobody sees anything.”

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