SEE Suite benefits from Brazil PR agency partnership

The week of November 5, a team representing the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Grady College visited Brazil to exchange practices and continue research collaboration. Itai Himelboim, Michael Cacciatore and undergraduate student Max Leiter of UGA’s SEE Suite met with the team at Imagem Corporativa in São Paulo, Brazil. 

UGA’s SEE Suite has an exclusive partnership with Imagem Corporativa, Brazil’s major private public relations firm, since 2016. Himelboim, the Dowden Professor of Media Analytics and director of the SEE Suite, describes the continued partnership as “a model university-industry partnership, demonstrating productivity and mutual benefit.” 

Himelboim leads a team of four SEE Suite interns alongside Cacciatore. He describes the interns and their work for Imagem Corporativa as “proficient in big data analytics, meticulously analyzing tens of thousands of news articles covering key issues in Brazil, such as ESG, Elections, the Covid-19 Pandemic, and Crisis Communication.”

Himelboim adds that the interns produce professional reports utilized in Imagem Corporativa’s events, symposia, and public communications, addressing real-life professional challenges with the skills they have acquired. SEE Suite-affiliated faculty and students have developed a distinctive big-data approach to news analysis as part of this partnership. Notably, one SEE Suite intern per year has the opportunity to travel to São Paulo, Brazil, immersing themselves in the agency’s daily activities. This experience provides a platform for exchanging ideas, acquiring new skills and expanding their professional network.

This year, senior advertising major Max Leiter had the opportunity to participate in the Imagem Corporativa exchange program in São Paulo alongside his professors. 

When asked about the program, Leiter said, “Visiting the team at Imagem Corporativa was an incredible opportunity. I learned tons from the team at IC, and loved being immersed in Brazilian culture. I’m thankful for such a great opportunity to further my professional career while learning about other cultures and can’t wait to go visit the great city of São Paulo one day again.”

“We are very pleased to have a long partnership with the Grade College of Journalism and Mass Communication of the University of Georgia,” said Vanessa Ramalho, a partner and executive director at Imagem Corporativa. 

Both sides of the partnership are pleased with the mutual benefit and substantial research progress presented by the international media exchanges analysis. Ciro Dias dos Reis, founder and CEO of Imagem Corporativa, cited the symbiosis created through the partnership. 

“This connection with teachers and students allows for a mutual exchange of information and knowledge, in an excellent example of a win-win relationship,” Dias dos Reis said. “For all these reasons, we see the progress of this partnership with great optimism”.

Juan Meng, a UGA Athletic Association Endowed Professor and head of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Grady College, says, “We hope to continuously advance our representation in South America and amplify the industry-academia collaboration model to deliver research reports and guides to address practical and real-world solutions in the communications industry.”

All parties involved look forward to the continued success of the partnership between the UGA’s SEE Suite and Imagem Corporativa.

CONTACT: Itai Himelboim, itai@uga.edu