Get ready for M{2e}’s Executive-in-Residence week with Scratch, a creative SWAT team within Viacom Media Networks. Senior executives from Scratch will be on campus this week, interacting with students, faculty, and administrators in classes and at various events at USC Annenberg. They will share perspectives on the changing workplace, the rapidly evolving media landscape, and their experiences building careers in media.

Scratch will kick off a workforce research project with USC Annenberg students, examining how millennials’ ideas and expectations around work differ from those of previous generations. Millennials, those born between 1980 and 2000, are the largest generational cohort in US history, and they’ll soon represent more than half of all workers in the US economy. Scratch maintains an evolving, research-based perspective on how this generation is transforming the culture of work by bringing to the workforce new attitudes and expectations around leadership, career path, work/life balance, retirement, and more. Scratch will engage current USC Annenberg students to contribute to this ongoing work.

Anne Hubert, SVP, Scratch, Viacom Media Networks will participate in a discussion with Communication Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser and a group of USC Annenberg graduate students in an on-campus session Thursday. The conversation will explore issues raised in Banet-Wieser’s Authentic™: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture and relevant connection points to Scratch’s work.

The weeklong Executive-in-Residence program will be capped off by a keynote presentation by Viacom Media Networks EVP Ross Martin. Journalist and MTV News Correspondent SuChin Pak will interview Martin, exploring how careers, products and platforms are evolving in the media marketplace.

What is Scratch?

Scratch uses the powers of a media company in new ways to drive innovation and growth for Viacom and select Viacom partners. Scratch opens the API of Viacom, giving partners access to the capabilities that enable Viacom’s media brands to move culture – spanning content development, art and design, research and insights, social and mobile strategy, talent development, recruiting, events, and workforce innovation. Scratch makes it possible for partners to tap into Viacom’s strengths to understand the future of their industries and plot a course to win.