Marketing “jewel”

Most of us can only dream of escaping snowbound Edmonton for an all-expenses paid trip to the Caribbean. But, 22-year-old Krista Turko took a novel approach to making it a reality.

Her mid-March trip to the small island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was not all sun, surf and sand: She headed-up a crew of six on behalf of Media-Masters Communications to film a $200,000 promotional video.

“The project started when I wrote an unsolicited proposal for a marketing campaign, which I sent to 20 different Caribbean nations,” says Krista, the firm’s marketing director and senior writer. “While 18 of them declined and one said maybe, the ministry of tourism for St. Vincent said yes.”

Little wonder former instructor Marion Kowalevsky refers to Krista as her “best student in the last 10 years… a role model.” The 2006 graduate of NAIT’s marketing program is busy writing film scripts, jingles and ad copy for clients, including Edmonton Cellular, Nokia, Save-on-foods, Land Rover and Microsoft, to name just a few.

Recently, Krista—a Jewel-like self-taught singer/songwriter—was given the chance to record her first CD. “We were actually finishing up recording a commercial when the engineer asked me if I wanted to jump in the booth with my guitar and lay down a few tracks… so I did, even though I’m still a bit rusty.”

Krista has no immediate plans to become a full time musician, preferring rather to concentrate on film-making, a passion fuelled during her trip to St. Vincent. “After being able to work behind the camera down there, I’d love to be able to make more films in the future, and some day I’d love to have my own film production company.”

While most of her trips abroad are business, the Stony Plain native is eagerly looking forward to one of a different nature. In November, Krista will head for the Ghana in West Africa to build houses with Habitat for Humanity.

“We’ll be sleeping outside under mosquito nets and using a pit latrine… which is going to take some getting used to,” adds Krista with a laugh.

That’s a wrap on the interview—but definitely not on a promising career. √

Photo by Terry Bourque