The University of Oklahoma • Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Comunication
Student Spotlight: Student Organizations
AD TRAVELS: Members of OU’s AdClub meet with advertising executives at Foote Cone & Belding. The trip to New York City in January was one of many AdClub-sponsored trips each year. Photo by David TarpenningAd Majors travel globe
Trips to New York, Europe, Asia expose students to renowned ad agencies
Can I make it in the advertising business in Chicago if I am Oklahoma trained? Does what sells soap in the Big Apple also sell in the heartland? How do I get an internship in another state or country? If you translate an English-language ad into French, does it say the same thing?
OU advertising students seek answers to these among many questions while working toward their degrees. Students in the Gaylord College AdCub took trips to New York City, Chicago and Europe to find those answers and to learn what advertising agencies – in and outside the United States – do.
AdClub provides students with opportunities for scholarships, internships and other benefits, says David Tarpenning, visiting assistant professor of advertising. In addition, AdClub members have the option of participating in trips to four U.S. cities each year: New York City and Chicago in the fall and Dallas and Kansas City in the spring. Tarpenning took 25 students to New York City in January 2006, and professor of advertising Jim Avery took 18 to Chicago in November 2005 and again in February 2006.
“AdClub’s main goal is to get ad students a real-world perspective,” says Michael Welch, AdClub president and advertising senior. “People have no idea what they are getting into because college is much different than the real world.”
The purpose of the travel is to show students the inner workings of a variety of advertising agencies and give them a concept of what their careers might be, Tarpenning says. They can also network with those who might help them get jobs. Agencies look at the students’ portfolios and offer students job-search tips.
“People go in and meet face to face and get business cards,” Welch says. “The companies are really impressed that students came all the way out to New York from OU.”
Students have two campus meetings before each of the trips to research the agencies on the trip itinerary, Tarpenning says. At these meetings, he also discusses professional behavior and dress codes. Students leave on a Wednesday, visit agencies on Thursday and Friday and have Saturday and Sunday for free time and return travel. Some students use their free time for another visit to an agency they were interested in, Tarpenning says.
Mira Boneva, an advertising sophomore who went on the November 2005 Chicago trip, says she got to see the full spectrum of both traditional and non-traditional agencies.
“Chicago is different from Oklahoma in that it operates on a much larger scale because there are so many more people,” Boneva says. “Northern and Southern lifestyles are very different.”
Welch, who has been to New York twice, says the group usually tours four agencies in the two days. Students hear a wide variety of approaches, learn varying philosophies and see radically different ad campaigns in each place.
The tours also allow students to network with professionals.
“We got contacts for all of the agencies we visited,” Boneva says. “There were even some agencies with OU graduates from 2003. If people have an opportunity to go on a trip like this, they should definitely take it.”
While Tarpenning’s AdClub trips within the country are extracurricular, Avery’s trips outside it earn students three hours of course credit. He has been making one trip each year for the last four years to either Asia or Europe.
“Traveling internationally opens your eyes to the rest of the world and to knowing whether you could work outside the country,” says Adam Ballard, an advertising senior who took the European trip.
In December 2005, Avery’s group went to Hungary, England and France. On previous trips students have traveled to Austria, Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“The purpose of the trip is to help students understand that U.S. advertising is only a small part of the great creative work being produced around the world,” Avery says. “The advertising must strategically address the culture of the people and the criteria for why they make purchase decisions. Going to other countries gets students out of their comfort zones.”
Advertising senior Kristie Paliotta says her group visited major ad agencies in Budapest, and she was able to experience a culture completely different from her own both in lifestyle and business practices.
“If your career goals have anything to do with business, you should plan a trip, she says. “As Americans, we are really ethnocentric sometimes.”
Advertising is only a dozen years old in Hungary, a previous Soviet bloc country, Avery says. The 18 students studied advertisements, explored cultural venues and took tourist excursions.
Paliotta says the trip helped her with her classes because she developed a more international perspective on how advertising works. She learned more in Budapest than she could ever have done sitting in a classroom, she says.
Ballard says the students got to see many amazing agencies; his favorite in Budapest was Weiden and Kennedy, which had the Honda Civic account.
“It’s one thing to read about international advertising in books, magazine or online, but it is completely different to experience it,” he says. “The more you know about advertising and the more connections you have, the more likely you are to have a successful advertising career.”
