Student-led Agencies
Agency 52 has been an enormous project and has grown beyond what I could have ever imagined. When I was asked to take over Agency 52 it was a consulting student-led group. Within one year I was able to convert it from a consulting group to a full-blown marketing and advertising agency. We also work with start-ups and entrepreneurs as a think and assistance tank. This agency has become a pivotal force for cooperative education and experiential learning for our students.
Our clients are both for-profit and not-for-profit. We act as a hub for students seeking internships. A class is held each week and students also meet beyond the class time to work on projects. We have been able to expose students to traditional marketing and advertising as well as digital marketing and advertising. What is nice about the social aspects of today's marketing and advertising is the ability to welcome all majors to the agency, including creative writing and psychology students. Because of the needs of content creation, marketing, and repurposing, students from other disciplines of the University now have an opportunity to take their liberal arts skill sets and apply them to opportunities that provide tangible outcomes. Great for their portfolios!
If you would like to learn more about Agency 52, please visit its website:
InsomniAD was a brand new agency that I started at MIU. We worked with not-for-profit clients creating and producing advertising and graphic design work. InsomniAd also did a great job coming up with event ideas and hosting the venues. Some of these University events was a tribute to "Mad Men" and an interactive conference open to the Miami area, titled MIU ADweek; with a focus on Hispanics in Advertising. The conference was really neat because the Agency utilized technology creatively. Contributors presented both in person and via Skype. Viewers were able to Tweet their questions to presenters monitored by InsomniAD and then released onto a large screen for all to see. It really was a very innovative event!
