On Thursday November 8th, 2007 Ad 2 Tampa Bay hosted the Fall 2007 Student Media Tour. 50 students were given the opportunity to tour some of the most exciting advertising related companies in Tampa. As with any large orchestration, the effort was very much a joint venture between Ad 2 Tampa Bay and the participating advertising related businesses.
The first stop on the tour was OAI, the largest large-format printer in the Southeast. OAI brought the students through the entire facility explaining all of the high-end equipment and the print production process in general. We finished up with a short Q & A session and then boarded the bus and headed off to the next stop.
The second tour destination was Pyper Paul + Kenney, a local advertising agency known for edgy design and a large presence in the local ADDY awards program. Currently their office is located at an old firehouse in the Channel District just outside of Downtown Tampa. Hal Vincent, gave the tour and then shared some of his insights on the industry. Hal is also a professor at USF and formerly worked at the prestigious local agency West Wayne. Since PP+K could not accommodate all 50 students at once, the tour was broken into two groups.
Students who were not with Hal heard all about the benefits of joining Ad 2 from Mai Tran and Vinny Tafuro, respectively Ad 2 Tampa Bay’s president and immediate past president.
We then went over to Centro Ybor, taking a minute to grab a Starbucks, and toured Tampa Digital Studios’ new office. Tampa Digital Studios is a full-service digital media, film & video production house that maintains a long-standing partnership with Ad 2 Tampa Bay. They are currently the producers of AdCast, Ad2 Tampa Bay’s monthly live broadcast Internet video program highlighting young professionals and the groups they belong to. Several different guides took students in small groups around the studio. Students also had the opportunity to record a review of the last movie they saw. The video reviews are featured on Bob Ross Movies website (bobrossmovies.com).
After that, we got back on the bus and drove to Chipotle in Hyde Park. Chipotle donated free lunch and a t-shirt to every student on the tour.
For the final stop in the tour, we went back to downtown Tampa to Grupo D, a Multicultural Division of The Dutcher Group. Fabian Yépez spoke to students about the importance of Hispanic Advertising now and in the future. He explained the benefits of organic multicultural advertising and the downsides of straight translations without cultural considerations. Again, the entire tour could not fit in the Grupo D’s office space all at once so the students were separated into groups. The students that were not in the Dutcher Group listened to Carl Vervisch speak about winning a National Student ADDY and how it helped jump-start his career in advertising. Carl is an Ad 2 Tampa Bay AdCast co-host, fine artist and the copywriter at SPARK, a local advertising agency.
After the tour students were invited to come back and join us at Tampa Bay Brewing Company for our monthly Ad 2 Tampa Bay social during Media Mix. A dozen or so decided to take advantage of the opportunity to network with media and advertising professionals in a casual environment. Several students set up interviews for internships. One Art Institute student set up an internship interview with PeakBiety and will be interning there in the art department during the spring semester.
We received lot of positive feedback from all of the students and businesses that participated in the tour. These companies share a common goal with Ad 2 of wanting to help cultivate the future of advertising in the Tampa Bay market and the creative community overall.
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