Seeking Local Nonprofits for Pro-Bono Marketing Campaign

ORLANDO, Fla. – (July 27, 2017) Ad 2 Orlando, a division of the American Advertising Federation, is currently accepting applications for its 2017–2018 virtual agency client. The selected organization will receive a full-service, integrated marketing campaign completely pro-bono from Ad 2 Orlando’s nationally acclaimed in-house digital agency.

Ad 2 is a national organization for advertising professionals ages 18-32. Annually, dedicated volunteers and board members in each chapter join forces to create an in-house creative agency complete with a creative director, accounts director, media buyer and more. They select a local nonprofit and use their professional expertise to create a complete, strategic marketing plan tailored to the client’s goals. These campaigns are not just theoretical – they are executed and seen through to completion, with the goal of making a real difference in each local community.

Last year, Ad 2 Orlando selected Tech Sassy Girlz as its virtual agency client. Tech Sassy Girlz is a local nonprofit empowering young females to get involved in STEM careers. Together, Ad 2 Orlando and Tech Sassy Girlz strategized, designed and executed a full rebrand and awareness campaign. All promotional, marketing and sales materials were updated and creative was sent to digital, print, radio and out-of-home media partners. Billboards ran on Interstate 4, a new website was launched and radio ads played during drive-time as part of the initiative.

Upon completion of the campaign, Ad 2 Orlando spent 2,000 man-hours working to achieve over 3.5 million impressions for Tech Sassy Girlz. The total campaign is valued at $500,000.

To be considered for the 2017–2018 virtual agency campaign, organizations must fill out the online application available here or via ad2orlando.org/public-service. The top six candidates will be invited to interview with Ad 2 Orlando’s in-house agency, after which a final selection will be made.

Requirements: To be eligible, nonprofits must be exempt from Federal Income Tax under Sec. 501(c)(3) or similar sect of USIR code. All applications must be received by 11:59pm EST on August 11, 2017.

About Ad 2 Orlando
Ad 2 Orlando is the local young professional division of the American Advertising Federation. We represent the future of advertising, creating a means for up-and-coming professionals in the industry to gain the contacts, education and leadership opportunities they need to become tomorrow’s industry leaders. We strive to provide educational, developmental and networking opportunities while mentoring students and providing annual advertising support to nonprofit organizations in the Orlando community. ad2orlando.org

Ad 2 Contact
Creative Director: Nick Olko
Accounts Director: Jessica Warner
publicservice@ad2orlando.org

 

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Introducing our 2016-2017 Public Service Virtual Agency Client…

We are beyond excited to introduce our Public Service campaign for the 2016-17 year! Interested in joining the team? We are recruiting talented and enthusiastic young professionals to be a part of our Virtual Agency campaign! It’s time to showcase your skills and give back to the local ad community.

Without further ado…drumroll please… this year’s Virtual Agency client is Collegiate Pathways – Tech Sassy Girlz! Think technology is boring and only for boys? Think again! Tech Sassy Girlz mission is to empower underrepresented middle and high school girls to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields through college preparation, career readiness, and mentoring.

If you are interested in getting involved, here are a few reasons why getting involved with our Virtual Agency is the place to be…

  • Learn something new! You may work in a day job that keeps you focused on one facet of communications or creative. You can get the chance to dip your feet in all areas of making a communications campaign complete. Graphic designer by day, but interested in media buying by night? You got it!
  • Your opinion counts! A Virtual Agency runs like a real agency so everything is a TEAM effort so your creative and strategic thoughts will always be considered, which is why we want every member to commit to coming to the monthly meetings.
  • Give back. Decide what you have to give and we’ll take it! You will get as much out of Public Service and Ad 2 Orlando in general as you give. We’re all here to do something meaningful and great with our skills. Last year, our campaign for Fairways for Warriors placed Third Place at the Ad 2 National competition and saved 22 combat wounded warrior veterans lives!
  • Meet new friends! This one is a no-brainer. Get to work hard and play hard with people that are FUN and talented. Everyone can use a new friend. Plus, our committee meetings are never boring and we always keep you hydrated (beer and wine of course)!

Interested in getting involved? We’ve got you covered! Fill the form out below, yep it’s that easy! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our Sassy lady leaders (Alicia, Karina & Liana) at publicservice@ad2orlando.org.

Ad 2 Orlando Seeks Local Nonprofit for Pro-Bono Marketing Campaign as Part of Public Service Initiative

ORLANDO, Fla. – (July 7, 2016) Ad 2 Orlando, a division of the American Advertising Federation comprised of advertising professionals ages 18–32, is currently accepting applications for its 2016–2017 public service client. The selected organization will receive a full-service, integrated marketing campaign completely pro-bono from Ad 2 Orlando’s nationally acclaimed, award-winning in-house digital agency.

Each year, Ad 2 chapters across the country select a local nonprofit and work with that organization to put together a complete marketing plan. These campaigns are not just theoretical — they are executed and seen through to completion, with the goal of making a real difference in each local community.

Ad 2 Orlando’s 2015-2016 client was Fairways for Warriors, a veterans charity organization that provides hope, healing and camaraderie for combat wounded veterans and their families. After identifying the specific needs of this amazing organization, Ad 2 Orlando strategized, designed and executed a full rebrand, website redesign and series of community awareness initiatives through digital, print, radio and out-of-home advertising as well as public relations tactics.

Upon completion of the campaign, Ad 2 Orlando garnered 300,000 paid media impressions, over $40,000 in donated media and more than $15,000 in earned media, valued at nearly $500,000. The campaign raised over $5,000 in donations in just one month and exceeded the goal number for new Fairways for Warriors veteran members in that same one-month period.

To be considered as the 2016–2017 public service client, nonprofit organizations can fill out the online application available here or via ad2orlando.org/virtual-agency-application/. The top six candidates will be invited to interview with Ad 2 Orlando’s public service committee, after which a final selection will be made.

Requirements: To be eligible, nonprofits must be exempt from Federal Income Tax under Sec. 501(c)(3) or similar sect of USIR code. All applications must be received by 11:59 pm EST on Sunday, July 24, 2016.

For more information or for specific questions, please contact the Ad 2 Orlando public service team at publicservice@ad2orlando.org.

About Ad 2 Orlando
Ad 2 Orlando is the local young professional division of the American Advertising Federation. We represent the future of advertising, creating a means for up-and-coming professionals in the industry to gain the contacts, education and leadership opportunities they need to become tomorrow’s industry leaders. We strive to provide educational, developmental and networking opportunities while mentoring students and providing annual advertising support to nonprofit organizations in the Orlando community. ad2orlando.org

Ad 2 Contact
Alicia Abbott
Immediate Past President
publicservice@ad2orlando.org

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How To Land a Marketing Job in Orlando

By: Tim Mehta, Public Service Marketing Lead & Marketing Strategist at Designzillas

There’s two types of people that absolutely need to read and bookmark this post.

  1. You just graduated college. Whether it’s UCF, Full Sail, Valencia or somewhere else around here. You’ve interned at a couple agencies, you’ve attended some networking events, or maybe neither. You feel like you’ve done what you need in order to land a job. But you still don’t have one lined up.
  2. You graduated college a couple years ago. You’re pretty disappointed (or straight up unhappy) with your career choice. Now you’re trying to transition into the Orlando marketing world. But you don’t know how.

I could easily say “relax, this post has you covered” but I’m not going to lie to you like that.

Orlando is riddled with young professionals hoping to become the next Gary Vaynerchuk or Seth Godin (If you don’t know who either of those people are, you are not on the right track. Google them as soon as you’ve finished reading this sentence).

But just because the volume of competition is high doesn’t mean you should lose hope. Orlando hosts so many different businesses and companies that there is always opportunity.

marketingblog

On Indeed alone there are almost 3,000 jobs that employers are looking to fill as of one-minute ago.

On top of that, Orlando was crowned with the highest rate of net job creation in 2015.

But no, I’m still not going to tell you to “relax, this post has you covered.” What I’m trying to say is to not lose hope so quickly.

Before we dive into these juicy tips (sounds kinda gross), let’s take a guess of some of the thoughts that you’ve been having as a frustrated marketing job hunter.

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  1. I keep getting rejected because I don’t have “enough experience.”
  2. How the hell can I get experience if no one will give me a shot?
  3. I just need that one first job and then it’ll be easy from there.
  4. Even entry-level jobs are looking for 2-3 years of experience. It doesn’t make sense!
  5. I will take any marketing job at this point, I’m getting desperate.
  6. I’ve submitted my resume and cover letter to like 20 places and I haven’t heard back. What’s the deal?!
  7. What miracle do I have to pull to get a damn interview?
  8. Just because I don’t have experience doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rock that role (get it? rock…role…).

Believe me, I’ve been there. Three years after I graduated UCF, I decided to take the leap from a finance career into marketing.

Thanks to all the mistakes I made along the way, it took me a whole year to find a job.

But I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.

Listen. Literally. Say this out loud and listen to the words. “Stop. Complaining. Start. Gaining.”

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For every bit of energy you spend complaining, you are wasting valuable time that you could be gaining. By gaining I mean gaining experience, gaining relationships, gaining knowledge, just getting gains!

Their Perspective

For business owners, it doesn’t make sense to hire someone with no experience. I mean, it’s a huge risk and cost to hire a new employee.
You’re a stranger, they’ve never heard of you, you don’t have directly relevant experience, and nobody recommended you. Admit it, you wouldn’t even hire you.

So what can you do? Well, this first tip is pretty obvious, but it’s the “how” part that’s the challenge…

1. Find any opportunity to gain experience (yes, I said “gain” again)

Intern

If you’re still in college, or if you can afford to, you need to find an internship and jump on that ASAP.

When you get there, you need to impress. Don’t just get stuck doing administrative work or fetching coffee for people. Ask every person you can to sit down with you and show you what they do.

And don’t just talk shop either. Ask them about what they like to do outside of work, their favorite food, whatever you can think of.

You don’t want to leave an internship with zero connections. People will remember you better if you engage in conversation beyond work. Find something that you have in common and chat about it.

Continue to ask for learning opportunities. Seriously, keep asking to learn everything you can until someone tells you no. Don’t be annoying, but be a little annoying.

Nobody is going to come and find you and ask you if you want to learn something, you have to take the wheel.

Volunteer

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Maybe you’re in your mid-20s and you can’t afford to intern during work hours because you have a full-time job.

No worries. There’s plenty of volunteer opportunities out there where you can get your feet wet.

Reach out to local non-profits and ask if they’d like some help with their marketing. The more specific you are about how you’d like to assist, the better.

The beauty of volunteering is that you can discover what you enjoy and what you’re good at. Spend 2-3 hours a week of your own time on these types of opportunities.

Now it’s much more difficult to individually reach out to organizations who need volunteer help. I highly suggest reaching out to Ad 2 and asking about the Public Service team. You don’t need to submit a resume or go through any interviews. If you want to help, you can.

This is actually how I got the experience that I needed. I volunteered for Ad 2’s Public Service team and worked on a campaign for Save The Manatee Club in 2015. The results and references that I got from this project were the direct reason I landed my first marketing job.

It’s the easiest way to get experience that you can slap those employers in the face with and say “YES, I do have experience.”

2. Attend keynotes, events, trade shows. Get your face out there.

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The word networking sounds so… dirty. That word triggers visuals of stock-photo-business people shaking hands in a well-lit room. Don’t think of that word.

Think of it as becoming familiar.

Your resume is just a piece of paper with a bunch of letters on a word doc. You need to make yourself familiar.

Science has proven that people are more inclined to like you (or call you back for an interview) if they recognize you. It’s called the “familiarity principle.” It says that “the more often a person is seen by someone, the more pleasing and likeable that person appears to be.”

For example, after you attend a keynote, stick around and mingle among the attendees. Talk about the topics of the conference, ask them questions about what they do and try to connect on any level possible.

Here’s a common mistake people make: familiarity events (see what I did there) are NOT about trying to impress people. It’s about finding commonalities and connecting with people. The “impressing” part is for later.

You have to be as authentic and genuine as possible during these events. People are attracted to that.

Let me give you an example. I went to a forum event where they had several expert speakers engaging in a discussion. Afterwards, everyone was mingling and chatting with some of the forum speakers. One of them was wearing a hat with the Florida State flag on it.

This yuppie-looking fella walks up (T-shirt, jeans and blazer) and says “Oh I bet my generations go further back then yours in Florida. Let me just put it this way – my last name is Primrose. I think my grandpa was the mayor or something like that.”

If you have ever heard a real car crash, try to re-imagine that sound right now. This type of forced self-promotion is a big no-no.

The point of attending these things is to find opportunities, not to try and create them on the spot.

It’s always good to prepare for these types of things. In the week leading up, listen to some marketing podcasts or read up on what’s going on in the marketing world (which you should be doing anyway).

The more knowledge you can drop, the better. If you can bring up a perspective or insight about something marketing-related that the other person hasn’t heard of before, it will be 10x more impressive than being named after an old mayor.

3. It’s not who you know, it’s who you reach out to.

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Don’t forget to re-connect with people you already know or reach out to meet some new people.

If you had a course with a group project, reach out to some of those fellow students to see if you can get them to write up a recommendation for you on LinkedIn or even as a job reference.

For what little experience you do have, you want to leverage it as much as possible. There’s no better way to do this than establishing social proof. Once you have real people vouching for you, your credibility (and likeliness of getting hired) skyrockets.

But before you ask them for anything, do something for them. Write them a LinkedIn recommendation, share something they’ve done, or provide them with an article you recently read that you think they might find interesting. You want to give before you ask.

If you know the person well enough, they might be willing to do you a favor without receiving one first.

Just remember, reciprocity is a powerful thing. Bonus points if the favor you originally give requires more effort than the return favor you are asking from them. If they really like you, they will try to “out-do” your original favor, which is the best you can hope for.

Conclusion

You’re going to find yourself in a cycle. One where you look back 6 months and say “what the heck was I thinking?” This is a good thing.

If you’re looking back that far and NOT saying that, then you aren’t growing or adapting. If you’re doing it right, you’ll constantly be learning better ways of starting and advancing your career.

Try to catch yourself every time you are complaining about your job hunt and say “stop complaining, start gaining.” There is no secret formula for success, everyone’s path is different.

But the one thing I can guarantee you is that nobody has ever reached their goals by stressing themselves out. They did it by getting out there and gaining (that’s the last time, I swear) experience, knowledge and connections.

Good luck on your hunt, and please remember to bookmark this post for the next time you find yourself struggling to find a marketing job in Orlando.

Get to know Lock Your Meds

Lock Your Meds®: A Prescription For Safety

Did you know that nearly 4,000 young people begin experimenting with prescription drugs every day? America has a drug problem and the primary source of these abused drugs is not a drug dealer on the streets: its friends and family.

Lock Your Meds™ is a national multi-media campaign, developed by the National Family Partnership and designed to reduce prescription drug abuse by making adults aware that they are frequently the “unintentional suppliers” of prescription medications being misused, especially by young people. Given that 7 Floridians die each day to prescription drug overdose, this is certainly a relevant issue in our communities.

Informed Families is so grateful to Ad 2 Orlando for selecting the Lock Your Meds Campaign as its Public Service Client for this year. We look forward to working together to help the Lock Your Meds campaign put a stop to this very preventable epidemic.

Christine Stilwell

Orlando Regional Director

Informed Families/The Florida Family Partnership

(321) 231-0587(cell)

(407-865-7701(facsimile)

www.informedfamilies.org

Introducing…our 2012-13 Public Service Client!

We are beyond excited to introduce our Public Service campaign for the 2012-13 year! And we are even more thrilled about the amount of talented and enthusiastic young professionals showing interest in joining the team!

Without further ado, Informed Families and its Lock Your Meds program, is our client this time around! If you are at all familiar with the pill mill problem in the state of Florida, you know that illegal prescription drug use is a serious issue that needs addressing. Our goal is to help the Lock Your Meds program reach its audience and provide valuable resources to parents about the drug trade going on right under their noses with their prescriptions.

If you are interested in getting involved, here are a few reasons why public service is the place to be…

  1. Learn something new! You may work in a day job that keeps you focused on one facet of communications. For example, Ashley works in PR and Hannah works in Marketing for a living. But, what about bringing a campaign full-circle? We love having the chance to dip our feet in all areas of making a communications campaign complete. Graphic designer by day, but interested in media buying by night? You got it!
  2. Your opinion counts! Public service is a TEAM effort so your creative and strategic thoughts will always be considered, which is why we want every member to commit to coming to the monthly meetings.
  3. Give back. Decide what you have to give and we’ll take it! You will get as much out of Public Service and Ad 2 Orlando in general as you give. We’re all here to do something meaningful and great with our skills. Last year, our campaign for SafeHouse of Seminole saved 4 lives from domestic violence!
  4. Meet new friends! This one is a no-brainer. Get to work hard and play hard with people that are FUN and talented. Everyone can use a new friend 🙂

If you have any questions about getting involved, reach out to publicservice@ad2orlando.org. We look forward to meeting each of you! More information coming soon about next steps.

Here’s to a FANTASTIC campaign!

Hannah & Ashley

Public Service 2012-13 Co-chairs

I’ve graduated…now what?!

Graduated. It’s an exciting feeling right? Diploma came in the mail, moved into your big-boy apartment downtown, and traded in that uniform and minimum wage for a cubicle and full-time benefits. Everything is right with the world, and the brand new environment has you floating on cloud nine for about two weeks. Then you realize, you aren’t juggling a thousand things anymore – you’re a 22-year old with free time and the feeling is wrong.

Every young Advertising professional will experience this emptiness. The key is to find an activity that will keep you sharp, involved, and connected – and I’ve found Ad 2 to meet those needs. I’m excited to be a part of an organization that is so focused on networking and engaging its members through social events, programs that include guest speakers, and volunteer activities. Being connected after college is important, and Ad 2 is great way to show you are serious about your career.

Want to get involved, too? Come and show your face on Thursday, August 23rd for our SERVE event, and check out Ad 2’s Facebook page for more information.

-Darius King Lana, Ad 2 Orlando Sponsorships Co-chair