When Jeff Miller started working as an account director at Ogilvy 16 years ago, he was confident he would spend his career working on TV spots and print ads. Miller is now the senior director of global creative strategy at Snapchat, the Gen Z-centric social media platform that would have made the 2005 consumer’s eyes glaze over with confusion. It’s safe to say he underestimated just how much the industry would evolve.
“Today, the creative ambition across the industry is stronger than ever, but the canvas is constantly changing,” he told Adweek. “It fires me up.”
Miller is one of the seven executives that were inducted into the American Advertising Federation (AAF’s) Hall of Achievement on Nov. 17 at the organization’s first in-person event since the beginning of the pandemic.
The rest of the AAF’s honorees include Tina Wells, founder and CEO of RLVNT Media; Arielle Garcia, chief privacy officer at UM Worldwide; Rachel Tipograph, founder and CEO of MikMak; Emily Giannusa, vp of program marketing at HBO; Christena Pyle, chief equity officer of Dentsu Americas and Nick Tran, global head of marketing at TikTok.
Each inductee took note of the dynamic nature of the business, which has allowed them to both enter the industry and create an impact in unconventional ways.
“In my first role, which was not in advertising, I found myself feeling that everything was one-dimensional,” said Garcia. “I saw that media was about people, art, science, outcomes, purpose and everything in between.”
Carving new paths
Tipograph, who now leads an ecommerce marketing analytics firm, got her start in social media marketing in 2007 by using Facebook to help comedians promote their shows on college campuses.
“My biggest misconception about the industry was that you needed to study marketing or advertising in school to enter it,” she said, adding that the industry requires people who “learn by doing.”
Wells, who started her career at 15 as a product review editor, stressed that the industry has always been “welcoming and open to [her] ideas.”
“I hear a lot that it’s hard to break into the industry or it seems very established, but my company would not have grown the way it did, especially at my age, if that were true,” she said.
Finding welcoming spaces
Pyle got her shot at joining the marketing industry through the 4A’s Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP). Now, as an executive at Dentsu, Pyle stressed the importance of these diversity programs in empowering new talent. She paid it forward this spring by co-launching the Save a Seat program, a Dentsu initiative that connects up-and-coming talent with mentors in the virtual workspace.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Giannusa feels that one of the most common misconceptions about the advertising industry is its lack of inclusion. They are proud to build excitement around the HBO series We’re Here, an unscripted collection of experiences from top drag entertainers.
“I was so grateful–-both for myself and my younger colleagues–-that this career path truly embraces individuality and storytelling from all walks of life,” Giannusa said.
