After taking undergrads to New York eight separate times, Dr. John Murphy, mixed things up a little by taking his class to San Francisco earlier this month. Why the change? According to Murphy, it's because the tides are changing.
His prediction is that as advertising moves more and more digital, that it will get more and more important to be near Silicon Valley. He said that this is why San Francisco will become the next New York of advertising.
Kelly Eidson, a senior in advertising, was one of the students who attended the trip, and she said that she would rather work in San Francisco than New York. "It's a lot less pretentious there than in New York. Plus the city is a lot nicer," she said.
If the students who will one day be running the agencies feel similarly to Eidson, then Madison Avenue is in a bit of trouble. Mario Garcia, an account supervisor at McCann Worldgroup in San Francisco agreed with Murphy's predictions for the future of advertising. "Digital is a very important part of the media mix. Things are moving a lot more towards it," Garcia said.
According to Garcia the advertising world in San Francisco is growing quite rapidly. Not everyone, however, is excited to join the fray immediately. Eidson, though she would rather work in San Francisco than New York, would still rather cut her gums in a smaller market to begin with, and then move up to someplace like San Francisco.
She shouldn't have to wait too long, though, because according to Garcia, the Texas advertising students who attended the trip were very impressive. He felt that their desire and passion for advertising was unmatched, even by some professionals in the industry.
The trip overall was felt to be a huge success, with the students visiting such advertising powerhouses as Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners; Venables, Bell & Partners; TBWA\Chiat\Day; Publicis; McCann-Erickson; Grant, Scott & Hurley; Goodby, Silverstein & Partners; and Swivel media in a week long advertising extravaganza.
1/26/2007