Advertising World Named One of Best Marketing Websites

Marketing News cited the Department's Advertising World web site as one of the best web sites for advertising and marketing information in their recent article entitled "Marketing's Best Web Sites" in the May 31, 2003 issue. Advertising World as it is referred to by department faculty, was mentioned as a "good all-in-one stop....with a collection of links to Web sites on nearly every topic imaginable related to advertising, public relations and media."

Advertising World was created several years ago by Jef I. Richards, a professor of Advertising and former department chair. His idea behind the website was for it to act as a portal to anything marketing communications related for current students, prospective students, and anyone in the marketing communications industry. The web site was also created in order to increase the presence of the UT Advertising department on the web.

Jef is very pleased with the web site, stating, "The site has lived up to its expectations." Over the years, Advertising World has garnered a lot of attention for the UT Advertising department as it has been listed in books and various articles as a great website for any marketing-related information. Jef feels that for the relatively small investment that they have made into the web site, it has produced a lot of value. Demonstrating the broad reach of Advertising World at a conference, Jef recalled that he met an Advertising Executive from a top agency in Japan who excitedly correlated Jef's name with the Advertising World web site, which he frequently used on his job.

Advertising World has evolved from a single page interface to a more comprehensive and user-friendly web site for both users and web site managers. Now a database driven version of the website is available. This change will make it simple for companies to submit their link while, improving its quality and comprehensiveness. The web site has been maintained by faculty of the Advertising department including Jef and Gary Wilcox as well as several advertising graduate students.

6/4/2003