John Risdall and I started the Risdall Marketing Institute back in 2003. This is their recent effort at the Institute.
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Students get ‘real-world’ training at Risdall
By Bob Geiger, F&C Marketing Writer
February 10, 2007
Watch out, reality TV. Risdall Advertising Agency (RAA) is ready to flip the
switch on “The Real World New Brighton,” a 12-employee ad firm staffed by
University of Minnesota students.
More than 50 university students were interviewed this week by RAA
executives to narrow the field of candidates. By Friday, only one position
remained to be filled by the advertising firm, a branch of New
Brighton-based Risdall Marketing Group.
Nearly 100 students responded to a reality TV-like flyer posted to attract
applicants – most of whom are advertising seniors in the university’s School
of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The student agency will consist of two copywriters, two art directors, six
account executives and media planners, one business development head and a
public relations specialist.
Starting the week of Feb. 19, each student employee will be expected to
spend eight hours a week at the agency. Each will be paid $100 weekly.
Len Mitsch, executive vice president and group creative director at RAA,
said the student agency differs from internship programs at other Twin
Cities shops because students will work as a team to create advertising
rather than individually.
Mitsch, a veteran art director who worked at Minneapolis agency
Martin/Williams Advertising before joining RAA, said the effort will give
students agency experience without spending years attending expensive
portfolio schools after they graduate from college.
“I just don’t like the idea of saddling a student with more and more debt.
We just want kids for their thinking,” he said. “The one thing we’re
emphasizing to people is these aren’t internships, they’re jobs.”
Students selected by Mitsch and John Risdall, chairman and chief executive
officer of the 35-year-old agency, will be assigned to work on new-business
efforts and create print ads and Web site advertising for clients.
Mitsch specified Twin Cities Originals, a coalition of independently owned,
non-chain restaurants for which RAA creates advertising, as one client of
the student agency.
“What we offer is for a dozen kids, we’re going to give them 10 to 12
projects over a two-month period of time. We’ve got plenty of things to do
for them; I’ve got 360 client projects,” Risdall said.
In addition to Risdall and Mitsch, the students will report to Tina
Karelson, executive vice president and group creative director; Kevin
Deshler, vice president and director of account services; and Jim Sandstrom,
director of media services.
“In school, you can teach the theory,” Mitsch said. “But one of the things
you don’t learn is if a client rejects the idea and sends you back to the
drawing board.”
Mitsch and Risdall interviewed applicants for the student agency after the
Super Bowl ad frenzy, which gave both men an opportunity to measure student
knowledge of the industry and their sense of what kinds of ads do and don’t
work for clients.
Students will work at RAA through the week of April 23, with the possibility
of graduating seniors landing their first industry job at the 60-employee
firm, which is known for its business-to-business advertising, Web page
creations and other interactive marketing specialties.
One student who accepted a job Friday at the student agency, Claire Dalton,
likely heard her share about creative advertising while growing up. That’s
because she’s the daughter of Rob Dalton, the founder and creative director
for Minneapolis ad agency Dalton Sherman and former art director at Fallon
Worldwide.
Cynics may dismiss the value of conventional internships, but two 2006 RAA
interns have already found jobs.
Those interns, Carolyn Ahlstrom and Shannon Brown, were hired last year by
Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky to work in the interactive advertising
department at that firm’s Boulder, Colo., office.
Early career moves don’t always turn out so well, however.
Early in his career, Mitsch recalled, he met a Minneapolis ad executive.
The executive recounted landing a new job at a Los Angeles agency and
entering his office the first day, only to spy an adult sex toy on his desk.
The man thought it was a joke, but he was told that he would be creating ads
for a firm that manufactured a line of sex toys, according to Mitsch. Dreams
of award-winning ads for well-known brands evaporated swiftly.
“His bubble got burst real quickly,” Mitch said. “If you want to talk about
real world, that was real world.”
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