AdPR majors announced for this year's PHD-Grady Creative Collection exclusive program

Congratulations to the five students who were selected to be part of the Grady/PHD Worldwide team for 2013-2014.

The Creative Collective with adviser Dr. Karen King

The competitive program, known as  “PHD Grady Creative Collective,” is exclusive to UGA and allows Grady students an opportunity to research consumer insight with PHD, a global media and communications agency.

This year, the team consists of Brandon Murphy, an advertising major from Sylvania, Ga.; Yates Webb, an advertising major from Atlanta, Ga.; Channing Jones, a marketing and advertising dual major from Atlanta, Ga.; Abigail Jensen, a public relations major from Roswell, Ga; and Victoria Skinner, an advertising major from Lawrenceville, Ga. They will be under the supervision of Dr. Karen King, Jim Kennedy Professor of New Media, in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations.

The seven-month initiative project allows students to research a new set of questions focused on media behavior related to young adults and their usage of various media. In addition to being flown to New York to present their findings to PHD, each student will participate in online panel discussions with PHD professionals, have an opportunity to interview with executives and attend the interactive portion of SXSW in Austin in March 2014.

The program has helped PHD gain access to great insights about Millennials.

"How we reach consumers today will always be different from how we reach consumers tomorrow because of the impatience and desire to be a part of ‘the next best thing’ that comes with the Millennial generation and the digital world,” Skinner says. “ Discovering the catalysts of these worlds and their effects on our generation is going to be fascinating."

Public relations major Abby Jensen looks forward to a good challenge.

"As the only public relations major selected for the Creative Collective this year, I am excited to get to explore a new area of media and communications. This program offers me so many new and challenging experiences that I could not find anywhere else, and with the team selected, I know we will create a great final product."

The collaboration between PHD Worldwide and Grady has been a beneficial partnership for both parties.  Participating students have the opportunity to stretch their strategic thinking skills and the experience of presenting their findings to agency professionals and clients in New York, while PHD gains access to important information about Millennials uncovered by the team.

PHD Worldwide and their partner media agency, Omnicom Media Group, have hired six of the students who participated in the program over the past two years. Three of these former students are in Chicago and three are in New York.

"I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to participate in this amazing program and am excited to start uncovering meaningful insights about the Millennial generation," Jones says.