Brian Stagner Portfolio Table of Contents Biography Résumé
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Internship with 352 Media Group Project Management Web-based Marketing Analytical Marketing Research
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Internship with Trimark Properties Online Marketing: Web Sites Search Engine Optimization Web Based Advertising
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Internship with Devine Communications Promotions Client Work Pitch to New Clients
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Copywriting Position with AdWerks Creative Collateral
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University of Florida Course Work Copy and Visualization
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Brian Stagner Portfolio Biography I was born and raised in an average-sized, beach city called St. Petersburg, Florida. My parents got divorced 3 months before I was born so for most of my childhood, I lived two lives. During the school year, I stayed with my mom, sister, and grandfather in St. Petersburg and in the summer I went and lived with my dad in various places. He is a workaholic so he was always moving from state to state. Until I was 10, he lived in Maine, but then he moved to Alabama, followed by Connecticut, back to Alabama, and now in Texas. During my time with my mom, I lived a pretty average life that any boy would be content with. I loved playing sports, going to the beach, and spending time with my friends. I was very happy. The summer, however, brought endless opportunities and growth experiences. As I mentioned above, my dad is a workaholic so even when I was staying with him, he was always at work. This gave me the chance to go explore on my own. I remember hiking through the woods of Maine looking for animal tracks, wading through swamps in Alabama trying to catch turtles and frogs and loving every second of it. It was these summers that really spurred my love for the outdoors that I am very involved in today. Life went on and I eventually hit high school. I played for the varsity baseball team all four years and was elected Captain and voted Most Valuable Player my senior year. I had a high school sweetheart that I still keep in contact with and a bright blue ’93 Chevy Corsica. My favorite activities were skim boarding at the beach and going to parties with my friends. After a great four years, it was time for me to go off to college and leave everything I have learned to love. I decided to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville. My first year in college was a tough one for me. Things didn’t work out with my high school sweetheart, I was failing out of pre-Med classes and my grandfather who had a big part in raising me passed away. But that’s life, sometimes things are rough but you have to bounce back. I met new friends, had some great times, and decided to study advertising, which I am now convinced was the right decision. The last three years of college have been amazing. I have made friends that I think will last a life time and have had great life experiences that will stick with me forever. I have learned a lot about life, love, and everything in between. I’ve traveled to Kenya and Mexico and hopefully this summer I will be traveling to Hamburg. I am passionate about traveling, new forms of media, friendship, food, and everything sports. I have lived a great life so far full of love and amazing people. But it’s not enough. I can’t wait to get out there and find out what the world holds for me. I want a career in account planning because I am passionate about advertising but I don’t want to be confined to a single part of it. I love advertising because it is a perfect combination of art and business. It is one of the only industries that require you to be creative. You are constantly coming up with new ideas and innovations and Account Planning lets you be in control of it all. Account planning lets you learn about people as well as cultures and how they interact with each other. It’s an amazing and unique field and I can’t see myself having a career in anything else.
Brian Stagner Portfolio Résumé EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Advertising University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Minors: Business Administration and Environmental Studies GPA 3.2/4.0
EXPERIENCE
Project Management Intern, 352 Media Group: Jan. 2009 - Present • Serve as Assistant Project Manager on $60,000 project • Lead meetings with both clients and development team • Collaborate with client on overall project goals and branding objectives • Work with designers to create Web-site design, site architecture, and creative Web-based applications
VOLUNTEER
ACTIVITIES
May 2009
Marketing Intern, 352 Media Group: • Created and coded in HTML an online press kit • Conducted analytical research on sales leads • Developed online collateral promoting the company; Strengthened SEO
Sept. – Dec. 2008
Marketing Associate, Trimark Properties: • Coordinated print and multimedia advertising campaigns • Designed Web-based advertising collateral • Executed marketing communications and search engine optimization programs
Aug. 2007 – May 2008
Advertising Intern, Devine Communications: • Learned the basics of branding and Web-development • Negotiated media purchases • Assisted in campaign to recruit new business • Wrote and supervised the production of a radio advertisement
May – Aug. 2007
Center for International Voluntary Service: Kenya • Lead team of international volunteers in Western Kenya • Worked with under-privileged orphans at schools and hospitals
July – Aug. 2008
SPCA of Pinellas County • Facilitated adoption process of abandoned animals
Aug. 2004 – May 2005
Christmas Toy Shop • Repaired donated bicycles for under-privileged children at Christmas time
May – Aug. 2004
Community Relations Chair, Ad Serve • Led various community service projects
Aug. 2008 – May 2009
Copywriter, AdWerks: • Collaborated to create an overall plan for an advertising campaign • Wrote all copy for print and multimedia advertisements on a major client
Aug. 2007 – May 2008
Member, Ad Society • UF Chapter of American Advertising Federation
Aug. 2006 – May 2009
SKILLS
Computer: Microsoft Office®, Filemaker Pro®, Adobe Photoshop®, Illustrator®, and InDesign®
AWARDS
St. Petersburg Times Scholarship Winner Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Winner
Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with 352 Media Group Throughout my senior year at The University of Florida, I interned with a Web Development company in Gainesville, Florida. They have worked with companies such as American Express, Porsche, and Ben & Jerry’s. They are also a certified Microsoft vendor. Their internship program lasts one semester and has four tracks: Project Management, Marketing, Design, and Programming. For the first semester I completed the Marketing Internship. After completing it, I realized I would need management experience to compete in the current job market, so I applied and was hired for the Project Management Internship. In my first semester as a Marketing Intern, I worked on a variety of tasks along side the Vice President of Marketing, Peter VanRysdam. One initiative the company was taking was to get more involved in social media as a form of interactive marketing. The company had created a blog, facebook page, and some of the executives were even twittering regularly. One assignment I was given was to create a Wikipedia page for the company. The program also required a lot of analytical research. I researched current and past projects that the company completed and wrote case studies that were uploaded onto the Web site. These case studies taught me about the different kinds of tasks the company set out to accomplish and what kind of tactics they used to accomplish these tasks. I also researched where the majority of sales leads were coming from geographically and recommended where the company should create a new sales office. This research led was extremely influential as it led to the hiring of a new account manager. I also created an online press kit that was added to the Web site. The entire press kit was coded using HTML. After rejoining the company as a Project Management Intern, I was assigned as the Assistant Project Manager on a $60,000. I worked along side one of their most experienced project managers in Gary Nevins. Throughout the semester, I was assigned a variety of tasks including planning and conducting meetings with clients as well as our development team to go over plans for each project. I worked with clients to teach them the ins-and-outs of their Web sites, how to use them to achieve their business goals. In summary I worked as a liason between the client and our development team. I was also assigned as the project manager to the company’s CEO, Geoff Wilson’s personal Web site after the current Project Manager abruptly left the company. This project entailed revamping his personal Web site to make him more appealing for speaking engagements. These speaking engagements give the company more publicity and lead to new projects for the company. I took over the project late in the game, but it forced me to instantly adapt to new circumstances. I worked with the designer that was creating the project to get it done on time with few problems considering the circumstances. I also worked on tasks including Web site testing, quality assurance, and writing user manuals to give to clients on how to use certain features of their Web sites. This experience gave me valuable experience in management and has put me in the position to manage accounts on the highest level.
Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with 352 Media Group Project Management During the second semester of my internship with 352 Media Group, I worked within the Project Management department. I worked as the Project Manager on the personal Web site for Geoff Wilson, the company’s CEO and I worked as the Assistant Project Manager on a $60,000 account for our client, Progressive Dental. I also worked on a variety of tasks including creating user guides for our clients to learn the functionality of their Web site as well as quality assurance in the form of site testing.
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2. 1. 352MediaGroup.com 2. User guide I created 3. Geoffwilson.com
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Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with 352 Media Group Web-based Marketing Throughout my marketing internship with 352 Media Group, I worked with and developed many different forms of Web-based media used to market the company. The first form of interactive media I used was Wikipedia.com. I created a wiki for 352 Media Group and it now comes up as the 3rd search result in Google for the company. I also created an online press kit for the company that we named the “352 Media Center�. Lastly, I participated with the company blog, RantingandRaving.com, uploading articles and videos we created within the intern department.
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1. Wikipedia Page 2. Press release made from Press Kit 3. 352 Media Group blog
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Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with 352 Media Group Analytical Marketing Research While interning in the marketing department at 352 Media Group, I conducted a large amount of marketing research. I wrote multiple case studies that were uploaded to the Web site. The case studies looked at past projects and explored the tasks at hand and the steps 352 Media took to accomplish the clients goals. I also did analytical research on sales leads, researching where the majority of untapped leads were coming from geographically. From this information, the company even hired a new Account Manager.
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1. Analytical research on sales leads 2. Example of case study
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Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with Trimark Properties During my junior year of college, August ’07 to May ’08, I interned with a Property Management company in Gainesville, FL called Trimark Properties. Trimark Properties owns 15 apartment complexes, all located near The University of Florida. Being close to campus, Trimark relies on the college student demographic to fill their occupancy every year. The company has traditionally had higher prices than most of their competitors so a differentiation strategy and a unique marketing approach have been essential to the company’s success. During my internship, I worked on a variety of different projects. Given a small marketing budget, our strongest marketing tool was our well-designed and informative Web sites. We created different Web sites for each of the 15 different properties as each apartment complex had features that made them appealing to certain segments of the target market (ie: our dorm style apartments were popular with incoming freshman). In order to direct prospective customers to the Web site, we employed many different tactics. While at Trimark, I became heavily involved in Search Engine Optimization and helped increase Trimark from 8th to 1st or 2nd (depending on the daily algorithm) for “Gainesville Apartments”, our priority search query in Google. We were also heavily active in online advertisements including Craigslist.org, Facebook Marketplace, and ULoop.com. I also created many “mini-pages” that I made using Google Page Creator to act as a work-around to direct people to our main site. Another important tool we used that I created and maintained was several “Gainesville Apartments” blogs that drew traffic and increased SEO. Lastly, we were constantly involved in customer service by responding to all emails that came in through the Web site’s contact email address. Throughout my internship with Trimark Properties, I worked directly under the Senior Marketing Director, Aubrey Zaffke. From my work on real projects that affected the company, I gained invaluable experience and gained great insight to the online-marketing industry. My experiences at Trimark also taught me an incredible amount about demographically restrained local advertising. The unique characteristics of each apartment complex as well the individualistic nature of college students made the targeting and market research even more involved and in the end, effective. My time at Trimark Properties was a great experience. I worked with a very skilled supervisor as well as other hard working and creative interns. I have since recommended the internship to other students in the advertising and marketing fields as it is great work experience on real-world projects. This internship also helped me get ahead of the game in online media as this is where the industry is moving.
Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with Trimark Properties Online Marketing: Web Sites As with many small businesses, Trimark Properties operated on a low, fixed marketing budget. With that in mind, we had to utilize the most cost-efficient marketing tools available. The one we found most effective was well-designed, informative Web sites. Before my internship, the home page already existed, but throughout my internship we continued on to create individual Web sites for the 15 different properties Trimark owned. This enabled us to give detailed information on each property including floorplans, prices, and past resident reviews. We also created a “Property Search� page that enables visitors to find their dream apartment by narrowing down apartments by size, amenities, and pricing.
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1. Trimark Properties Home Web Page 2. Windsor Hall Web Page (one of the 15 properties) 3. Search Results Web Page
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Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with Trimark Properties Search Engine Optimization (SEO) While at Trimark Properties, we worked on an extensive Search Engine Optimization campaign in which we optimized for the term “Gainesville Apartments” as it was the most common keyword for college students who were looking for housing in Gainesville. When I started my internship we were ranked 8th for the term and after a program of keyword optimization and inbound link building, we made it to the number 1 spot.
1. An example of daily analytical tracking we used through Google to monitor the effectiveness of our SEO program 2. Google search results for the search term “Gainesville Apartments”. Trimark is number 1.
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Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with Trimark Properties Web-based Advertising Trimark Properties coped with a small marketing budget in a number of ways. One way included using free, online ads. I created numerous Craigslist ads for the various properties and each linked to a Google “mini-page” that I created as well. The mini-pages acted as a work-around to the anti-spamming software Craigslist employs. We also used Facebook.com in two ways while targeting our college student demographic. We listed ads on Facebook Marketplace and we also created Facebook groups as a form of “gue1. rilla marketing” to target our audience without them knowing we were influencing them. Ethical? Maybe. Efficient? Very.
1. Google “Mini-Page” 2. Craigslist Ad 3. Facebook Group Page
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Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with Devine Communications From May to August of 2007, I interned for Devine Communications in St. Petersburg, FL.. Devine Communications is a small advertising and marketing agency that values client relationships above all. It is a full-service agency that has done a wide variety of advertising in print, radio, internet, outdoor and television. This year, Devine Communications is celebrating their 25th year in business. Since 1982, Devine has helped many clients succeed, including Hungry Howie’s Pizza and Subs, Amscot Financial, Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q, Nokia, Sunken Gardens and a variety of car dealerships. Throughout the summer, I learned a lot and worked on a wide variety of projects. For most of my internship, I worked one-on-one with the Owner and CEO, Barry Devine, learning the basics of accounts services. I learned many things about accounts services including the process of strategic media planning and buying. I had regular contact with media representatives, placing and ordering ads. I also did a large amount of research to help the agency keep up on new marketing technologies. Along with learning the accounts services side of an ad agency, I wrote memos and used Microsoft Word and Excel regularly. During my internship, I worked with and learned from one of the best creative departments in Tampa Bay. Throughout the year, Devine Communications was celebrating their 25-year anniversary by putting forth a campaign to recruit new clients. A lot of great ideas were used in this campaign and it was especially exciting for me to get a chance to work with the creative department on it. I helped by doing a large amount of research on future prospects. I was also directly involved with a client “pitch,” a presentation to Plant City’s Strawberry Festival organizers. Aside from Devine Communications’ new business campaign, I was also involved in the branding process of one of our clients, Hungry Howie’s Pizza. I was also given the opportunity to write two radio commercials, including a 60second spot running in Tampa Bay area, the 12th largest media market in the U.S.* During my internship with Devine Communications, I gained valuable experience with a great advertising agency. I learned more than I expected and will remember the experience forever. I worked with very intelligent and creative individuals that always took time out their busy days to teach me about the world of advertising. Because I worked in all facets of the agency, this internship greatly broadened my perspective and prepared me to expand on the tools and experience I gained there.
Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with Devine Communications Promotions The first rule of business is “stay in business.� To that end, Devine Communications promotes itself in a variety of ways, both to attract new clients and to keep the Devine name top-of-mind for media reps and others in the industry. Here are a few samples of pieces that were developed during my time with the agency.
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Letter-sized direct mailer Poster Custom bottle of wine Demo DVD Poster/Open House Invitation
Brian Stagner Portfolio Client Work
Internship with Devine Communications
Few clients stay with the same agency for as long as Hungry Howie’s has been with Devine – over 20 years. In the beginning, Hungry Howie’s was a modest, 20-store chain. With Devine’s help, Hungry Howie’s has grown to 200+ locations, competing and winning against huge, national corporations. Devine’s aggressive print, television and radio campaigns have cut through the clutter, reaching customers, and delivering results that franchisees can see each time they check their cash registers.
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Magazine Ad Direct Mailer New circular logo design Truck wrap
Brian Stagner Portfolio Internship with Devine Communications Pitch to New Clients Devine’s pitch to the Florida Strawberry Festival was comprehensive, employing a branding strategy that emphasized the festival’s appeal to families and those wanting to enjoy a very entertaining Florida tradition without breaking their budgets.
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Outdoor Billboards Logo Design Rack Brochure Television Storyboard
Brian Stagner Portfolio Copywriter with AdWerks During my junior year of college, August ’07 to May ’08, I worked with AdWerks, a student-run advertising agency through the University of Florida. We were able to get a National client that needed a lot of help, National Railway Historical Society. National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) is a National-wide organization that includes over 170 chapters full of people who have a love for trains and the history of railroads. NRHS came to us with two main goals: Attract new members and spark interest within current members. AdWerks is a non-profit advertising agency that is a branch of Ad Society, which is the UF branch of the American Advertising Federation. Our agency consisted of 8 people who included a client services side and a creative side. Although everyone had a title and certain responsibilities, we all contributed to the overall strategy of the campaign. Personally, I worked as the only copywriter on the team. I love writing and have a certain knack for creating catchy headlines and captivating body copy. Throughout the year, I worked with the creative director and the art director to come up with ideas and themes for a variety of media. We created print ads, web banners, post cards, and brochures. I contributed to the art direction by creating sketches with the general concept of the ad. I would then write 50 to 100 headlines and go over them with the team to see which had the most feedback. One of the first assignments we took on was to create a new logo. The old one was hard to read and hard to remember. We wanted to create a new one that was traditional to appeal to the older audience, but new and clear to give the organization a better identity. The logo above is the one we came up with. After creating the logo, we went to work on ads for the variety of media we agreed upon. We also wanted to get NRHS more involved with online media and although a full Web site redesign was out of our grasp, we created web banners and skyscrapers like the one to the left. Working on this campaign taught me a lot about the whole process and was fun to do it with fellow students and friends. Our client was very helpful and understanding, as they should be when getting free creative. It was a great experience to work on the creative side. It was my first experience on the creative side and I realized it is something I would like to be a part of in the future. Although fun, copywriting is just as demanding as account services and something I have to take into mind when working on future campaigns.
Brian Stagner Portfolio Copywriter with AdWerks Creative Collateral For our campaign we wanted to create ads that could work in a variety of media. We wanted our ads to appeal to people considering membership into the organization without alienating existing members. It was my job as the copywriter to come up with the headlines and body copy you see in the ads as well as contribute to the overall design of the ads. 1.
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1. A general print ad we created to attract new members. We blended the photo from black and white to color and used two different type faces to give the old to new feeling. 2. A postcard type ad that we would send to member’s children to get them more involved with the organization. 3. A web banner ad that would be placed on sites related to trains and railways.
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Brian Stagner Portfolio Course Work at The University of Florida While at The University of Florida, I completed a variety of advertising classes, all of which concentrated on specific parts of the industry. The majority of the advertising curriculum focuses on the strategic and media side of the industry, but I did take design classes as well. Below I have focused on three classes and the projects I took part in. In Advertising Strategy, we were assigned Wal-Mart as our client. We were to evaluate their current performance and create a strategic plan to increase their marketing presence and eventually their revenues. We first created a situation analysis evaluating the company, product, competition, market, and the consumer. After our secondary research, we created a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to see how we could improve the overall brand. After analyzing all of this data, we created an overall marketing plan that would meet our goals. We focused on a certain target and created a brand positioning statement. After all of that, we wrote a creative brief and gave creative suggestions for the advertising collateral. In Advertising Research, we were forced to take on a client in the pharmaceutical field and conduct the proper to research in order to effectively create a successful campaign. In light of it’s presence on college campuses and its negative connotation, we choose the prescription drug: Adderall. First we conducted quantitative research by creating a questionnaire and distributing it throughout our target market: college students. The information gave us a lot of insight, but we wanted to go a step further and formed a focus group to give us some qualitative research. After all of this research, we would be able to create an effective campaign that is well thought out and tested. For an elective, I took International Advertising. For this project we took a product or commodity and brought it into a foreign country. This project required a ton of research and strategic planning; bringing the previous classes together. First we had to choose a product, which were Crocs shoes. We figured this would be an interesting challenge as it was becoming a fad in the US but hadn’t really picked up anywhere else. Our next challenge was to pick a country which was Chile. Chile is an up-and-coming country willing to accept new ideas and fashions. We analyzed the product and the country extensively. We had to create everything from the ground up including the distribution channel and retail outlets. We also initiated a creative execution for getting the message out to a foreign crowd. This project was especially challenging as we were faced with a completely random target market and was given an unproven product. The result is the end was success as we created a flawless marketing and distribution plan.
Brian Stagner Portfolio Course Work at The University of Florida Copy and Visualization For this class, we learned more about design and copywriting. Throughout the semester, we chose three different clients and created ads for them in a variety of media. For each client, we made print ads, radio ads, TV ads, and uses of alternative media. Pictured are print ads I created for each of my three clients. 1.
1. Print ad for MacBook Air 2. Print ad for charitable organization “Heavenly Hats� 3. Print ad for a voting campaign
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