Guest Speaker: Brandon Thornton, Wieden+Kennedy,Nike

Tomorrow we are having a very significant guest speakers talk in class, Brandon Thornton from Wieden+Kennedy, Nike. 

 

 Our first speaker is Brandon Thornton, who is an alumni of Virginia Tech. Thornton graduated from Virginia Tech in 2006 with a degree in Marketing. After graduation he took the first job he got at UPS Freight in Richmond, VA. He sat in a cubicle all day and worked with customer service, so all he did was deal with problems. The job wasn’t for him; he knew he could do something bigger and better. He realized he needed to find his voice and figure out what he is passionate about. He had always been interested in creative things such as art and writing. Thornton also looked up to athletes like Andre Agassi, the Fab 5 Freshman from Michigan University and Michael Jordan. He realized that all of these athletes did things in their own way and had something to say. He soon discovered that Nike endorsed all of his favorite icons and decided that his dream job would be to work for Nike in a creative way. He wanted to pursue a career in advertising and decided to quit is current job and attend VCU Brandcenter, which is one of the top advertising schools in the country. Thornton graduated from VCU in 2009, when the economy was suffering. It was take a lot of time for him to reach his goal for working for Nike. For a year and a half he was a manager at American Apparel. While working there he learned about the best and worst ways to represent your brand. Finally an opportunity arose and Thornton was hired by Wieden+Kennedy, a privately owned advertising agency based in Portland, Oregon. With a lot of hard work and creativity, Thornton was able to work up to his dream position as the Lead Strategic Planner for Nike Basketball. His job now as a strategic planner is to ask the right questions, because the right questions lead to the right answers, and the right answer allow you to see the most interesting things possible. He acts as the voice of the consumer for Nike basketball.

Wieden + Kennedy is one of the top independent advertising agencies. Wieden + Kennedy has a total of 9 office all around the world, in places such as Portland, New York, São Paulo, Tokyo, London, Delhi, Shanghai and Amsterdam. They work with tons of top companies and have created countless award winning campaigns; most know them for the fantastic ads they create for Nike. Wieden + Kennedy are known for giving Nike their voice and are responsible for their famous slogan “Just Do It.” Dan Wieden, the found of Wieden + Kennedy said:

“Nike didn’t discover the power of advertising; they discovered the power of their own voice.”

Questions:
1) How exactly did you manage to work up through Wieden + Kennedy to be the Lead Strategic Planner for Nike Basketball?

2) Is the relationship between Nike and Wieden + Kennedy “set in stone?” Or is the a possibility that Nike will start working with another agency?