Digitas Hosts Seven Students From the Miami Ad School

Students Get Hands-on Agency Experience and Capture it All on Video

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Jun 30, 2010, 09:49 ET

BOSTON, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Digitas (www.digitas.com), a leading integrated brand agency, has wrapped up its second class of Miami Ad School students. The agency hosted seven Miami Ad School students from around the world for ten weeks, providing them the opportunity to round out their digital education by shadowing Digitas creative teams, getting feedback from creative directors, and working on a campaign for a Digitas pro-bono client, Horizons for Homeless Children.

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"The goal of the program is to provide a rich and intensive training where students really walk away with an understanding of what a digital agency does," says Robert Rizzo, SVP/Creative Director, Digitas Boston. "We've worked to show them the ever-evolving and innovative field of digital marketing, as well as demonstrate some of the personal skills needed to succeed in this industry. As a bonus, we got a chance to meet some of the young creative talent that's out there."

The Banner Campaign

While at Digitas, the students were asked to create an online banner campaign for Horizons for Homeless Children to support its online piggy bank fundraising tool. The work was led and guided by senior creatives at Digitas and ultimately two directions were chosen to share with the client. One campaign was then selected by Horizons and will run in Yahoo! donated ad space.

"Our clients loved the 'Kids can do so much' banner executions. They immediately saw the legs the idea had, loved the simplicity and found it very moving," said Rizzo.

Digitas Culture and Classes

The students were integrated into the vibrant agency culture, paired up with an employee buddy and invited to socialize in the agency's events. They also had access to some of the agency's top Executives in unique "courses" or learning sessions where they got a full picture of digital marketing.

Video Footage

The students were also asked to record their experiences on a video camera, provided by the agency. At the end of the semester, each of them edited and compiled their footage for a short film competition. The winner, Amanda Cornwell, received an iPad. Her film is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpHVVVb8CnA

"I'm so happy to be able to share my Boston experience through film! Food was my focus, but I still captured the culture of Digitas – a fun environment filled with fantastic people, eager to help and teach," said Cornwell. "It's refreshing that Digitas employees want to come into the office every day. Look at any of the work created, and you'll clearly see that when you're here you want to do great things."

The office will continue to host groups throughout the year and the third class begins the first week of July. The agency was recently named one of the "Best Places to Work in Boston" by the Boston Business Journal.

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About Digitas

Digitas is a leading global integrated brand agency, helping the world's biggest brands develop, engage and profit from building profitable relationships with their customers. The Agency pairs media, marketing, technology, creativity, imagination and analytics to ignite emotional bonds between people and brands. Digitas also operates the brand content platform, The Third Act:, the independent healthcare marketing brand, Digitas Health, as well as Prodigious Worldwide, the world's only standalone, global digital productions company. With sister agencies Starcom MediaVest, ZenithOptimedia and Denuo, Digitas is a member of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi—a global digital knowledge and resource center that leverages the combined scale of the autonomous operations of its members to develop new services, new tools, and new partnerships.

Paris-based Publicis Groupe S.A. (Euronext Paris: FR0000130577) is the world's third largest communications group, the world's second largest media counsel and buying group, and a global leader in digital and healthcare communications. With around the world activities spanning more than 104 countries on five continents, the Groupe employs as many as 44,000 professionals.

www.digitas.com | Twitter: @Digitas | Facebook: Digitas Fan Page

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