In March, I landed in NYC for my first time and experienced the Most Promising Students program hosted by the American Advertising Federation. It was a jam-packed four days, from agency visits, to Broadway, to a Times Square Billboard with my face on it! Without further adieu, here’s my experience!

day 1

Arrived in NYC for my first time ever! Our first visit was the Snapchat headquarters- they gave us this cool swag bag with the Snapchat Ghost. Then, our Times Square moment- which is a wild thing to think about, even weeks later. You see, I have an advertising background- I know running anything on these billboards are Expensive. Seeing my face up there was definitely a moment to behold, and still is!

day 2

This was a long day at dentsu filled with many activities. We had speakers, and then the next hours were dedicated towards the competition. Some context: prior to arriving, we had been assigned a team to work on a solution for a brief. We had come to New York prepared with our pitch, and the hour leading up to presenting in front of a live audience was spent preparing and practicing.

My team was nervous being the first ones to present, but we ended up being the ones on top! Our trophies were these cool skateboard decks.

After, we visited Peacock, to which an MPS alum spoke to us, and the Trade Desk, where we were greeted with a fantastic skyline view of NYC.

The day wasn’t quite over yet. We wrapped it up with a Broadway show of Buena Vista Social Club, a tale of a Cuban singer recounting her time of rising fame and making a difficult choice. 10/10 for my first Broadway viewing!

day 3

Started off bright and early at Omnicom, where there were panelists, tagline workshops, and presenting said taglines. Basically, the tagline is your professional motto to become known by. I crafted mine to reflect both my motion design career and my professional goal of lifting others up to reach their fullest potential. Without further adieu, mine is ‘motion that elevates potential.’

I didn’t have much time to spare in between agency tours, but I managed to sneak in a meet-up with one of my motion design homies- Hei Kuok!

Afterwards, I made my way over to Wieden+Kennedy, to which we were greeted by panelists describing their career path. Pretty insightful and an amazing space!

day 4

Our last day! This was our farewell brunch. As my team won our competition, we ended up presenting again on the big stage. The whole cohort presented their own taglines that we worked on the prior day. We wrapped up with a speaker with a surprise, and left with a trophy in hand and high spirits.

The part of Most Promising Students that left the best impression on me was the cohort, the many talented and driven people who are the best of the best. I left with stronger friendships and memories that will last me a lifetime.

takeaways as a motion designer

I probably was in the most interesting position out of my cohort, as my line of work is Very niche within the advertising industry. Advertising agencies will typically have the core roles of accounts, strategy, media, and creative (copywriting + art direction/graphic design), but production (where motion design is typically housed) is a subsection of creative that isn’t always a priority to have in-house. Currently, the trend seems to be hiring freelancers in lieu of in-house, but it always cycles around. 

The Most Promising Students program was very memorable for me, but I also had to figure out my place through it all with a non-traditional role. I had to determine which places were the best to explore more (just like everyone else), but from a motion designer perspective it was a more unique challenge. That is, Most Promising Students gave me a start within the advertising realm, but it’s up to me to really dive in to get what I want.

To any advertising or creative agency creating cool things- I’d love to join ya with my motion design skills!

For everyone else- I’ll see you in another rendition of motion talks!