Libby Brockhoff

For visual communications alumna Libby Brockhoff, AS '92, believing in oneself meant having the talent and tenacity to help start Mother, an innovative and successful British advertising agency that has won rave reviews from various trade magazines.

After three years of working at a famous and creative London agency called Gold Greenless Trott (GGT), Brockhoff was about to join her husband Franklin Tipton, AS '91, who had returned to America to work for Kirk Souder, AS '85, of the Ground Zero creative agency in California.

When she offered her resignation to GGT creative director Robert Saville in 1996, she was offered a chance to get in on the ground floor of an ad agency for Britain's Channel 5, the country's first new television station in more than 20 years.

"I was floored," Brockhoff says. "This was the biggest honor, to have your creative director pick you out of a department of 30 people to be his business partner."

Saville gave Brockhoff and founding co-partners Stef Calcraft and Mark Waites just 24 hours to make up their minds. Planning would have to go hand-in-hand with development.

"We had two weeks to complete the creative presentation for the biggest media spend in English history," Brockhoff says. "It was get your skates on and don't look back."

Mother's first client, Channel 5, went on the air at the end of March 1997, and the agency is credited with fully preparing the British public for the event through a consistent series of messages that included 270 press ads and 50 individual campaign posters.

While Mother was getting noticed for its creative efforts, people in the ad business also were impressed with a growing client list that included Coca-Cola, Bachelor Super Noodles, Cadburys, Virgin.Net and Kickers.

"The learning curve was steep and fast and exhilarating," Brockhoff says. "I made more mistakes and had more successes in three years than I ever could have imagined."

Among the many advertising industry awards earned by Mother is a Design and Art Directors of London silver award for a promotional piece by Brockhoff and Tipton editorializing the absolute frenzy that surrounds the annual World Cup Soccer matches in Europe.

"Unfortunately, they have a lot of hooliganism that spoils the event every time they have it," Brockhoff says. "So, we tried to get everyone laughing about it before it happened. We were experimenting with the idea that a communications company could send any message it felt like, not just to answer business problems for clients in the form of ads."

Since returning to the States, Brockhoff worked as a freelancer before accepting a job as associate creative director at Carmichael Lynch, with a client list that includes Harley Davidson, Porsche and IKEA.

Brockhoff describes the University's visual communications program as an advertising industry "boot camp" run by the faculty to mirror the real world.

"Ray Nichols devoted every ounce of himself to producing great creatives, and everybody in that program admired and respected his perseverance," Brockhoff says. "You never forget a great teacher."

Mylene Turek Pollock

Mylene Turek Pollock, AS '83, began her career right after graduation with Homer & Durham in New York City.

"I brought the attitude instilled in me at the University of Delaware to my first job: Work very hard, always do it differently, push yourself and others, but do not forget to have fun," Pollock says. "Ray [Nichols], Martha [Carrothers] and Bill [Deering] gave us the gift of passion for what we do. I was thrilled to be doing real ads with real budgets. Every assignment was a chance to do something new and exciting."

She continued to work in New York City after moving on to Hal Riney & Partners--considered among the ad world's best creative advertising agencies. Clients at the firm included Fuji, Mutual of New York and Perrier.

A recipient of the 2000 University of Delaware Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement, Pollock describes getting started in the rough-and-tumble advertising world of New York City as being a tremendous challenge and a great adventure.

"I think getting situated there as a still-wet-behind-the-ears college graduate, with pitifully little in her pocket, was a huge challenge," Pollock says. "It was also a great motivator."

In 1992, Pollock signed on with Ogilvy & Mather, a major advertising agency with offices in 90 countries. During her seven years at the agency, she rose from associate creative director to group creative director. Clients at the agency during Pollock's stay included IBM, Cotton Inc., Wamsutta, Springmaid, Fortune Magazine, Brooks Brothers and Dove soap.

When IBM chose Ogilvy, it was the first-ever global account consolidation in advertising history. Pollock was a lead part of the team chosen to rebrand the then very unfocused global marketing program IBM had in place. The computer giant's global advertising budget was estimated to be in the neighborhood of $800 million.

One of Pollock's ads answers the question, "How do we sell more stuff to more people in more places?" by showcasing several male and female subjects of differing ages and ethnic backgrounds, each wearing the same type of colorful hat in a uniquely individual fashion.

After leaving Ogilvy, Pollock went to work as chief creative officer at Long Haymes Carr in Winston-Salem, N.C. Since her arrival, the firm has gained major national accounts, including Sealy Corp., Stearns and Foster, TJMaxx, Maxfli/Dunlop/ Slazenger, Champion, Hanes and Thomasville Furniture.

"It's been an exhilarating ride and great fun, but advertising is not for someone looking for continuity and routine," Pollock says. "The job moves fast and it is all about multitasking--working on many brands and industries at the same time."

Giving advice to the next generation of visual communications students, Pollock recommends having some fun but taking the job seriously from the very beginning.

"Be serious about your job, but keep it light," Pollock says. "Don't crucify yourself if you make a mistake. Instead, learn from it. Believe in yourself."

Kirk Souder

One of Kirk Souder's contributions was helping to start Ground Zero, an innovative creative agency located in Marina del Rey, Calif.

"Technically, Ground Zero is considered to be an ad agency, but it is really a different kind of company with a different kind of structure," Souder, AS '85, says. "We have a giant open space in our Los Angeles facility, where we organize the apparatus of our agency around the interest of our clients."

Souder says the main goal of this progressive approach, where closed rooms are reserved solely for individual brand development, is to peel away outside layers and get to the essence or heart of a brand.

To accomplish this, each client is assigned a team from a total staff of about 75, with the goal of total immersion in the culture of the target brand and its projected audience.

"We try to find out how the consumer really feels about a particular brand," Souder says. "This tells us how we can make our approach relevant and develop possible positions within this brand."

This creative approach has earned Ground Zero numerous awards, including mention in the Dec. 13, 2000, issue of Adweek, where it was cited as one of the most outstanding creative agencies in the country.

Ground Zero also won an Adweek award for its campaign to attract new viewers to ESPN2 2night, a family of five half-hour shows devoted to five individual sports.

This was not the agency's first involvement in an ESPN advertising venture.

In 1999, the network wanted to get President Bill Clinton to attend the Women's World Cup soccer final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., so it hired Ground Zero to do a spot with Democratic Party presidential spokesman James Carville making the pitch.

The president got the message and showed up at the match between the United States and China, and the commercial earned creative directors Souder and Ground Zero co-founder Court Crandell an Adweek "creative best spots" mention.

Souder and Crandall also took home an Adweek "best creative spots" mention in September for their work as creative directors on ESPN's "2-minute drill" commercial.

The pair also received the Western States Advertising Association's Creative Leaders of the Year for 2001 award.

A recipient of the 1995 Presidential Citation Award given annually to outstanding UD alumni who have graduated within the past 20 years, Souder says his UD education has had an enormous impact on his life and career.

"Instructors like Ray Nichols, Martha Carothers and Bill Deering told us not to spend even one second doing something that had already been done," Souder says.

While Ground Zero has taken him much farther than he imagined while a University student, Souder says his largest passion is his wife and young son, McKinley. Last July, he announced he was leaving Ground Zero to spend more time with his family.

--Jerry Rhodes

Visual communications family album

The art department's visual communications group, otherwise known as, DEsigners, has started a family album.

Raymond Nichols, professor of art, who directs the group, came up with the concept while working with his colleagues. "I've been heavily involved with my family tree trying to finish what my mother had done in the last years of her life," he says, so the idea of recording group events and accomplishments as a way of preserving the history and character of each graduating class and the group appealed to him.

Nichols suggested the group begin compiling a family album to capture its genealogy as it is evolving. Students began working on the 17" x 11" book in January and hope to have 200 pages by May. Nichols anticipates 300-400 pages each calendar year. Eventually, the book will rest on a special display stand.

Pages in the book may be condensed for a smaller version to be used as "thank you" gifts for individuals and organizations that play a part in VC group activities, for recruiting and for alumni. The "Thank You" books will be signed by everyone who participated in the activity.

--Barbara Garrison