I get to see Mark Z!!

Hey there,

I'm Theresa and I am the Advertising junkie in this bunch. I got my bachelor's in advertising from UT @ Austin in 2003 and then worked as a Media Planner and then, later, a Research Executive evaluating online advertising campaigns. I am a teaching assistant at Texas State for the massive undergraduate class for Introduction to Advertising (328 students this semester) and I am currently giving 4 lectures this semester. I am stoked that next semester I get my own section to instruct.

While I was working in research, my favorite part of the day was our brainstorming sessions on new designs for research methods online. As new online technology is rapidly being created and consumers are getting more and more control over content, it is an ever increasing challenge for researchers to evaluate advertising campaigns on the Internet. At the same time, because the technology exists, the expectation level of clients is also increasing, making it even more of a challenge to design new research techniques that will provide the most accurate results. I love to see brands do well in advertising and I also like to tell them when it's not the right approach because I have numbers that say I'm right!

I am so excited to see Mark Zuckerberg speak this year - he is a phenomenal example of when a great idea, hard work, and smart people meet and create something that is so useful, fun, and has endless possibilities for people all over the world - before even reaching the age of 20. I am hoping he will talk a lot about his future plans for Facebook. He recently opened it up to all ages and to all developers as an application platform. I am curious what his next move is - especially regarding the advertising relationship with Microsoft with the price tag of $240 million...stay tuned!