Ryan Rogers uses his advertising degree to work on national campaigns

Written byAshley McClure-French

ā€œRagin’ Cajun culture empowered me to be tenacious, challenge the status quo, and celebrate specificity like queer spaces and Cajun heritage. I believe these qualities are inherent to great advertising professionals.ā€

Āé¶¹Ņ¹ŹŠ advertising alum Ryan Rogers
Ryan Rogers
Graduation Year
Class of 2010
Major
Strategic Communication
Hometown
New Orleans, La.

Where I'm From

I’m from New Orleans where I grew up loving commercials.

Where I Am

I am an associate creative director at Pandora developing a custom advertising product. 

Where I'm Going

I am going to continue to build diversity and inclusion into companies I work with.

Ryan Rogers, ’10, had a packed schedule in college — he was involved with over 10 student organizations. 

ā€œI was extremely involved in extracurriculars,ā€ he said. ā€œI also worked between one and four jobs at all times. My time at Āé¶¹Ņ¹ŹŠ is well-remembered, but I don’t know how I did it.ā€

He was a board member for the Honors Program and , a senator on Student Government Association, and part of multiple committees with . Ryan was also a staff writer for , an emcee for UPC events, and a lifeguard at the . 

In the middle of it all, Ryan began his career in advertising.

ā€œI got a job as a copywriting intern turned part-time writer at RUSSO (then The Russo Group), where I worked until graduation,ā€ he said.

After that, his career path took him from Lafayette to New Orleans to San Francisco.

ā€œUpon graduation, I got a job at Right Angle, where I worked as a copywriter and broadcast producer for nearly three years,ā€ he said. ā€œThen, I returned to RUSSO where I served as senior copywriter, then associate creative director, then creative director overseeing two offices.

ā€œIn 2015 I made the move to PETERMAYER in New Orleans where I worked on major national clients as the dedicated senior copywriter on Kennedy Space Center, Delaware North Parks & Resorts, and more,ā€ he said.

After making an impression with his work at PETERMAYER, he was offered a role at Google.

ā€œAccepting an offer I couldn’t refuse, I moved to San Francisco to work on an embedded marketing team at Google with small/medium business marketing partners,ā€ he said. ā€œHere, I also helped develop the global Pride campaign for LGBTQ+ families.

ā€œThen, I was recruited by Pandora in 2018 to develop their new custom advertising product as the team’s dedicated associate creative director,ā€ he said.

Ryan describes his career path in advertising as ā€œinevitable,ā€ but his choice to attend Āé¶¹Ņ¹ŹŠ was because of the community.

ā€œI maintained a childhood love of commercials, plus a talent for writing and visual art – advertising was an inevitable career path,ā€ he said. ā€œI chose the Āé¶¹Ņ¹ŹŠ advertising program because it gave me room to grow in a smaller, more supportive environment. Plus, the program celebrated creativity and strategy in practice.

ā€œRagin’ Cajun culture empowered me to be tenacious, challenge the status quo, and celebrate specificity like queer spaces and Cajun heritage,ā€ he said. ā€œI believe these qualities are inherent to great advertising professionals.ā€

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