Fitzgerald & Co, Coca-Cola and Morehouse College Host The One Club Creative Boot Camp Atlanta

The One Club for Creativity, the world’s foremost non-profit organization celebrating creative excellence in advertising and design, has teamed up with local ad agency Fitzgerald & Co (Fitzco), The Coca-Cola Company and Morehouse College to hold one of its award-winning Creative Boot Camp programs in Atlanta, November 9-12.

 

The program offers local college students from multicultural backgrounds hands-on experience in advertising and design, and gives them the understanding and tools necessary to pursue a career in the field. Among the schools with students participating are Clark Atlanta University, Creative Circus, Emory University, Fashion Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, Miami Ad School @ Portfolio Center, Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) and Spelman College.

 

This Creative Boot Camp (CBC), sponsored by Atlanta’s Fitzco, brings together some of area’s leading ad agency creatives, brand marketers and educators to help students conceptualize and build an ad campaign for Coca-Cola from the ground up.

 

“As an agency committed to diversity and winners of this year’s One Show Cultural Driver Pencil, we couldn’t be more psyched to host this Creative Boot Camp, work with our client Coca-Cola and talk to local students about the career opportunities in advertising and design,” said Noel Cottrell, chief creative officer, Fitzco (), whose agency has also done work for Checkers & Rally’s, Navy Federal Credit Union and others. “In a city with such an amazingly diverse population and so many great colleges, it’s a real opportunity to engage and inspire the next generation of Atlanta’s creative community and potentially change a young person’s life by introducing them to the ad world.”

 

The Atlanta Creative Boot Camp starts on the evening of November 8 with a welcome reception for students at the new offices of Fitzco, where Cottrell and a One Club representative provide an overview of what will take place in the coming days. Special guest that night will be DL Warfield, an inspiring speaker who’s well known for his creative work with artists in the music industry as well as for brands with his own firm Goldfinger c.s.

 

The program officially starts the next morning back at the Fitzco office where students will be briefed on the project and then head to the campus of Morehouse College, where they will work with ad agency mentors on Friday and Saturday to develop their ad campaign recommendations. Students will present their creative ideas on the final day to a panel of 10 judges from Coca-Cola, Fitzco and other Atlanta agencies including McCann, Momentum and Chemistry, who will provide feedback and award prizes.

 

Created by The One Club for Creativity for future advertising and design creatives and run by creatives currently working in the industry, the Creative Boot Camp has received the prestigious Mosaic Award for Multicultural Student Program from the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The Atlanta program is the eighth and final CBC of 2017, with previous ones taking place in Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and two in South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg). The program is expected to double in scope next year, happening in London, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Tokyo, Dubai and more than a dozen other cities.

 

“The One Club for Creativity has a long-standing commitment to providing programming that directly addresses the industry's diversity challenges as opposed to just talking about them,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club “We created our own Inclusion & Diversity Department nearly a decade ago, and invest heavily in results-oriented programs like Creative Boot Camps that open the door and help get young diverse creatives hired by some of the leading agencies and brands.” 

 

Other ongoing One Club education, diversity and recognition programs include the annual “Here Are All The Black People” multicultural conference and career fair, Young Ones Student Awards and exhibitions for college students, seasonal Portfolio Reviews that connect top agency creatives with aspiring students and young professionals for invaluable one-on-one critiques, Young Guns honoring top creatives age 30 and under, Next Creative Leaders recognizing up-and-coming women in advertising who are pushing the industry forward, Saturday Career Workshops for high school students and Henry Wolf Photography Workshop for public school students.

 

“We’re absolutely thrilled by the enthusiastic interest and support from Noel and the team at Fitzco to host the Atlanta Creative Boot Camp, and honored to have one of the world’s most prestigious brands in Coca-Cola participate in the client brief,” added Swanepoel. “These four days will inspire students, introduce them to new career opportunities and hopefully lead them on the path to creative internships and jobs after graduation.”