The Agency at UF
is a full-service communications firm housed within the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. Built on a foundation of research, The Agency develops inspired and informed campaigns to build brand loyalty among the next generation.
In 2017, I became the first student ever accepted out of high school into The Agency at UF.
I began as a media coordinator, progressed to an earned media specialist and served as an account supervisor my last semester. Over three years, I worked on a number of accounts including Naomi Whittel Brands, Orangetheory Fitness, Bolay, Climb for Cancer and Mac and Blondie.
Key Terms Analysis & Research
Naomi Whittel is a wellness explorer who is recognized as the one to watch in the “wellness from within” space and is the New York Times best-selling author of Glow15. Leading up to her second book release, High-Fiber Keto, I led a team of 10 members to conduct research reports on a number of key terms Whittel would be discussing in her book.
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As account supervisor of Whittel's brand OMI Skin Nutrition, my team and I researched these key terms’ online exposure, trends, themes, competitors and media coverage. We then identified opportunities where Whittel could insert herself into the current conversation, establish herself as an industry leader and create openings for media coverage on products in the pipeline.
Simply GOODFATS Campaign
Outside of The Agency at UF, I also worked on Naomi Whittel Brands in my capstone course, Public Relations Campaigns. The course requires students work together in teams to develop a robust, strategic, measurable and actionable strategic communication plan for a real-world client. My team took this opportunity and built a campaign to raise awareness of MCT oil, build brand loyalty to Simply GOODFATS and increase traffic to Simply GOODFATS' Amazon products.
Cross-Platform Integrated Campaign
Orangetheory Fitness Gainesville came to The Agency looking to enhance the efficacy of their marketing expenditures with a more efficient media plan, supported by social media, public relations, events and other marketing activities. As a media coordinator on the account, I created social media content that was compelling and unique to the Gainesville market, while remaining consistent with corporate brand guidelines. Some examples are shown to the left. We used Sprout Social to schedule, monitor and create analytics reports for the client.
In 2019, our team won a Silver ADDY Award for The Agency at UF's work on Orangetheory Fitness Gainesville's Cross-Platform Integrated Campaign.
Public Relations Efforts for a Grand Opening
The fast-casual healthy restaurant Bolay was opening a new location in Gainesville and started a partnership with The Agency at UF to execute a grand opening that would create broad awareness and traffic, sustain awareness and continue to drive traffic over time and establish Bolay as a premier fast-casual destination.
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As an earned media specialist, I helped write press releases and distribute them to local media, which directly led to valuable news coverage. Bolay was covered in this Independent Florida Alligator story. The publication has a daily circulation of 35,000 and readership of over 52,000. Bolay was also included in the Gainesville Sun’s biweekly Restaurant Roundup.