{"id":710,"date":"2016-02-17T16:28:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T21:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/?page_id=710"},"modified":"2022-02-17T12:28:08","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T17:28:08","slug":"pete-ruest","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/my-degree-in-jmc\/pete-ruest\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Ruest, VP Global Group Account Director, BBDO Worldwide \u2013 Class of 1997"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ruest\"Being on holiday break offers a nice pause for reflection.\u00a0 Being asked to contribute a piece for \u201cMy Degree in JMC\u201d doubles-down on that reflection.\u00a0 So I set myself up to reflect:\u00a0 sitting in my family room, feet kicked up on the ottoman, eating a Christmas cookie and looking out to our snow-covered backyard here in Chicago.\u00a0 Both kids are upstairs taking naps, and my wife is reading a book.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the strongest moments and experiences from JMC that have helped me throughout my professional career were those from the Advertising Campaigns course and the corresponding National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC).\u00a0 Yes, there was consumer research and business analysis.\u00a0 Yes, there were communications and media strategies.\u00a0 And, of course, there were creative ideas.\u00a0 But, what benefitted me most was the varied collection of people that made up that class, and, more importantly, learning how to work together as a group, during that Spring 1997 semester.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the team, or \u201cAgency 331,\u201d as we had designated ourselves:\u00a0 Ram Balakrishnan, Carrie Beckner, Jen Brewer, Yi-Fan Chen, Billie Clay, Paul Justice, Heather Oliver, Tina Racer, Jon Rogers, Lene Thomsen, Susan Ux, Jennifer Walters, and myself.<\/p>\n

We were quite a diverse group.\u00a0 Each had a different background \u2013 in life and at Marshall.\u00a0 Everyone brought something unique to the course and to our campaign for Pizza Hut, although at times we were not always sure of ourselves as individuals.<\/p>\n

As anyone who took Campaigns class knows, the demands were many, with a rather autonomous structure driven mostly by the team.\u00a0 Throughout the semester, navigating the nuances of the individuals to achieve our collective goal ultimately became the nuance of the team.\u00a0 How we advanced together was as much a function of the variation in our group as it was the looming deadlines for a 40-page plans book and presentation.<\/p>\n

Following Marshall, I graduated from the VCU Adcenter (now VCU Brandcenter), a masters program in Richmond, Virginia, designed to replicate real-world advertising agency experience.\u00a0 Again, the dynamics of each team became critical to success \u2013 and I hadn\u2019t even started working with clients yet.<\/p>\n

My professional career started in Richmond, working at The Martin Agency on the Timberland account.\u00a0 Then, I moved to Chicago to work at Y&R on Sears and Miller Brewing.\u00a0 Shifting further West, I moved to Portland, Oregon, to work at Wieden + Kennedy on the Nike business.\u00a0 After returning to Chicago in 2004 and working at Y&R Chicago for a few more years, I landed at Energy BBDO, where I have worked for the past nine years, on Wrigley\/Mars, AB In-Bev, and now Bayer.<\/p>\n

At each of these agencies, I have been a part of countless teams on countless projects.\u00a0 It, indeed, takes a village to launch a national or global advertising campaign.\u00a0 Each agency and client team has been different.\u00a0 Some teams are easy; they flow well.\u00a0 Other teams are brutally difficult, requiring constant assessment of goals and motivation of the team.<\/p>\n

Today, I lead both domestic and global teams.\u00a0 I work closely with my colleagues in Chicago, but I also connect with teams from our BBDO network around the world every day.\u00a0 From Russia to Brazil, from Australia to China, I interact with teams from vastly different cultures and backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Each project brings together various people that make up the team.\u00a0 Each initiative demands a unique approach based on that team \u2013 working together to try to achieve success.\u00a0 After all, it is the team that makes the work.<\/p>\n

In the Spring of 1997, I learned a lot about the makings and motivations of a team in the JMC Advertising Campaigns course.\u00a0 And, even though I really didn\u2019t take the time to reflect much on it then (maybe I needed an ottoman and some Christmas cookies in my dorm room), it is something for which I remain thankful to this day.<\/p>\n

Best wishes for a wonderful 2016.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being on holiday break offers a nice pause for reflection.\u00a0 Being asked to contribute a piece for \u201cMy Degree in JMC\u201d doubles-down on that reflection.\u00a0 So I set myself up to reflect:\u00a0 sitting in my family room, feet kicked up on the ottoman, eating a Christmas cookie and looking out to our snow-covered backyard here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":0,"parent":436,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-710","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2354,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/710\/revisions\/2354"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}