Local Ad Fed's Copywriter of the Year and recently named creative director at Russo tapped for Boston Marathon project.
People who go into advertising do it because they have a vision; award-winning creative director and copy writer Ryan Rogers, 25, is no different in that sense.
Ryan Rogers
When Rogers was only 24, he became associate creative director at Lafayette-based creative branding agency Russo. Now, a year later, he is the creative director (and certainly among the youngest in the state to hold the title). The promotion coincides with Rogers being named Copywriter of the Year at the American Advertising Federation of Acadiana's Feb. 8 ADDY Awards.
And all of that comes on the heels of another big opportunity: to honor the strength and courage of survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing.
"It's a side project," says Rogers. "I'm working with Deltree, a New Orleans/NYC video and digital production company, and Dear World, a global social project, to create the video that commemorates the first anniversary of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. The video will feature survivors of the attacks with creative direction and storytelling by Deltree, Dear World and [me]."
Rogers says Ben Reece of Deltree reached out to him out of the blue after they met many years ago at an AdFed luncheon while he was still a student. Reece is doing video work for the project.
Rob Fogarty, founder of Dear World, engineered the whole project, according to Rogers. Fogarty asks people to share a meaningful message with family, friends and strangers by scribbling the message on themselves while he documents it. The Boston project will be presented in the style of Dear World.
They will interview three survivors: an amputee who was a bystander, a marathon participant who lost partial hearing and a first responder on the scene. Rogers says production will finish at the end of February.
Rogers also finds time to maintain a personal blog focusing on themes of gay life, modern dating, friendship and family, with pieces that have been featured on OUT.com, HelloGiggles.com and ProfessionGal.com. Another is set to be published in Gertrude Journal, a bi-annual literary journal that is one of the oldest LGBT literary publications.