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MOJO Ad Helps Staffs at Chicago Agencies Better Understand the 18-24 Demographic

The Staff Presented the State of the YAYA Report While Touring 12 Companies

By Katelyn Morris
MOJO Ad Public Relations Account Executive

Columbia, Mo. (Feb. 20, 2014) — Young adults have a combined buying power of almost $6.9 billion, and more than half would rather lose their car than their phone.

Mizzou Students at Walton Isaacson
Mizzou’s spirit letters, M-I-Z, welcome MOJO Ad students to the Walton Isaacson agency.

These are among the insights presented to the staffs of Chicago advertising and public relations agencies from MOJO Ad’s State of the YAYA Report, which analyzes the behavior of consumers in the 18-24 year-old life stage. MOJO Ad is the student-staffed, professional-services advertising agency based at the Missouri School of Journalism.

MOJO Ad staff members, accompanied by Assistant Professor Stephanie Padgett, toured 12 Chicago companies in three days. They met with senior staff members at iconic shops such as Leo Burnett and Edelman, independent agencies like Schafer Condon Carter and Walton-Issacson as well as tech startups and digital agencies like Higi and Critical Mass.

Other places visited included Wrigley Field to visit with the Chicago Cubs marketing team; media agencies like Starcom MediaVest Group and Omnicom Media Group; two independent agencies, Cramer-Krasselt and Plan B; and worldwide public relations agency FleishmanHillard.

YAYA Report at Starcom MediaVest Group
MOJO Ad members (left to right) Katie Moore, Jenny Travers, Casey Carpenter and Danielle Yuede present insights from the State of the YAYA Report at Starcom MediaVest Group.

“We approached our learning from the MOJO Ad study with an open mind, not knowing what we would extract from it,” said Chuck Kaiser, BJ ’93, executive vice president at Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm. “The compliment to the presentation is that it inspired free thinking and scrutiny of our own efforts.”

The State of the YAYA Report features facts from secondary research sources such as Mintel, eMarketer and MRI; syndicated research databases; and the intuitions and perspectives of the staff members who are part of the YAYA market. MOJO Ad is a fee-based agency that serves major brands such as Hallmark, TGI Fridays, Famous Footwear, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Walmart and Tostitos.

“It inspired a positive and curious reaction from the officers who saw and viewed the presentation,” Kaiser said. “The end of the presentation became an ideation session for how Edelman can use the research for our own clients, which was outstanding.”

After each presentation, the agencies gave students a tour of their respective offices. Students were given the opportunity to connect with Missouri alumni and staff. The broad spectrum of companies that hosted the MOJO Ad staff gave students the opportunity to see the difference in client work and culture of large, small, multicultural or digital agencies – and everything in between.

To download the State of the YAYA Report, visit Mojo-Ad.com.

Updated: July 22, 2020

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