Before Nick Larkin ’09 led multimillion-dollar ad campaigns, he was an advertising major at the SOJC who interned at an agency in Ghana.

by Kaia Mikulka, Class of ’25

When Nick Larkin was growing up in a tiny town in Montana, he never imagined he would one day be leading multimillion-dollar ad campaigns for international agencies. He credits his rise to the top of his profession to drive, honesty and the courage to dream bigger — all traits he honed while studying advertising at the UO School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC).

Larkin ’09 focused his advertising studies on account direction. Now, 15 years into his career, he has worked for agencies such as CPB, Wieden+Kennedy and Opinionated, where he’s been for six of those years.

The small Portland-based agency is doing big things, Larkin said. "We’re like a Navy SEAL team — small, precise and powerful. Everyone here has a superpower, and we value that.”

SOJC’s nurturing, creative environment impacted career

Originally from Hamilton, Montana, Larkin thought Oregon was the perfect home away from home. He was attracted to the ad program for its concentration on creativity. "It felt like the ad program rewarded originality,” Larkin said. “You had to think on your feet and justify it strategically. It wasn’t about regurgitating information."

The most defining thing about the University of Oregon’s advertising program, Larkin said, is how a small and nurturing environment can impact a career later.

“The support and networking I received from alumni, staff and faculty has always been valuable to me, and I'll always be faithful to doing the same thing,” Larkin said. “I think it made me feel less afraid to come into the industry.”

Professor emerit Kim Sheehan was Larkin’s biggest source of support. “She was instrumental in helping me network with others, both during and after school,” Larkin said.

Ghana trip was an opportunity of a lifetime

When Larkin was a junior, he decided to get out of his comfort zone. He signed up for the Media in Ghana program, a six-week study-abroad program in Accra, Ghana, that gives students a hands-on, immersive experience working for local agencies and media outlets as they learn about the nation’s history, culture and struggles.

In Ghana, Larkin worked on an ecotourism campaign for ad agency Lowe Lintas (now called MullenLowe Accra), and the experience would influence him for the rest of his career. “A kid from a small town in Montana going and living in West Africa was a massive educational experience,” Larkin said.

From his first day, he immediately felt welcomed.

“They took me in as family,” Larkin said. “They treated me as a valued member of the agency, even though I was an intern, and an outsider at that.”

He also got to experience a new level of advertising that fascinated him, including different tropes, mindsets and popular local culture. “I worked on Guinness and Coke — the combination of those products — which I thought sounded disgusting, but was one of the most popular things there,” Larkin said.

Larkin’s experience in Ghana sparked his interest in other cultures that would later seep into other career paths. “The curiosity for cultures foreign to me was addicting,” he said.

His passion gave him the opportunity to work on an international campaign for Airbnb at Wieden+Kennedy. Working out of the Tokyo, São Paulo and Mexico City offices, his role was to take Airbnb’s brand strategy and adapt it locally.

“People in different countries have different perceptions of staying in someone else’s house,” Larkin said. “That means it might be great in one culture and terrifying in another.”

Role as advertising account director lets others shine

When he first entered the ad program, Larkin wanted to be a copywriter. But the flexibility and multifaceted nature of the account manager role called his name.

“A motto I have is that the account person should always be the second best at every job in the agency and the best at communicating,” Larkin said. “You're responsible for picking and choosing what information should go to people that allows them to do their job effectively.”

And now as an account director, he finds that most of his job involves letting others shine.

“Be a leader and a teacher behind the scenes,” Larkin said. “But be a bad cop when they need you, and allow them to establish their brand the way you have. An account director is someone who people look up to from a tonal standpoint.”

New job offered a chance to show advertising creativity

After working at CPB for three years and Wieden for six, Larkin found a new home at Opinionated, an independent agency founded by Wieden’s previous executive creative director, Mark Fitzloff.

“I came to Opinionated because they had the same values that Wieden+Kennedy have, where work comes first, and creativity is king,” Larkin said.

He recommends a big agency to recent grads for the experience and access to resources, but he loves the efficiency of a small agency like Opinionated.

“We position ourselves as the value of a large creative shop that's packaged in a hyper start-up culture,” Larkin said. “We do it together, and we do it quickly.”

For students looking for jobs in an unstable career market, Larkin offers two pieces of advice: “Meet as many people as you possibly can and be comfortable asking questions and putting yourself out there,” he advised. “What's the harm in asking someone for their time or for a coffee or to hang? If anything, people are flattered by it.”

And finally, have a transparent point of view. “I used to ask candidates this at Wieden: ‘What’s your favorite work you’ve done, and what’s work that you’ve done in the past year that you didn’t like?’ ” Larkin said. “It forces you to be honest about how you feel about your work.”

Finally, he recommends that people new to a company be honest about who they are and what they can do. “When we look for new hires, we want people to have a transparent point of view,” Larkin said. “We love that, because here, nobody is above or below a particular role.”

Kaia Mikulka is an advertising major, business minor and an art director at Align magazine. Her passions include design and art direction and their intersection with technology and psychology.