Kelly was recognized in one of the industry’s largest creative competitions, which attracts nearly 35,000 professional and student entries each year
Kevin Kelly, a longtime School of Communications faculty member, was recently selected as the 2020 recipient of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) Distinguished Advertising Educator Award.
This award recognizes phenomenal advertising professors throughout the country. Recipients must show excellence in their teaching, relationships with students, research, publications, professional experience and more.
During his time at BYU, Kelly helped to revise much of the advertising program’s curriculum, which led to an increase in program enrollment. Not only did he add copywriters to the creative track, but also helped to add classes such as Advertising Account Management, Competitions Course, Media Writing (Copywriting for Advertising), and Strategic Planning to the program. He also brought back BYU’s American Advertising Federation College Chapter after it was shut down in 2007 and made it one of the largest in the country. Since then, BYU’s program has been recognized as “Most Improved” and has won first place in the District 12 competition five times.
Before working as a professor at BYU, Kelly had years of professional experience as a creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, working with many well-known brands such as Huggies, American Express, Kraft, Lipton and Hershey. Bringing his professional experience in the “real world” to his teaching, Kelly has impacted and mentored hundreds of students, helping them navigate their creativity and become successful in the advertising world.
Kelly will be honored for this achievement during the upcoming ADMERICA Adjusted virtual conference on June 5–11.