RSVP: Live for the Experience

One of AAF Illinois' goals is to provide opportunities for hands-on experience in the world of advertising. An agency that strives to provide members with the chance to gain such experience is RSVP, AAF's experiential marketing agency. 

In RSVP, members work with clients in the Champaign-Urbana area to promote their products or business to consumers. Members are split into groups within the agency and are assigned a different client to work with.

A couple of RSVP's clients last semester were Urbanite and the Ebertfest Film Festival. For Urbanite, members put up posters in various locations on campus to promote the event. Additionally, during the event, members helped run a photo booth where performers and audience members could take pictures and gifs.

As the president of RSVP, Rachel Ellis’ goal is to ensure that members are constantly working with their clients and are eager to do so.

“We have a lot of amazing, creative individuals that are coming to learn and want to get that experience,” she said. “So, the biggest thing for me is to ensure they always have something to do.”

To engage members and strengthen the agency as a team, Ellis finds different team building activities for meetings. In doing these activities, Ellis said that members get to know each other and are confident in working together to deliver the promised work to a client. 

Something new that Ellis hopes to bring to RSVP this semester is workshops with fellow AAF executive board members. She hopes to incorporate these workshops as a way for members to learn more about internships, career opportunities, and the different programs on Adobe Creative Cloud.

While RSVP is an agency that works with real clients, Ellis emphasizes that no experience is necessary to join the agency. As long as people are eager to learn, RSVP will always be open for them.

“We accept people of any major and experience level,” she said. “No matter who you are, there is something that you can learn from joining an agency like RSVP.”

If you’d like to join, RSVP meets at the Armory every Monday in room 4:30 at 6 p.m.