Biography
Peg Murphy, Associate Professor in the School of Business and Entrepreneurship, teaches advertising, brand strategy, social media & digital strategy, graduate level courses in Strategic Communication and coaches capstone competition teams. Peg's background includes 20+ years’ experience working at agencies, corporations, and consultancies on brands like Apple, Boca Burger, Calvin Klein, Crate & Barrel, Liz Claiborne, the Alzheimer's Association, Nine West, Walgreens etc. Her proudest moments involve student successes, coaching interdisciplinary teams to high-profile competition wins (e.g., National Student Ad Competition, American Ad Federation; Collegiate Effies; National Retail Federation University Challenge, L'Oréal BrandStorm etc.). Peg is thrilled when students then graduate into amazing creative work with brands like YouTube/Google, Airbnb, JP Morgan Chase, Tik-Tok, NBC Universal, Netflix, and positions at high-profile agencies such as Leo Burnett, FCB, Wieden & Kennedy, Digitas & Starcom working with brands like Nike, Samsung, Wrigley, Miller Lite, VISA, Google, Old Spice, etc. Peg has served as an elected member of the American Advertising Federation's National Executive Education Committee Board and the National Advertising Review Board, is an incoming Board Member for the American Marketing Association Chicago chapter and leads round tables and fireside chats at national industry conferences. Her internationally presented and published research interests encompass creative qualitative research techniques (including "Best Teaching Innovation" paper at the Marketing Management Association 2022 conference), male body image, fatherhood and the media, and experiential project-based teaching. Recently, Peg was named Co-Agency Director for Agency Columbia and is leading talented students from across the college. Peg Murphy holds a BFA in Theater and a MA in Speech Communication from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
Instructional Areas
Advertising, Creative Strategy/Account Planning, Marketing Research, Integrated/360 Communication, Interdisciplinary Competitions, Interdisciplinary Community Engagement Projects, Account / Brand Management, Consumer Behavior, Marketing Communication
Creative Practice and Research Interests
GenZ/Post Millennial Consumers, Fatherhood in the Media, Male Body Image, Trend Spotting, Consumer Insights & Creative Strategy, Hands-on Project Based Experiential Learning
Degrees
B.F.A., Theatre University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 1983
M.A., Speech Communication University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 1985