Creative thinker builds consensus
By Noel Judd
J Alumni News staff
Advertising, in one form or another, has been a lifelong interest for Todd Way.
"When I was a kid we would sit around the TV and rate commercials on a scale of one to 10," said Way, a Lincoln native.
Way has taken that interest and built a 20-year career in advertising which, along with his community involvement in Lincoln, earned him the Lincoln Ad Federation Silver Medal award in 2001.
Way said he didn't go into advertising directly after graduating from Lincoln East High School in 1973. He held various jobs until seeing his friends graduate from college made him think about college for himself, Way said.
"When all of my friends were graduating from law school and dental school I was driving a truck in Texas," he said.
Way started studying at UNL in 1977. After his sophomore year he had an internship with the Lincoln advertising firm Miller Friendt Ludemann as an account executive helping clients plan their advertising campaigns.
"I would have taken whatever internship they would have offered. I just wanted to get my foot in the door," Way said.
He finished his junior year and left school to work at the agency as a full-time account executive. Three years later he moved to the Bailey Lauerman advertising firm because there he could write his own copy even though his position would still be an account executive.
"I really wanted to be on the creative side. That's where my real interest was," Way said.
Having completed all the core advertising courses, including his favorite, campaigns, Way worked in advertising for 10 years before coming back to UNL to finish his general education requirements and graduate in 1989.
Eventually Way became the creative director at Bailey Lauerman while continuing to work on some accounts himself. In 1992, one of Bailey Lauerman's clients, Ameritas Life Insurance, offered him the chance to establish an internal advertising agency for that company, Way said.
Way said he liked the idea of working for one company and being able to follow and improve projects after they were first created.
"Working for multiple companies in an agency, you would finish a project and move on to the next project and you never knew if it (the original project) worked or if it did not work," Way said.
Way said the favorite part of his current job, assistant vice president of sales development and communications at Ameritas, is that "every day is different."
Although Ameritas advertising campaigns' target audiences are well defined - usually insurance agents or Ameritas employees - the variety of media helps keep things interesting, Way said. Internet one day, direct mail the next, phone calls, newspapers and television the day after that all require their own methods, he said.
"We try to do it in a creative way that stands out and catches attention," Way said.
Way's least favorite part of his job, he said, is sometimes needing to build a consensus about how a project should be done.
"Sometimes it's hard to push really creative thinking in a corporate environment. It's hard to be really edgy when you have to have six people sign off on it, including the law department," Way said.
But building consensus is something Way is good at, said Rich Claussen, who worked with Way at Bailey Lauerman.
"If Todd had an idea he felt was worth doing, he was a very good listener. He could process input and be able to build consensus without sacrificing the integrity of the idea," Claussen said.
Claussen said Way's biggest contribution at Bailey Lauerman was his enthusiasm.
"Todd was the kind of guy that if he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep he would come in to work," Claussen said.
"I'd come in at 4 a.m. in the morning and Todd would already be there," Claussen said.
Claussen said that energy was part of why Way won the Silver Medal award in 2001. "He won it because he contributed and lent his enthusiasm to a number of organizations in the city," Claussen said.
Way volunteers for Lighthouse, Young Life, Zion Presbyterian Church and Nebraska Children's Home Society, where he and his wife, Denise, adopted their three children.
"You hang around long enough, someone will give you an award," Way joked.
On a more serious note, Way said he has tried to be a "good corporate citizen" in his work and professional ethics and a good citizen in the community.
"My faith is very important to me, so I do a lot of work for my church and youth groups," Way said.
"I'm just trying to stay out there, stay busy doing the right things, I guess," he said.
