About

Jay Waters is an instructor at the University of Alabama  in the Advertising and Public Relations Department, teaching classes in media, strategic thinking and agency management.

Jay joined the APR Department full time in the fall of 2015 after 24 years with Luckie and Company, a full-service advertising agency headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.  Just prior to joining the faculty, Jay’s most recent position at Luckie was SVP, Chief Strategy Officer, with responsibility for brand strategy, account planning, media planning and media buying.

During his advertising career, Jay has planned half a billion dollars in media placements for clients in wide variety of industries – including travel and tourism, financial products, telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, public utilities, healthcare, retail stores and QSR.

Campaigns that Jay has planned have won both of the media industry’s leading awards, winning a Media Lion at the Cannes International Ad Festival for his work with Alabama Tobacco Free Families, and a Media Plan of the Year award for his planning work on Regions Bank.  On the brand planning side, Jay’s consumer insights and research have provided the foundation for numerous Addy and Telly award-winning creative campaigns.  He has also been a frequent contributor to industry publications, contributing columns to AdWeek (US), B &T Weekly (Australia) and Admap (UK).

Jay has received numerous individual awards, including the Birmingham Business Journal Top 40 under 40, Birmingham Ad Fed Media Planner of the Year and Robert E. Luckie Award. 


Education
M.B.A.      University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1991
B.S.           University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1989

Contact
​Office: 404C Reese Phifer Hall
E-mail: [email protected]
Schedule a meeting: ​https://calendly.com/ghwaters1 

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