Alumni Spotlight: Andrew Carty
Advertising alum Andrew Carty (B.A. ’02) draws on the fundamentals he developed at Meadows to help brands connect with consumers in an ever-changing industry.
Andrew Carty (B.A. ’02) is this week’s featured alum in our new Alumni Spotlight series for the This Week at Meadows e-newsletter. Each week, a different Meadows alum will be highlighted for their accomplishments post-graduation.
Advertising has transformed considerably since Andrew Carty graduated from Meadows, but the fundamentals that first prepared him for the industry have remained consistent. From beginning his career at McCann to advising business leaders and global brands today, Carty has built his career around understanding how brands connect with people, even as the tools and strategies for reaching them continue to evolve.
Carty credits Meadows’ advertising program with giving him a head start in the industry. In addition to learning the language and foundations of the industry in the classroom, opportunities to work with real clients introduced him to the realities of agency life before he had officially entered it.
“I learned so much about team building and management, the pressures of pitching and being in the room, and what it meant to win or lose a pitch,” says Carty. “You normally don’t get that experience until years into your career, so I felt like I was exceptionally prepared for new business and high-pressure meetings early on.”
An internship at Dallas’ Launch Agency added another layer of practical experience, and after graduation Carty landed at McCann, giving him an early foothold at an established agency. Today, Carty is a partner at Solar236, a strategic and creative consultancy that works with C-suite marketers and founders on business, brand and go-to-market strategy. Its diverse clients include RBC Global Wealth Management, Google and its partners, automotive retail disruptor Clutch, and Author Solutions, one of the world’s largest self-publishing companies.
For Carty, one of the most fulfilling parts of the role is working directly with senior decision-makers and seeing strategy translate into tangible results. And while the industry may look different from the one he entered after Meadows, new technologies and changing business models have only reinforced the importance of understanding the principles behind the work.
“At the start of my career email and banners were novel, now we’re talking about AI,” explains Carty. “I can tell you there have been countless marketing innovations over the last 20 years, but only some of them mattered. That’ll be true of the next 20 years. Get the fundamentals down.”
It is a message he also shares with students as a Meadows Mentor. He encourages aspiring advertising professionals to remain optimistic about the industry and believes its current changes will create opportunities for creative thinkers who understand how to solve problems and connect brands with consumers.
“The kind of human-centric creativity people bring to brands and businesses is always going to win,” he says. “Clients are always going to need great advice, strategists and creatives are always going to need to do lateral thinking.”
Through mentoring, Carty now has the opportunity to help current Meadows students develop the confidence and perspective that he found so valuable at the beginning of his own career. While the technologies, platforms and agency structures in advertising will continue to change, the lesson underlying his career remains much the same: learn the fundamentals, understand people, and be ready to apply both to whatever comes next.