Meet The authors

Kevin McTigue is a clinical associate professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management teaching multiple classes for the MBA program and executive education, where he is a two-time winner of the Core Course Teaching Award. His career spans more than twenty years in teaching, consulting, brand management, and advertising. He has written or evaluated hundreds of creative briefs for everything from social media for a children’s hospital to Super Bowl ads for consumer-packaged goods.

Before his full-time appointment at Kellogg, Kevin led the strategy and consulting practice in the central region of the US for global digital agency SapientRazorfish. His work focused on driving value for clients in the digital age. He advised senior Fortune 500 clients on how to best leverage digital platforms to create value, from marketing strategies to digital transformation road maps to the creation of entirely new businesses. 

Prior to SapientRazorfish, he spent seven years in brand management with Tyson/Hillshire Brands/Sara Lee leading businesses including Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, and Hillshire Farm. Over this time he developed and launched multiple products, repositioned and developed new campaigns, and led all activities related to planning and running the business. Kevin spent significant time working in digital and traditional advertising at agencies such as marchFIRST, JWT, and BBDO. He also led brand strategy and campaign development for clients including Nestlé, Unilever, and Mars/Wrigley.

Dr. Derek Rucker holds the Sandy & Morton Goldman Professorship of Entrepreneurial Studies in Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management. Trained as a social psychologist, his academic research interests and pursuits focus broadly on consumer behavior with an emphasis on advertising, persuasion, social hierarchy, and compensatory consumption. He explores questions related to what makes for effective advertising and what motives underlie consumer consumption. He has contributed to more than 130 academic publications including leading journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Marketing, and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. His research has been covered in major media outlets such as the New York Times, Time magazine, and ABC News.

Dr. Rucker currently teaches advertising strategy at Kellogg. The course focuses on basic psychological principles to better understand how to plan and execute successful advertising. A central aspect of his course is the writing, evaluation, and revision of creative briefs. His students have gone on to do impressive brief work for brands such as Mattel, Old Spice, Unilever, and Tyson. In recognition of his commitment to teaching excellence Dr. Rucker has won both the Sidney Levy Teaching Award and the Top Elective Professor Award. In addition to his work in the classroom, Dr. Rucker is a co-instructor of the annual Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review.