Backpack students catch up with retired Senior Lecturer Jenson to talk about how teaching relates to agency work, the importance of listening and how learning never stops.
Despite officially retiring, Mark Jenson is far from finished — he’s simply redefining what showing up for students looks like.
After 35 years in the advertising industry – working with companies such as Andersen Windows, Catholic Health Initiatives, ConAgra, General Mills, Health Partners, Kraft and Land O’Lakes — Jenson joined the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication full-time in 2018. He has also spent 15 years as an adjunct professor teaching the Strategic Communication Campaigns capstone course (JOUR 4263), while still working full-time and bringing agency experience from firms including Leo Burnett and Foote, Campbell Mithun, Martin/Williams, Foote, Cone & Belding and Preston Kelly, where he served as VP-Account Director.
At Hubbard, Jenson taught advertising strategy and creative development and brand planning, along with Campaigns. He helped standardize the Campaigns curriculum and played a key role in transitioning the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) from a club model into a formal course.
Even in retirement, Jenson continues mentoring students beyond the classroom. Through LinkedIn, he publishes a weekly roundup of advertising and marketing internships and job opportunities — both locally and nationally — along with interviewing tips, industry events, webinars and book recommendations. For him, supporting students has never been limited to office hours. It is an extension of the same commitment that defined his time at Hubbard: helping students find the right doors and encouraging them to knock.
We sat down with Jenson to reflect on his career, his philosophy on brand strategy and the advice he hopes students carry forward.
Backpack: How did you end up at Hubbard?
Mark Jenson: I started as an adjunct professor in 1991 at 31 years old. I was working at Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis back then, when there was no thing called the internet. Instead, every Friday at Campbell Mithun, we had a two-page newsletter that was delivered in our mailboxes. In the fall of 1990, there was a little blurb that asked, “Are you interested in teaching advertising courses at the University of Minnesota? Contact Al Tims by phone.” There was no other way to get in touch with somebody back then. I called, scheduled an appointment and was invited to lunch where I talked to three people for an hour and a half at the Campus Club. And later that day I was offered an adjunct position to teach the Campaigns course.
B: How did mentoring students differ from leading teams in an agency setting — and how were those roles similar?
MJ: There's a lot of similarities. At the end of the day, leading is a lot like teaching. You do a lot of listening. To me, the most important thing a leader or a teacher can do is listen. That's just in general with life. You've got to listen, listen and listen. We have two ears. There's a reason we have two ears and one mouth. That means we should be listening twice as much.
Empathy is huge. In the agency world, you have to understand what's going on with somebody's life. You have to be adaptable and flexible to things. But you still have to lead and things have to get accomplished. I often had working parents with me and they had challenges of balancing work and family life. They had to get home for daycare and attend events. We developed a way that they would still always get their work done but it wouldn't have to be specifically within the working hours of that day. I think that's the hardest challenge. Having children at home, balancing a career, those are challenging things. As a leader, you needed to have that empathy to understand their situation. It cannot mirror your situation. Everybody is different.
That's the similarity when it comes to students. They all have a lot going on in their lives, and as a teacher, you have to be flexible while treating everybody equally. If a student needs extra time for an assignment, I'd be willing to work with them. Life happens — family emergencies, loss, other challenges — and you have to be flexible. To me, that was something that I took from professional life into the student life. You still have to have high work standards. You can't just let somebody skate by, but you have to work with them. That's the listening part; having empathy is so, so important. You're a leader. Whether you're leading a team or leading a class, you're still leading things. Being kind to people is never going to hurt you, and I certainly learned from bosses who weren't kind. It's like you learn as much sometimes from people that do things you don't like than the ones that you like.
B: What do you hope students and alumni remember about your approach to teaching and brand strategy?
MJ: That’s a good question. I recently went through my last class lectures, and one quote that I often used is from Aristotle: “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” That really captures how I wanted to teach. Make sure that people understand it’s not just about memorization or rational thinking. It’s learning to think, learning to feel, learning to collaborate and work with other people.
I have one story that I told in every class because it impacted me greatly early in my life. I was 22 years old and had just graduated with a master’s degree, working as an Assistant Account Executive at Campbell Mithun. I worked with a 78-year-old administrative assistant named Mildred Norling. Every day at five o’clock sharp, Mildred would pack up and put the cover on her IBM Selectric typewriter. She was a very serious person. Direct and straightforward.
One day I asked, “Mildred, what are you doing tonight?” She had this serious look and said, “Mark, my husband and I are going over to the University of Minnesota.” I assumed maybe they were going to a game or concert. I asked what they were doing there. She answered, “We’re taking a philosophy class.”
And I had a shocked look on my face — and I uttered what she was taking a class for. She looked at me and said, “Mark, you never stop learning.” Those words stuck with me my entire life.
I always told that story in class because it's true — you never stop learning. You might be graduating with a degree in a few months from a world-class university, but you can’t stop learning in your personal and professional lives.
B: Looking back, what are you most proud of from your time at the Hubbard School?
MJ: A part of it was Ad Club and NSAC and the classroom — creating a positive learning environment and talking about the importance of treating each other fairly. Whether it was a class of 20 or 60, it was so important for students to get to know each other. I really tried to make classrooms interactive, keeping students up to date on internships, jobs and current events in advertising. I used PPT slides because I knew I had certain course elements I had to get across, but then we would fill the rest in with discussion and exercises.
My first class I taught in 2018 compared to what I taught in 2024 was much improved because my students kept improving it. You watched what worked and connected with students each semester and you enhanced the class for the next semester. When I first started, we had closed-book tests in class, but then the pandemic hit, and I thought, “Throw that one out the window.” I switched to take-home quizzes and didn’t restrict students from using the book because I wanted students to actually learn. Students still could learn without memorization, and that was a big change to me — one that probably wouldn’t have hit without the pandemic. Teaching on Zoom also taught me a lot; you missed the student interaction, but there was a lot of good learning on how you could still teach effectively.
I also brought in a lot of guest speakers. I have really good relationships in the professional community, and I would always reach out to find new people. Bringing them in was so important to the students, and I feel we're so blessed to be in the Twin Cities that most speakers could just hop on the light rail and come over. I often thought about, if I was teaching in Iowa City, who would I get? Many professors around the country, like my friends at Michigan State University or Syracuse University, are at places not easy to get to, so they have to do a lot of FaceTime and Zoom with speakers. I brought several speakers every semester that I did not know before I started teaching. I was using their textbooks, so I reached out to them. I have still to this day never met Chris Kocek or Howard Ibach, but I could send them an email right now and I'll get a response instantly, because we've built great relationships together. I believe that four of the guest speakers I brought in have gone on to become adjuncts in campaigns classes, and to me, that’s part of my legacy — helping people come in and teach.
B: What is your Hubbard Hot take?
MJ: I have two.
First: paper books are better than e-books. I’m old school. I go to our local library all the time and last year I read over 40 books — and when you’re retired, you can read 40 books. I just think paper books are just so important, I just can’t look at a screen all day.
The second one is one that you suggested and I am 100% certain that pineapple belongs on pizza. Our family eats Hawaiian pizza. It’s our favorite. How can someone not like pineapple on a pizza? It’s sweet!
B: What final advice would you leave students and alumni?
MJ: I have no special talents. I’m passionately curious about all things. One thing that I did every night before my kids went to bed, I gave them three things to do every day: be creative, be competitive and be curious, and if you can do those things in life, you’re going to have a terrific life.
Another one — if you haven’t heard it, watch Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford University on YouTube. His quote was, “You’ve got to find what you love to do,” and that is so important. So many people go through life just having a job, but it’s critical to find something that you love. I loved what I did. I love teaching and advertising, and that is just so important. So, do that, find something that you love to do.
To learn more about Mark and keep up with his weekly roundups, visit his LinkedIn profile.
By Ashaar Ali, Backpack student