The experiential piece of a Metro State degree in marketing is what gives the department its competitive edge. “It’s our bread and butter,” says Chair Clay Daughtrey.

Associate Professor and Chair of Marketing Clay Daughtrey believes that his department is the best, and most innovative, marketing department in the state. And he’s set a goal of getting others to recognize this.

“We have a great group of faculty members,” Daughtrey says. “They’re all involved, and they have so many creative, wide-ranging ideas. Things are really moving with this department.”

They’re moving, as Daughtrey points out, toward President Jordan’s goal of preeminence. In fact, many current Marketing department projects dovetail with broader initiatives established by Jordan.

These include Brand Spankin’ New, the student-run e-commerce site jointly operated with the Industrial Design department, which aligns with the College’s entrepreneurship initiative; a Russian business project to pursue faculty exchanges with counterparts in Russian colleges, which aligns with the globalization initiative; and the development of a multicultural marketing curriculum, minor and possibly a multicultural institute or center, which aligns with the diversity and HSI initiatives.

Marketing is in Daughtrey’s blood. With a dad and a brother in marketing and sales, it was a natural choice to get his undergraduate degree in marketing. A champion swimmer in high school and college, Daughtrey’s area of emphasis in sports marketing is another logical fit.

A few years after college, while working as a swim coach and organizing national swimming championships, Daughtrey set a goal of working in marketing with the1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga. “I decided to get my master’s while I was at it,” he says, and enrolled in Georgia Southern University, where he earned his master’s in sport management in 1994. He parlayed his work experience and degree into more marketing jobs with the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus, Disney on Ice and NCAA wrestling.

Daughtrey didn’t land that Olympics job while in Georgia, but what he discovered would shape his future: “I realized as a graduate teaching assistant that I loved to teach.”

He found a program at the University of Northern Colorado where he could focus on event and sports marketing, and enrolled for his doctorate. After a semester in Greeley, the opportunity arose for him to work for the Olympics after all. “A Georgia classmate was marketing tickets to the Olympics yachting event, and asked me to join him.” Daughtrey interrupted his studies for a semester to sell tickets to the yachting competition, and then returned to Greeley to finish his Ph.D. in 1998.

Since arriving at Metro State in 2000, Daughtrey has become known for the real-world class projects he has led, including student marketing projects with the Colorado Rapids and the Broncos. “There are all these professional sports teams right across the street,” he says, “so I started approaching them with my ideas.”

Daughtrey says several marketing alumni are currently working for sports teams and other local companies. “They’re contacting us now when they have openings, either for projects, internships or full-time positions for our graduates. These former students know that the quality of the Metro State marketing graduate’s preparation is high, and they’re a tremendous resource.”

All of which contributes to what Daughtrey considers key to Metro State’s competitive edge in marketing education: “The experiential piece. It’s our bread and butter,” he says.

Daughtrey credits his fellow faculty members with developing innovative real-world programs for students. “Nancy Frontczak, for example, is a pioneer in experiential ed,” he says. “She’s been a great mentor for me.”

And, he says, it’s becoming known that the Metro State Marketing department has a capability of providing useful marketing services to local organizations and companies. So much so that the department organized “Metro State Marketing: Open for Business” this year to funnel requests for companies requesting marketing assistance. Starting in the fall semester, the department will undertake projects with a local Latina-owned antique store and the Institute for Women’s Studies and Services. Any payment that comes from these projects, Daughtrey says, will go toward scholarships for marketing majors.

Outside of teaching, leading student projects, advising students and managing the department that houses about 650 majors, Daughtrey spends all his free time with his young family: a wife and three kids under the age of six. “I don’t go to too many sports events these days,” he says, “except my kids’ soccer games.”