Inspiring Creativity

Alumna Phoebe Moll ’00 finds inspiration in global marketing career

By Sissi Aguila ’99, MA ’08

Sitting at a café, Phoebe Moll ’00 sketches the 17th-century townhouses that line the Nyhavn canal in Copenhagen, Denmark. With watercolors, she adds the bright hues that characterize them. This storybook scene is a dream come true for Moll who has been living and working in Düsseldorf, Germany, for the past year-and-a-half as vice president and Global Group account director at BBDO Worldwide, an international advertising agency.

Moll was given the opportunity to transfer to Europe while working at BBDO’s headquarters in New York. She first traveled abroad to Italy as part of the Honors College curriculum at FIU during her senior year in 2000.

“I just loved it. It really cemented my interest in working and traveling overseas,” explained Moll, a lifetime Alumni Association member and Torch Award recipient.

In her current position in Düsseldorf, the economic center of Germany, Moll handles the Proctor & Gamble Braun Beauty account. She has also worked on accounts for Oral-B, Bayer, Gillette and Best Buy. Her day is packed with creative planning meetings for ads and commercials.

“This job is harder than I imagined,” she said. “But, it is even more rewarding than I could have hoped for.”

Moll, who in 2008 received a Torch Award for alumni achievement, loves finishing a campaign and seeing it on air, in magazines, online and talked about by consumers around the world.

“Advertizing is an art,” Moll said. “It’s the brilliant combination of the three things I loved the most while studying: design, business and persuasive writing.”

It is not rare for Moll to grab her passport and suitcase mid-afternoon to fly to Geneva and meet new clients that evening. But it’s not all work for Moll. Her prime location has allowed her the opportunity to visit Istanbul, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam and, for her birthday, Valencia, Spain.

“I often bring my watercolor pencils with me on trips to relax and help me capture the beautiful places I discover,” she said.

Although Moll misses her family and friends back in the States, she has reconnected with old friends that have made Germany feel like home. While living in Panther Hall at FIU, Moll became close friends with Brazilian exchange students. One of them now lives in Paris and Moll has been able to visit her twice while on business trips in France. She’s also made new international friends. For Thanksgiving, Moll invited to dinner a TV production assistant from Amsterdam who served as a guide and translator during two TV shoots she worked on in Rio de Janeiro in 2004.

Moll feels that one of the biggest social challenges she has faced is not knowing the German language. Having grown up in Florida, she studied Spanish in school.

Still, she has formed close friendships with coworkers. “I like to invite friends over for impromptu dinners to test out my new recipes on them,” she said.

On weekends, Moll shops at the farmers’ market, where they sell fresh cut flowers from Holland at a great price, fresh breads, vegetables and fruits. “Germans are great bakers!” she adds.

In the month of December, many of the towns in Germany have Christmas markets in the evening and on the weekends. Last year, Moll joined in on the fun winding the rows of booths in search of handmade ornaments, holiday treats and wooden toys. “It is so festive and colorful.”

Moll is on board with BBDO Germany until June 2010. Not ready for her European adventure to end, she hopes to stay a bit longer.