John Sorgenfrei, President & Owner
John Sorgenfrei is the owner and president of TJA Advertising. John graduated from the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California and has been involved in the advertising agency business for over thirty years. John has served as a Branch Manager for several national and international advertising agencies in Southern California supervising art, traffic, production and account service teams as well as successfully managing various clients' advertising and public relations. Some of these clients included Ford Motor Company, Beckman Instruments, Litton Industries, Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, Asics Sports Wear and the U.S. Navy. John started at TJA over eighteen years ago and has been the owner and president since 2002. John has moved the agency from primarily a retail agency to one that specializes in travel and tourism, working with destination marketing accounts such as Morro Bay, Pismo Beach and Avila Beach. These marketing tactics include web site creation, branding and social media.

Kelly Hayes, Art Director
Kelly has worked in media and advertising for 15 years and has been taking pictures as far back as she can remember. Born and raised here on the Central Coast, Kelly started her career in advertising and television at Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon, serving as photographer and graphic designer on an Emmy Award-winning animated series. She has experienced all phases of broadcast television production, from writing and script supervising to graphic design, animation and editing. Kelly has also designed album covers for prominent musicians and has created collages for art exhibits, as well as for friends and family. Her focus here at TJA is art direction, design and layout.

Jan Munoz, Finance
Jan is a business college graduate. She carries a 20-year profession in accounting and business related skills. Her background knowledge of media and advertising totals more than 25 years. Jan coordinates billing to our clients and handles the payment of services to the media in order to maintain a successful “hassle free” relationship between the two. She keeps account of all invoices and script documentation. Her main objective is to make sure that the monetary transitions of the accounts are well maintained.

Phil May, Creative Director
Phil May served over a decade as the director of advertising for Walt Disney Productions and received a prime-time Emmy nomination for his production work on Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Disney" television series. Phil has over thirty years of experience creating highly stylized advertising and branding campaigns for a long list of national and international clients, including Universal/MCA, 20th Century Fox - Fox - FX Networks, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Columbia-TriStar, MGM Studios, ABC, NBC, CBS, King World Television Syndication and many more. Phil was also with Campbell-Ewald, where he served as the copywriter for Chevrolet. Over the years, Phil and his creative brought singularly unique marketing and branding techniques to the world of consumer products, entertainment and interactive media. In 1986, Phil established Associated Images, a successful entertainment marketing PR concern. At TJA, Phil has produced branding identity for many clients, including Charter Communications, Pismo Beach and Morro Bay. Phil is our chief copywriter, producer and creative director on all major projects.

Stuart Helmintoller, Web Design Director
A very early adopter of the World Wide Web, Stuart Mason Helmintoller started building web sites when making the text different colors was an exciting new development. His skills kept pace with the Internet revolution and he moved to its heartland of California in 1997. As a consultant, employee, and part owner of hi-tech startup Web Associates (now Level Studios), Stuart and his team designed and maintained the Web sites of Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies and many other corporations from 1997-2003. Stuart's Web skills and experience include project management, site design and production, information architecture, multimedia for online deployment, and if he sees the need, copywriter and editor. His unfailing eye for elegant and functional design results in Web sites that achieve and surpass the goals of the client.

Rick Turton, Web Technical, SEO and Social Media Director
Rick has been involved in travel and tourism web sites since 1994. Over time he has evolved into a one-stop shop for consulting, design and marketing of travel-related Web sites. He is among the early pioneers of Virtual Tours for the hotel industry. Over the years, Rick has had experience in developing touch screen kiosks, dynamic digital signage and early .mobi web sites. Currently, Rick is heavily involved in social media and marketing, he manages over 40 travel blogs, and his Smartphone Wine Guide will be a great asset for SLO Vintners. With applications like this, Rick is able to provide location-based services to our clients.

Lauren Clark, Social Media Director
Lauren learned her skills at Cal Poly State University with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a concentration in Marketing. She is now the social media director at TJA and her responsibilities include updating and expanding social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube for our clients. By analyzing social media insights, she is able to add content that is useful for both the client and their target market.

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