Tammy Haughey, recently promoted to managing partner at The Shipyard — an advertising agency with an office in San Diego — is now in her 38th year of working in the advertising agency business with much of her career in key executive roles serving travel, tourism and hospitality clients.
In her new role, she will oversee operations for the Columbus, Ohio-based company’s California offices in San Diego, Sacramento, and Newport Beach. About 100 employees will report to her.
For the past several years, she has served as The Shipyard’s executive lead overseeing Visit California, one of the agency’s largest clients. Visit California, a nonprofit promoting tourism in the state, creates marketing programs that highlight California as a premier travel destination. It works in partnership with the state’s travel industry to keep California top-of-mind for travelers around the world.
So, how have the catastrophic Los Angeles County wildfires affected Visit California and the state’s tourism industry?
“The Shipyard is supporting Visit California as they work alongside their industry partners on recovery efforts and identifying ways to bolster the region’s tourism industry during this pivotal time,” Haughey told Times of San Diego.
“Over 224,000, or one out of five California tourism-related jobs, are in Los Angeles County, highlighting just how vital the tourism industry is to the region’s economy. In Los Angeles right now, restaurants that once required months-long reservations now face empty tables, business owners are struggling to meet payroll and hotels are dealing with far too many vacant rooms.
“We are currently in development on recovery campaigns with the message that the best way to support Los Angeles and Southern California right now is to visit.”
According to Haughey, this latest challenge is just another aspect of working in advertising.
“I’ve learned that this business is not for everyone,” Haughey said. “You’re either an agency person or you’re not. It’s never slow, you have to pivot often and you never sit around and wonder what you’ll do today. There’s always a challenge because the landscape is constantly changing, and that means clients’ needs are always changing.”
After graduating from San Diego State University in 1991, she worked for a rental car company and was recruited for its management training program, where women were required to wear skirts and high-heeled shoes.
“Have you ever tried to wash a car wearing a skirt, nylons and heels? It’s not fun. That’s when I decided to pursue an advertising career,” Haughey said.
She got a job at ad agency Di Zinno Thompson as an intern earning $5 an hour. A decade later, she was named agency president, managing agency operations and overseeing the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau (ConVis) account.
Today, ConVis is called the San Diego Tourism Authority, and it serves as the city’s major destination marketing organization.
In May 2005, Di Zinno Thompson merged with NYCA, an agency that later closed its doors in 2007. Then, Haughey joined Mering, an ad agency founded by Dave Mering in 1985. In December 2020, Mering was acquired by The Shipyard.
Since then, Haughey has served as executive lead of The Shipyard’s account management practice and helped expand the agency’s experience in the tourism, travel and hospitality sector. Her career has included serving a wide range of travel, tourism, and hospitality clients, including Hilton Gaming, Destination Hotels & Resorts, SeaWorld San Diego, Paragon Steakhouse Restaurants and Visit Slo Cal, along with Visit California.
In addition to Haughey, The Shipyard also recently promoted Amanda Moul and Lauren Arnold, both with the titles of VP, account management.
“Tammy, Amanda and Lauren epitomize The Shipyard’s core values and define excellence in account leadership, serving as trusted advisors to both clients and internal teams,” said Rick Milenthal, CEO at The Shipyard.
“Their exceptional talent and unwavering dedication to our `engineering brand love’ approach is a huge part of our agency’s success, and we look forward to their future contributions in aligning bold creativity with behavioral data to build performance-driven brands.”
Haughey notes The Shipyard’s acquisition of Mering has been successful for several reasons, which is not always the case with ad agency mergers and acquisitions.
“First, we kept the executive teams of both agencies in tact, which was important for a sense of ownership,” Haughey said. “Also, the leaders have gelled well together because they brought different skill-sets to the table. Yes, there have been a few bumps and bruises along the way, but, overall, our growth has been very intentional.
“I’ve learned that if you don’t have great people, you won’t survive. It takes great people, both staff and clients, who are passionate, honest and willing to go the distance with you.”
IABC San Diego Predicts 2025 Communications Trends
The International Association of Business Communicators‘ San Diego chapter will host a webinar panel discussion featuring senior industry professionals predicting 2025 communications trends from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 28, over Zoom.
IABC San Diego said the panel members will discuss key trends shaping internal and external communications, the impact of AI on communications, external factors influencing communications and new tools for effective and efficient communications.
Panel members will include: Faryar Borhani, chief communications officer, Encore Capital Group; Maren Dougherty, executive director of marketing and communications, San Diego Convention Center Corporation; Music Watson, chief of staff, San Diego County Office of Education; Quentin Wilson, chief marketing officer, Hardcore Fitness. Moderator will be Arika Daniels, co-CEO and founding partner, Scatena Daniels Communications.
Admission to join the webinar is free for IABC members, $20 for nonmembers. The Zoom link will be provided upon registration. For more information, visit sandiego.iabc.com/.
In addition, IABC San Diego is seeking nominations for its 2025 Communicator of the Year award recognizing a local leader who demonstrates strategic excellence in the communications industry, as well as its 2025 Junior Communicator of the Year, an award for a young professional with less than five years of experience in the communication industry.
Deadline to submit a COTY nomination is Feb. 28. Winners will be announced in April. COTY awards criteria, eligibility and nomination information can be found at the IABC San Diego website.
Trump’s Order Bans Feds from Censoring Free Speech
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the federal government from taking any action to restrict Americans’ free speech rights.
The order, ending “federal censorship,” ensures “that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”
It also directs the U.S. Attorney General to “identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to censorship of protected speech.”
Trump’s action intensifies the debate over the federal government’s past issues with online content moderation.
“The Attorney General, in consultation with the heads of executive departments and agencies, shall investigate the activities of the Federal Government over the last 4 years that are inconsistent with the purposes and policies of this order and prepare a report to be submitted to the President, through the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, with recommendations for appropriate remedial actions to be taken based on the findings of the report,” Trump’s executive order said.
The order also comes after Meta, formerly known as Facebook, recently ended its practice of fact-checking posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
Earlier this month, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg claimed the Biden administration pressured the tech giant to remove disfavored content, mainly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, elections, and Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Zuckerberg said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” this month that Mr. Biden’s aides “would call up our team and, like, scream at them and curse” about Facebook content they didn’t like and would demand its removal.
Republicans have alleged that censorship ramped up and expanded during the Biden administration and that White House officials leaned on Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms to remove, censor or diminish the visibility of content that questioned the government’s pandemic protocols.
Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly in Times of San Diego.
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