About Me

My name is Masashi Fukada! I have an M.S. in Advertising from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.A. in Media from Indiana University-Bloomington. I bring a blend of research, creative, and strategy skills that allows me to both uncover insights and communicate them effectively. I aim to provide companies and agencies high-quality, actionable insights, whoever the client or whatever the project.

Outside of my professional goals, the hobbies that fill my free time include cooking, watching sports (Go Hoosiers!), playing chess, and spending time with my wife, Lucy. I am an avid musician, having played instruments most of my life. Most recently, I’ve started learning classical guitar, but my undergraduate years were spent playing saxophone as a part of Indiana University’s Marching Hundred.

Recent Timeline

May 2024: Graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an M.S. in Advertising!

April 2024: Defended and submitted my Master’s thesis to the Grad College at Illinois, qualifying me to graduate.

March 2024: Presented with my research team at the American Academy of Advertising (AAA) 2024 annual conference in Portland, OR our paper, “Hey, You Put Ads in My Netflix: How Audiences Negotiate the Changing Streaming Video Landscape.”

January 2024: Began conducting my Master’s thesis research online experiment through Amazon MTurk and Qualtrics.

Began a new teaching assistant position for the class ADV 284: Consumer Insights.

October 2023: Concluded my market research internship at Precision Research Inc.

August 2023: Starting my last year of grad school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Began a new teaching assistant position for the class ADV 250: Advertising and Brand Strategy.

July 2023: Concluded my Brand Strategy & Design internship for the Charles H. Sandage department of advertising, helping publicly launch the new Illinois M.S. in Advertising website.

June 2023: Won 1st place prize in the Earl M. Cummings Advertising Education Award from the University of Illinois, Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising for my research proposal, “The Interpersonal Processing of Brand Anthropomorphism using the Elaboration Likelihood Model.”