Jennifer Tasker’s family is in the Waunakee area, but she has traveled and lived in some far-flung places.
She gave her classification talk at the Jan. 21 Waunakee Rotary meeting, speaking about her career track and her roots.
As a young woman, Jennifer helped von Rutenberg Ventures launch Betty Lou Cruses, and then went to China as a foreign student where she landed an internship with an advertising firm.
There, she became the account manager for Nabisco and began working full time on campaigns for products like Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies, eventually convincing Chinese people that Oreos aren’t burnt; they’re delicious chocolate.
She met her husband Rick on a project for an oil and gas company he worked for. The couple moved to Perth, Australia, where Jennifer opened the first Glory Jeans store and then got back into advertising and landed World Vision Australia.
Jennifer then focused on family; the couple’s two children are 13 and 15. When the kids were young, they moved around a lot – from Perth, to California, to Texas and then back to Perth. But she wanted to be home with them, and so she put her skills to work volunteering at her their schools.
Some years later, the couple decided they needed a change. Her husband had his green card, and when the kids were in sixth and eighth grade, they moved to the United States and had to choose between Wisconsin and Texas.
They now live in Waunakee where her sister and mother are.
Jennifer began her own advertising agency, Opportunas. She had been both a client and employee and she knew the wrong and right ways to run an agency.
Opportunas was launched just as the pandemic was starting. She did some outreach within the agency world. One of her new clients was the Village of Waunakee, Chamber of Commerce and Minuteman Press. Together they supported local businesses with the Open for Business Campaign.
Jennifer hired the company’s first employee, Tiffany Riek, in December to be the creative force. She said Opportunas comes from a Latin word meaning strategic point of advantage.
Opportunas now has much larger accounts such as Walt Disney, Nabisco and Walt Disney World.
“I wanted us to work differently from other agencies,” she said. The company operates under the tenets of Quality, Integrity and Tenacity. Treating employees and clients kindly is important, and Jennifer interprets “no” as just a challenge, she said.
Opportunas operates using a port process. It starts with Discovery, then Strategy, Design and Build, Implement and Evaluate; clients can jump on at any port.
“I can work with any-sized client and any-sized budget, unlike other agencies,” she said.
Her work with the Chamber and the village has continued with other campaigns, and now Opportunas will promote the village’s sesquicentennial celebration.
“We are in the business of delivering creative solutions to our clients that leads them to higher sales and a better future,” she said.
Other News: Ray Statz seems to have left a wrench at the park while taking down the lights. If anyone picked up and has it, he’s the one to return it to.
Birthdays: Jan. 26, Joseph Baer; Jan. 26, Mark McFarland; Jan. 27, Pat Durden.
Anniversaries: None
