J. Travis
Writer, Teacher, and Social Media Manager in Hong Kong
Dr. J. Travis' media career started in Jacksonville, Florida's radio industry at in 1989 promoting local concerts for popular performers of the time including Michael Bolton, New Kids on the Block, Smokey Robinson as well as local movie premieres for Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Dead Again, The Fisher King and others.
He moved to New York City in 1994 and worked with many popular entertainers in the film, television & music industries. Projects & clients have included: Queen Latifah, Sarah Brightman, Dixie Carter, Sisquo / Dru Hill, Kelly Price, Bette Midler, Harry Belafonte and more.
In 2000, Travis joined Rogers & Cowan shifting his focus to bridge the gap between entertainment marketing for consumers and corporate publicity. Over the next two years, Travis worked on campaigns and projects for the Grammy Awards / The Recording Academy, Altoids, Alpine Electronics, Icebreaker mints, and Publishers Clearing House.
Travis joined the New York Health & Racquet Club (NYHRC) in 2002 as the Brand Manager & Public Relations Director. The primary focus started as repositioning this 30-year-old company as a vibrant and significant health club in the saturated NYC market. As a result, NYHRC regularly is featured on The Today Show, Pix 11 Morning News, CBS, ABC, NY 1, as well as newspapers and magazines including Fitness, Shape, Self, Health, New York Times, New York Post, Daily News, as well as covered in international media such as the BBC and more. His work earned a Silver Davey Award in 2006 for advertising.
In 2012, J. earned his Masters of Science at Columbia University in Strategic Communications; and holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Communications and English.
In 2019 he completed his Ph.D. at the City University of Hong Kong focused on the role of "Play" in marketing communications.
His work has been presented at the Digital Games Research Association Taiwan in 2016 (DiGRA), the National Communications Association (NCA) conference in 2018, and the International Communications Association (ICA) conference in 2019.
In addition to publicity and marketing work, J. has written as a freelance journalist for the magazines *Surface, Envy Man & Cosmopolitan. He has also been a guest speaker at New York University's Communications Masters program discussing public relations & marketing plus the Savannah College of Art & Design in Hong Kong on LGBT community issues.