Jaclyn Figg
Staff Writer
We all know that people these days seek highs from unnatural substances. However, these highs may truly be unwarranted. Often times, life accomplishments treat us with a much better outcome, both now as well as in the future.
“We were just flying,” said Amanda Bennett a senior Communication, Media and Persuasion (CMP) student. “It was almost like an out-of-body experience, we were on a high after we performed for hours. I’ve never experienced anything like the energy and the feeling of that performance in my life.”
The Advertising Club, also known as Agency 501, recently won the National Student Advertising Competition for the Northwest district XI.
With just over a semester to prepare, the Ad Club was at a bit of a disadvantage; other schools in the Northwest had a full year of class whereas at ISU it was only one semester.
“This is huge for us, for the students, this will be a massively important and significant item on their resumes,” said Jim DiSanza, chair of the CMP department. “For some of them, this will be the difference between getting their dream job.”
With competition all across the board, Snapple has paid for schools across the nation to work on new advertising campaigns.
“Snap Your Cap Change Your Flavor,” is the slogan this year’s Ad Club decided to run with, and perhaps it will be the next tagline sensation in terms of commercial slogans.
“They have access to all of the ideas, all of the campaigns, they can utilize any of them,” said Rick Magnuson, an adjunct professor and local advertising professional. “If there’s something they really like they will absolutely utilize it in their real-world advertising.”
Martine Robinson Beachboard, associate professor of advertising had her intro to advertising class and advertising strategy and copywriting class start on some research for the Snapple client during the fall 2015 semester.
Special projects in advertising class, CMP 4460, completed the bulk of the work during the spring semester.
“The great thing about this class is that it offers such a realistic advertising agency experience,” Beachboard said. “The students form an agency and work as a team, assuming traditional agency roles.”
Starting out with a multitude of research, the ad club then split into different teams: the creative team, the account executives, the research team, media planners, plans book designers and social media experts.
After working out each part, the club came together as a group and blended the material, making sure the voice of everything coincided.
“This team has done, I think the best job I’ve seen, of incorporating all the emphasis areas we have in the department into what was really an incredible presentation,” DiSanza said.
Daniel Wiesneth, a senior majoring in graphic design, unified each group’s write-ups into the plans book.
According to Beachboard, although blessed with increasingly capable students in past years, Wiesneth’s work this year was exceptional.
A due date of March 25 for submitting the plans book kept many students busy over spring break.
“You could combine all the hours that I’ve spent so far this whole school year for all my other classes and add them up and it’s not as much as we’ve put into this particular project,” Bennett said.
Allowed only a short breath after submitting the plans book, the group moved right into planning for the oral presentation.
After the club had the script perfected, the five members of the presentation team had 10 days to memorize it.
“I was so scared. I thought, ‘there’s no way I can do this in 10 days,’” said Alison Duffin, a public relations major. “We spent probably three hours every night. It was amazing.”
After a successful performance, Chance Bennett, president of the advertising club, won Best Male Presenter and Travis Williams, and his team’s, “confessional” commercial won Best Ad on any Medium.
“They died. The whole audience just roared in laughter after the commercial played,” Duffin said.
There are 14 districts in the country with multiple teams that compete against each other, encompassing all 50 states.
“That’s why clients really vie for the chance to be the national client; it’s a pretty coveted spot because as you can imagine you have access to ideas from most of the most talented students from all over the country,” Magnuson said. “It’s like the largest think tank you could possibly have.”
Next, the club will go through an interview process. If they make it past that, it’s on to nationals in Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
“This was a great class as we had 17 students, one of the biggest ever,” Magnuson said. “The program’s really grown, it’s really evolved, and our win this year is a great representation of that.”
This is the club’s first time placing above fourth at the district competition.
