Twenty-five student members of the University of Nevada, Reno Integrated Marketing Communications Competition team have plenty to be proud of after winning their district’s National Student Advertising Competition in San Jose, Calif. on April 19.The competition, sponsored by the American Advertising Federation, is divided into 15 districts, each with teams representing from one to five states. The University competed in district 14, which was comprised of California State University, Fresno; San Jose State University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco, and the University of Nevada, Reno.
This year, Glidden paint was the corporate client and provided schools with a unique challenge. Students had to research the product and its competition, identify potential problems and develop an integrated marketing communications campaign for the client. Each student team then had to “pitch” its campaign to a panel of judges. Glidden had previously released desired campaign objectives in its selected target markets, a detailed case study of its product history as well as an outline of their current advertising history to students to prepare for the competition.
“Students began preparing last fall when they conducted extensive research,” Bob Felten, assistant professor of advertising and public relations and the team’s adviser, said. “Each member of the team contributed to our campaign. I am very proud of the innovative marketing approach they took, the strategic, integrated plan they developed and the exceptional multimedia campaign created.”
Through the past 14 years, the University’s teams have won seven regional titles, placed among the top ten in the national competition three times and were the national champions in 2003.
Students from both the University Reynolds School of Journalism and College of Business who participated in the competition are thrilled their hard work was recognized with a first place win at the district level. Stephany Kirby is a senior studying public relations and one of the students who competed.
“We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this competition and always kept Bob’s motto, ‘Good, is not good enough’ in mind,” Kirby said. “It was awesome that the team was able to share a common victory, and I couldn’t be more proud to share that victory with a group of such amazing people.”
The winning district teams and one “wild card” will all head to Phoenix, Ariz. June 5 through 8 to compete on the national level at the AAF ADmerica Conference.
