The University advertising team is headed for Caesar’s Palace.
The team placed first in the American Advertising Federation National Student Advertising Competition held April 14-16 at the Hilton hotel in downtown Portland. The win sends the team to the national competition in Las Vegas on June 20.
The panel of five judges weren’t the only people impressed with the team’s ad campaign. The 14-member team, composed of students from the advanced advertising campaign class, spent six months researching their campaign for The New York Times.
The team, named “upstream,” competed against eight schools from the area, including Washington State and Portland State University.
Each team had to create a fictional ad campaign for the Times based on real information about the people who read the paper. The Times instructed the teams to target 18- to 24-year-olds who normally wouldn’t read the paper.
To prepare, the University’s team surveyed real people in the target market to see how they think and use the newspaper.
“This is the best way for an ad major to understand what it is like to put together a real campaign,” senior journalism major Whitney Williamson said.
By the April 4 deadline, the team had produced a final campaign and slogan: “The New York Times provides the reader with intellectual ammunition.”
The campaign worked so well that Guy Tasaka, regional manager for the Times will come talk with the team Thursday. If the meeting goes well, the ad campaign could be implemented in Eugene papers as a test market, and from there to other papers and cities.
Williamson said experience on the ad team will help her get a job out of college where she will be taken seriously. She added that the support and suggestions from advertising advisers, faculty and ASUO members helped them polish their presentation.
Visiting Associate Professor David Koranda from the School of Journalism and Communication advised the team as the campaign was compiled and prepared for competition.
Nelson said Koranda helped the team figure out how to make decisions on their own.
“He was a leader in terms of morals and counseling,” Williamson said.
Koranda said it was his responsibility to help the team learn how to ask themselves what they needed to do to create a successful campaign.
“It has been great for me to work with these clowns,” Koranda said in a joking manner.
Ben Martin, a senior electronic media journalism major, also helped behind the scenes.
“He was an integral part of the success of the creative part of the campaign,” Williamson said.
The ad team members said they are hoping to bring home the trophy and beat last year’s winner, UCLA, at the national level.