With a week-long trip to China and a chance to participate in The One Club advertising competition in Shanghai, four University students immersed themselves into a completely unfamiliar culture and returned with a newfound appreciation for working in a foreign country, advertising professor Deborah Morrison said.
Andy Liu, Megan Nuttall, Rachel Hom and Max Radi, all students in the School of Journalism and Communication, learned how to work with students of different backgrounds and embraced their efforts to collaborate as a team.
The One Club is a “non-profit organization for the recognition and promotion of excellence in advertising”, according to its Web site. The organization hosted a week-long conference Nov. 15 through Nov. 22 at Fudan University in Shanghai. Students from all over China participated, some traveling as far as 20 hours, journalism school Dean Tim Gleason said.
The One Club works with advertising professionals from around the world to help students and other professionals in the field make top quality advertisements rich with creativity. The organization’s main offices are located in New York City and Beijing.
Morrison, who sits on The One Club’s Board of Directors, said members in New York had often encouraged her to attend the annual student competition in China, and though she’s judged the contest online, she had never attended firsthand before. When members of The One Club once again sought her expertise in the field and invited her to this year’s conference, Morrison decided to seize the opportunity.
“I thought, ‘If I’m going, by george, I’m bringing students with me,’” Morrison said.
The University’s four student attendees were the only American students at the conference of 500 students and young advertising professionals, Morrison said.
University senior Radi, one of the students Morrison selected, said the trip made him more comfortable with the idea of traveling overseas for business.
“I don’t think I would have ever gotten the chance to go (otherwise),” Radi said.
Throughout the week, Radi and his companions worked with four Chinese advertising students on a creative brief for the competition. Though they did not originally intend to participate in the competition, Radi and the others quickly grew excited by the opportunity to challenge themselves and develop an advertising concept that would appeal to Chinese consumers.
But as with any cross-cultural collaboration, the experience left both groups struggling to understand one another. Radi emphasized the difficulty in translating not only language and idioms but broader concepts and ideas.
For University junior Hom, the opportunity reaffirmed her commitment to the career. She said creating an entire campaign in three days – as opposed to the 10 weeks University students typically spend in classes here – proved to be more difficult than she could have imagined, but the learning experience left her feeling productive and grateful for the opportunity.
Liu, an international student from Beijing, said the trip was especially significant because of his Chinese roots. He even met with his parents in Shanghai and toured the city with the group during the first few days.
Because he is bilingual in English and Chinese, Liu spent a majority of the time translating for both groups of students as they worked on the project.
“At one point Max asked me, “What do you think?’ while we were all working,” Liu said. “And I had no idea. It was hard to conceptualize and translate at the same time. But I learned so much just from this one single trip that I could not have learned from any kind of class.”
Part of the conference included several workshops and courses for aspiring advertisers looking to enhance their skills. Morrison taught a course on creative process and how to make advertising more meaningful and elaborate with clear messages and creative tactics.
“The class helped to bridge these interesting cultures by looking at the same ideas with very different approaches,” Morrison said. “The big thing we discussed was how to make advertising. How do you get beyond ‘buying this car will make me sexy’? It’s by getting into things that are compelling, informative and authentic.”
Gleason joined the students to support the group in ambitious endeavors overseas. He has traveled to Asia three times in the last year and a half, and said he has continued to be amazed by the high levels of energy, drive and focus among students in various international communication conferences.
The conference was the first time the University’s journalism program has sent students to China as part of an academic collaboration program, and Gleason hopes this will not be the last time.
“We live in an increasingly international world,” Gleason said. “On that individual level, for each student to be working, negotiating through cultural barriers is just invaluable.”
Morrison agreed, and hopes to provide similar international experiences in the future to give University students firsthand exposure to collaboration techniques and international teamwork.
“The big thing is these four phenomenal students were just amazing ambassadors for the University,” Morrison said. “I was very proud.”
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