A team of UW-Madison students took third place in the American Advertising Federation's National Student Advertising Competition June 11 in Orlando, Fla.
The students were recognized for the strategic communications campaign they developed for State Farm Insurance, which provided the case study for this year's contest: create a strategy to get young adults to purchase car and renter's insurance. A group of 21 UW students developed the campaign as part of their senior-level capstone class in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication.
The group took the regional title at a competition in Minneapolis in late April, and a team of presenters competed against 18 other schools last week at the American Advertising Federation's annual conference in Orlando. The federation is the premier professional organization for the advertising and strategic communications industry, and the competition is part of its student outreach programs.
The competing teams represented the top teams from regional districts around the country, says Debra Pierce, faculty associate in the strategic communications area of the journalism school. Some 150 colleges and universities had competed at the regional level.
Chapman University of Orange, Calif., won first place in the national contest, while Texas State University-San Marcos took second place and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln took fourth place.
As part of the insurance case study, the UW students created an integrated communication campaign following four months of qualitative and quantitative research and communications strategy development.
The campaign included a media plan — complete with authentic television, radio, outdoor, print and Internet ads — and a 32-page, full-color casebook that described their recommendations. Their work was showcased in a 20-minute presentation to a panel of State Farm Insurance executives and representatives, as well as an audience of students and advertising professionals from all around the country.