On April 23rd, our National Student Advertising Competition team impressed the judges and the competition and placed in the top three for the first time in UCI competition history. Beating out USC, UNLV, CSUN, CSUF, and Mt. St. Mary’s was overall a huge win, and we were only bested by Chapman and UCLA, both of whom deserved their awards as well.

After a long, eye-opening process that began in September and culminated in the completion of a 34-page plans book and a 20 minute presentation to a panel of advertising professionals, our team proved that even a team who comes from a research-based school, out of no communications majors or department, and without the aid of a large budget or campus resources, can accomplish such a large challenge.

In the coming years, it is our goal to demonstrate the resolve of UCI students and produce award winning campaigns for NSAC, as well as other clients. We want to show that by fostering this creative community at UCI, students will stand out above other schools in pursuing their passions.

Each year, teams are given a case study that describes, in detail, the market position that the client is in. This year, the client was State Farm, and the target audience was Independent Young Adults (18-25). Our campaign highlighted these young adults’ need for independence, while positioning State Farm as a resource that young adults can always count on. We accomplished this through the positioning message “I am Independent, but I’m not Alone”. We then translated this into all of our creative executions, our online promotions through Facebook, and our media placements.

In the coming weeks, our new NSAC team will be coming together to prepare for next year. The client is JCPenney!

Below, we’ve attached an interactive copy of the plans book from this year, as well as our TV Ad and Print Ads.

AAF’s National Student Advertising Competition is the premier college advertising competition. It provides more than 3,000 college students with real-world experience by requiring a strategic advertising/marketing/media campaign for a corporate sponsor. ¬†Schools from each district are selected to present their campaigns to a panel of industry executives at the AAF National Conference.

There is no better way to learn about the advertising campaign process than by actually developing a campaign for a real client.

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