National Student Advertising Competition - 2024
The National Student Advertising Competition is a national event put on by the American Advertising Federation. At my school, I was a part of a team of 30 that created a mock campaign for Tide that was then presented to a panel of judges. Our presentation was supported by a Plansbook that contained outlined each facet of our campaign.
The Ask:
In order to win at our competition, we needed a robust media plan that backed our campaign and ensured that our team was in the best position possible to succeed.
What I Did:
For this campaign, I was a member of the media team. Here, my efforts could be summed up in one phrase: Find an Insight, Execute a Vision.
The first of these insights came when choosing our media locations. While we did not end up running with my suggestion, I pushed heavily for our campaign to operate out of Raleigh, North Carolina. Why? Did you know that Raleigh has the highest rate of in-home laundry machines per capita? That, coupled with Raleigh serving as a growing hub for my campaign’s target demographic, led me to the conclusion that young millennials and older Gen Z in Raleigh would be particularly interested in what Tide has to say.
Insights like these were riddled throughout the team’s campaign. Effective media placement inherently has to involve high level thinking, lest we throw money at things that are not going to drive conversions.
My team’s work was eventually displayed in three pages of our plansbook. For this, I helped with copywriting for our KPI and strategy slides.
What I Learned:
There are insights everywhere for people with eyes to see. The simple fact that Raleigh has a weird obsession with in-unit laundry machines made them an appealing city to me. Facts like this are all around us!
Everything is an art form. I had never done any form of media planning before this campaign, and I quickly learned to fall in love with it. Every decision is backed up with sound reasoning and motivations, just like every shot in an ad.
Oh, and I got to act a little! Here’s the video: