Do You Think The AD Should Give These Kids a Call?

[MrMustang1965]

Sounds like SMU has a great, untapped resource for promoting its sports teams right there on The Hilltop!

from the DMN: by Jeremy Roebuck, Special Contributor to the DMN

After taking home top honors at the American Advertising Federation's national competition in 2002 and 2004, Southern Methodist University's ad team hopes to do it again.

A group of 14 students from the university's Temerlin Advertising Institute will compete against 16 other schools at the National Student Advertising Competition today in San Francisco.

Temerlin's team, Praxis, won first place in the district competition in April, and adviser Bill Ford expects a strong showing in the finals.

"They are rabid about doing this right, getting it done and doing it well," he said. "There's a running joke that the only national champs at SMU right now are coming out of the ad school."

The competition, which draws 6,500 advertising, marketing and design students from 215 schools each year, challenges teams to develop and pitch a national advertising campaign for one designated client. With limited guidance, the students research the product, conduct focus groups and plan a 20-minute presentation.

"It simulates the intensity and difficulty of designing a campaign for a professional agency," Temerlin Institute chairwoman Patricia Alvey said. "If you think about the competition as growing a job pool for the industry, it makes sense."

This year's client, Postal Vault, asked teams to develop a $17.5 million campaign touting its lockable mailboxes that protect against mail and identity theft.

The company, based in Dallas, narrowed its target audience to homeowners between 24 and 65 years old. But rather than focus on a demographic profile, SMU team members developed a "psychographic" group they call "out-of-homeowners."

"Who really needs a locking mailbox?" Mr. Ford said. "It's people that are active, taking trips and not at home for days at a time."

To target this group of affluent professionals, the SMU team designed ads for radio, airport displays and mirrors in public bathrooms.

With the slogan "It's safe in here," the team's ads emphasize the peace of mind the product can provide rather than relying on fear to motivate potential customers, team member Hillary Cliff said.

[PonyPride]

I saw the team do a dress rehearsal last week for some competition. They were sensational -- lightyears ahead of what ad students were doing when I was in school.

[jtstang]

"They are rabid about doing this right, getting it done and doing it well," he said. "There's a running joke that the only national champs at SMU right now are coming out of the ad school."

That's pretty funny, although it's not really a joke.