Ad Team brings home 2nd win
Last month the SMU Advertising Team, PRAXIS, won first place inthe annual American Advertising Federation 2004 National StudentAdvertising Competition, defeating 210 college universitiesnationwide. In only five short years of participation, the team of18 has taken first place for the second time.
Candidates for the team apply in the fall. Professor PeterNoble, the team’s faculty advisor, along with other facultymembers chooses his team for the following year. Typically the teamconsists of about 15 seniors and requires 400-500 hours of work.Each member is designated to one of four groups: Executive,Management, Creative, and Media.
Charles Black, a senior on the Management Track, was glad tohave the experience under his belt, but admitted he would not wantto do it for another year.
“You get burned out. You wouldn’t have any friendsanymore,” said Black. He and all the other members were inthe Ad Team room everyday after class until midnight and on theweekends from 8 a.m. to midnight.
Black also said he was glad to be able to put such a highaccomplishment on his resume. Even with an internship from lastsummer, he was not receiving any job interviews. A couple daysafter winning the competition, he had obtained two.
“It’s definitely worth it. It teaches you about timemanagement,” said Black.
Lucy Schmidt, a senior on the Media side of the team, agreedwith Black’s statement of wanting to quit at times but saidit was all definitely worthwhile.
“I got offers in New York and Minneapolis, but I have alease,” said Schmidt, “They came up to me right afterwe won at Nationals.”
Every year the team is given a case study that provides generalinformation, such as who the campaign is for, what they desire, anda target market. This year the project was sponsored by VISITFLORIDA and revolved around hotels and room nights.
Their main goal was to get visitors to travel to Florida, stayin hotels and rent cars as opposed to staying with friends. Theirtarget market included people ages 30-54 whose average householdincome was over $50,000. One of their biggest key words,”invest,” applied relationships and Florida as a whole.Their campaign, “This is Florida,” consisted of a planbook, a 20-minute presentation and $7 million.
Dr. Patricia Alvey, chair of the Temerlin Advertising Institute,described the advertising world as a place for eager, energetic andtalented young people.
“You have an opportunity to be in an interestinglycreative industry, even the business side is very creative,”said Alvey.
Alvey also said that students are called upon to know quite abit of information because the industry is always changing, howeverthey also learn from the experience.
“It’s demanding and far from easy, but it’s somuch fun,” said Alvey.
She encourages students to choose a career that makes themhappy, which is exactly what her team members have done.
Ben Lipsett, the president of the team, said that PRAXIS was theclosest ad agency experience that they could ever get while inschool. He got to see how an agency operates in addition to itsdifferent components.
“If you take part in Ad Team and you’re a creativeminded person, you’ll probably be the most sought afterperson after college,” said Lipsett.
All of the students agreed that the faculty was a tremendouspart of their success.
Alexis Bourn, a junior on the Creative Track, described asuperstitious tradition that the team takes part in every year.
“Professor Goodnight hauls all of our equipment for us. Weload everything into his Explorer,” said Bourn, “and hedrives to wherever the competition is.”
Two years ago, the competition was held in Miami.
The entire faculty was present at the national competition. Forthe regional one, most of them drove up to Oklahoma and back thatnight.
Lipsett credits their chairwoman for the growth of thedepartment.
“Because of Dr. Alvey, major agencies are looking at usnow,” said Lipsett, “She has been a huge part of whatmakes this program successful.”
The team received $3,500 for first place. Members a part of thepresenting team also got an all-expense paid trip to Orlando andpasses to Walt Disney World and other major attractions.
PRAXIS members included: Charles Black, Lindsey Black, AlexisBourn, Chelsea Cannell, Lisa Coe, Peggy Covert, Nikki Duong, KatieGentzler, Emily Griffith, Kenni Jones, Jordan Kretchmer, BenLipsett, Meredith McKee, Olivia Niwagaba, Beth Padnuk, PrestonPhillips, Lucy Schmidt, and Alicia Weaver.
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