national student advertising competition 2022
The National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) is put on by the American Advertising Federation. The competition hosts more than 2,000 colleges across the nation to compete for the best advertising campaign. This competition has taught me how to operate within a mini agency setting and it has also highlighted my flexibility when it comes to creative executions. I was very lucky to be in the position where I was able to experience a part of each team during the creation of our campaign. I could not have been more thankful to be a part of such a talented and amazing team. This experience has probably been my most memorable and cherished memories from college as I have learned many things along the way but also made lifelong connections and friendships through this awesome program.
The problem
This year the client was Meta Quest and their brand problem was getting the 18-24 year old college students to believe that the Meta Quest 2 an essential part of the back to school pack.
For our first semester it was purely research based while our second semester was dedicated toward creative executions. I was a part of the Secondary Research team in the first semester of the course.
My team was tasked with doing all secondary research on the brand, the target, and anything that may give us an in with our target. We analyzed 10 whitepapers and a plethora of websites and studies which gave us a clear path on how we wanted to tackle the task. From our research, we were able to build our creative brief and positioning statement that would be our guide as we created our activations and executions.
Our Plans book
Our Presentation
Our two deliverables to the judges were our plans book and our presentation video which included all of our placements and activations that we created. The copywriting team was responsible for creating and drafting the script which was a completely new experience to any other writing I have done before.
Our Video spots
6 second ad spot
15 Second Ad Spots
We created two spots to address our consumer problems. Our first ad depicts and solves out consumer problem of being stressed our while our other 15 second ad spot depicts and solves loneliness, our other main consumer problem for this target.
30 Second Ad Spots
Again, We created two spots to address our consumer problems. Our first ad depicts and solves out consumer problem of being stressed our while our other 30 second ad spot depicts and solves loneliness, our other main consumer problem for this target.
60 second ad spot
While 60 second ads are not the most popular by any means to a consumer especially Gen Z, we still felt that it was important to include this placement as it tells our story.
Social Media Posts
To reach Gen Z students the best, we are running multiple platform social media campaigns. We have strategically picked times of the year that will be most beneficial to our campaign as we will start off very heavy with the ads then taper off and slow down as our activations start, and towards the end of our campaign, we will ramp them up again to hit those final impressions.
Our Out of home ads
AR bus stop placement and bus wrap
We decided to try something new with our AR digital bus stop placement and our bus wrap. As many of our target are in larger populated areas, bus wraps made perfect sense along with AR experiences that are photo-worthy.
Subway Takeover
We wanted to be bold and revolutionary and do something new. Subway takeovers are popular in big cities and the amount of eyes you reach is actually kind of astonishing. We felt it was smart to implement a subway takeover in this campaign so we could reach more impressions on our target.
WildPosting, Wallscapes,
and Billboards
Through our wildposting, wallscapes, and billboards we are able to follow our target even when they are not on their devices throughout their days whether it be our wildposting in a crowded spot or our billboards when traveling, we created multiple touchpoints with our target throughout their day.
Our Activations
Target back-to-school Pop-up
Our first activation to start our campaign is our Target Back-To-School sensory pop-up. We will be building and implementing a pop-up where students can have a hands-on experience with Meta Quest 2. Back-To-School boxes will be sold including back to school goodies and Quest Merch and Game Credit.
TwitchCon 2022
Our next activation is our Twitchcon appearance where we will construct a booth with a noise canceling Meta Quest 2 Playroom with a Do Not Disturb light so users can go Beyond the Noise. We will be hosting 2 VR influencers, The Mystical and Virtual Reality Oasis, at our event to draw in some more eyes from our audience who may already be at the event. The Twitch community is always up to date on the latest tech, so we will be giving out 10,000 Questy NFTs which are redeemable via QR code.
De-stress event
Our last activation will be during finals season (for exams, of course). We will be hosting a De-Stress Event where students will be able to take a break from all of the noise and stress throughout the day. We will construct or host in an area where we can refurnish and redesign the area to create a low stress comfy environment for our target during one of the most stressful times of the year. There will be a handful of influencers that we are sponsoring per location to bring in more of our target. This event will have four headsets for students to try but also have other activities for everyone to try. With this event will be our final wrap up activation before ramping up our social media ad posting as we wrap up the campaign and get the final impressions in and to remind those who have already been following us throughout the campaign.
What did I learn?
Participating in the NSAC class was probably the best decision and experience of my entire college career. This has been the most meaningful and real experience that I have had at Roger Williams University. Coming into this class, I was very nervous and anxious to get started and soon learned the true importance of processes, planning, and big picture goals. This has been the biggest learning experience of my life truthfully and I could not be more thankful for the opportunity of being able to participate.
This whole experience has opened my eyes to the structure and operations of an agency especially once the second semester started. I felt myself wanting to rush to creative and rush to the second semester but looking back on it, the first semester was very helpful to brew ideas and get a very well rounded picture of what we were going to be marketing, who we are targeting, and any other factors that we were going to build into our campaign. I really enjoyed the structure of small teams and working together. With my other courses here, I have not always been in the most engaged group and it was very refreshing and inspiring to be in a room of motivated, engaged, and dedicated students that want to create great work. This class was rewarding and refreshing to be amongst the best and most dedicated students in our study and being able to make these connections that I have.
Coming into the class, I was dead set on being on the creative side of marketing and working within a graphic design role. After the class, I am much more open minded to what I can do within the advertising industry. I stepped out of my comfort zone and took on a role within the copywriting team. This was a real eye opening experience for me. I have never liked writing very much but being a part of this team has evolved me as a writer. Being able to have some members of strategy to be there revising and working with us while we wrote was very effective. After working and drafting with the copy team, I have significantly improved and noticed my eye for big picture strategy. Many of the times in the meetings, we would brainstorm collectively and we would feed and thrive off each other's ideas which was amazing to be able to be a part of a dedicated and motivated team.
I did learn a lot about myself as well throughout this whole class. I never knew how much true free time I had until this class. The second semester was exactly how you said, a full on sprint. It went so fast and looking back at the countless 12 to 14 hour meetings or the entirety of spring break filled with around 100 hours of meeting hours or the late nights in GSB. It was all worth it 100%. I would do it again if I could, as brutal and exhausting as it was. I would do it again because I had that much fun and learned that much. I learned a lot about how dedicated I am and how much I want to support and help those around me when things are not going to plan.
Being in the copywriting side of creative was definitely something new. It was great to be able to help out with the design side of things when needed. I was always happy to step up when needed like during the photoshoot or videoshoot. I was very happy to take over in the video shoot because I haven’t had a whole lot of experience with video but having Cam there to direct (on FaceTime) as I recorded the clips was super helpful and has sparked my interest within videography. Also being able to shoot most of the photography used in our ads, I felt that creatively I was able to really explore, try new things, and also shine light on old interests that I want to keep pursuing. I felt that through this class I was able to get a really well rounded view on the creative side and was able to pick up some new skills.
I could not be more thankful to have worked alongside the classmates I have and I could not be more thankful for your guidance of our class. This has been something that I will always treasure and appreciate my time within one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I have learned so much about myself, the industry of advertising, my creative abilities, and have made lifelong friends and connections through the NSAC experience. I have had so much fun in this class and am so proud of what we accomplished this year.
Placed 11th Nationally in Competiton