CSU, Chico News

DMarketing students from the College of Business, California State University, Chico placed second in the American Advertising Federation-National Student Advertising Competition (AAF-NSAC) held in San Francisco on April 21. Chico finished between the University of Nevada-Reno, which placed first, and UC Berkeley, which placed third.

The yearlong collegiate competition, which involved two phases, revolved around requests from Postal Vault Corporation, an actual company dedicated to preventing mail identity theft through their Postal Vault mailbox products. Postal Vault wanted each university to address two target markets: the primary demographic market covering 25-65-year-old consumers, and the secondary market relating to homebuilders, along with home and trade associations.

Each university was required to submit a 32-page advertising campaign booklet that (1) demonstrated a need for secure mailboxes; (2) established Postal Vault as the industry leader for secure mailboxes; (3) drove consumers to the Postal Vault Web site; (4) convinced homebuilders to install Postal Vault units in their housing tracts; and (5) persuaded retailers to stock Postal Vault mailboxes.

In the process, the Chico team also developed a new logo and slogan for Postal Vault. A panel of five major advertising agency personnel judged the 32-page booklet in the weeks prior to the actual presentation phase of the overall competition.

At the competition on April 21, each team made a 20-minute presentation to the same five judges. The 20-minute computer-generated presentation supported the conclusions reached in the advertising plans booklet and further elaborated key areas of the overall campaign relating to creative strategy; general presentation quality; media strategy and execution; research, positioning and targeting; and overall integration of communications.

The judges included executives from National Account Services, Bailey Lauerman (Lexington, Kentucky); the Indianapolis Colts; and Coca-Cola North America (Cincinnati).

"This was only our third year in the AAF-NSAC, while Fresno, Berkeley and Reno have been involved for 20-plus years, so I think that makes our win even more impressive,' said Bill McGowan, advisor to the team. "I'd especially like to commend the flawless performance of the five presenters in the competition: Katy Roth, Melinda Quirking, Jamie Verona, Brian T. O'Neill and David Chintz."

In addition to the five presenters, 18 other students from both the College of Business and the College of Communication and Education were on the CSU, Chico team. Alan Wellford was the faculty advisor from the College of Communications and Education.

The CSU, Chico team placed third in 2005, their first year of competition.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 27th, 2006 at 8:30 am and is filed under 2006 Spring.