By Contributing Writers

The National Student Advertising Competition is a joint class between the business school and the communications department at Simmons.

In the fall, the team focused on creating different advertisements for various clients. By the middle of the semester, they learned that Snapple was the client for the NSAC competition and decided on a few key concepts to use in the ad campaign. Individuals presented ideas to the class along with some judges the week before the holidays.

The NSAC class began this spring with the presentation of more key creative concepts to professional judges. The class split into groups of two and presented a television ad and guerrilla marketing tactic in 20-minute intervals. From there Professor Jo O’Connor helped students choose the final concepts for use in the ad campaign. After that brainstorming session, the class split into four groups to create the final integrated advertising campaign.

The research team was in charge of analyzing primary and secondary data relating to the millennial generation, Snapple’s target market. This audience largely reads articles relating to lifestyle, beverage consumption, media habits, marketing, and social media usage. They also conducted multiple focus groups and personal interviews to better understand the target market.

The public relations and strategy team decided the best way to promote the Snapple 2017 year-long campaign was with public relations partnerships. This included sponsoring Vidcom, a large blogger event in Anaheim, California. The budget would allow Snapple to host the opening night party. It would be a great way to celebrate Snapple’s 45 birthday, complete with Snapple Snowcones, Snapple swag, and even a Snapple tapp with all 45 flavors, including the four new limited-time offerings they produced. Social media influencers such as Tyler Oakley, Young House Love, and others would make appearances. For earned media, the public relations team decided to partner up with “The TODAY Show” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

The media team was in charge of making sure the campaign remained within budget. They also predicted the number of impressions the ad campaign would generate over the year.

The creative team decided on the final creative devices to use in the campaign. This included two television commercials focusing on a couple, John and Jane, who represent Snapple’s target market. They also created a 12-month calendar representing milestones of the couple that align with Snapple’s 12-month campaign in 2017.

The team also created four new limited-time offering flavors to roll out. With the help of the class, the creative team produced Twisted Pomenade, Starfruit, Beachy Lychee, and Twisted Plumquat. Kendall Bauer was the class writer who worked with the creative team and wrote the entire PLAN book.

Each team presented their final ideas to the class. The research team presented key insights into the millennial generation along with findings from various focus groups and interviews.

The public relations and strategy team presented from where and how we are going to get public relations coverage. The creative team presented the draft of the PLAN book and the storyboard for the television advertisement.

The writing team this year consisted of only one person, the famous Kendall, and she showed the team what she had written so far and what she still needed in their PLAN book.

Julie Nickerson, Rachel Otero, Isabella Verrilli, Rebecca Bourque, and Ainslie Gibbs auditioned for the presentation team and all made the final cut. Four of the students were team leaders and one was a freshman who was excited to try out. Allison Saffiotti and Jessie Allen were chosen as alternates.

The PLAN, which includes a full description of Simmons’ yearly ad campaign, was finalized and send out to NSAC on March 28. Although Kendall and the creative team made the final book, the rest of the class was in charge of edits.

The week of April 4, the presentation team rehearsed its scripts, while the rest of the class provided input about the order of the presentation, what should be cut, and what needed to be added to each script.

The Simmons NSAC team competed on Friday, April 8 against nine other schools in the district competition hosted by Simmons. The students presented their final 2017 integrated advertising campaign for Snapple using the tagline “Live Snapply Ever After.”

The winner, Boston University, will head to Anaheim, California for the final round of the NSAC. Even though Simmons didn’t place in the top three this year, they still have next year to win the district competition.