(L-R): The presentation team consisted of David Auspitz, Michelle Dunst, Melissa Markowitz, Jessica Phelan and Matthew Chromiak.
A team of advertising majors from the School of Communications and Theater spent weeks coming up with a better way to market State Farm automobile insurance to young adults.
It was part of the National Student Advertising Competition, a collegiate competition run by the American Advertising Federation held April 30 to May 1 at the New York Marriott Downtown that involved approximately two dozen teams from a district that includes American University, George Washington University, Syracuse University, Pennsylvania State University and others.
The teams were given a $40 million budget and had to make their pitch to a panel of judges in 20 minutes, with five more minutes of questions and answers.
Professor Bill Donnelly says the SCT team’s campaign featured an advertisement that centered around, “Who’s got your back? We got your back.” It cycles through moments a potential customer would have to lean on their insurance company, like right after an accident.
Additionally, they proposed the creation of a website called Iautoknow.com. This site would be a resource for people shopping for insurance from any provider. It would define confusing insurance terms and try to simplify the pages of forms that come with signing up for new coverage. When leaving this website, a simple message with the State Farm brand emerges: “State Farm – a neighborhood service.”
For their efforts, the SCT earned fourth place and walked away with the honor of “smoothest presentation” – a valuable skill to have for anyone planning a career in advertising.
“I think that we have triumphed this year,” says Donnelly. “They were praised universally.”
SCT has sent a team to this event every year since the Advertising Department was formed in 2004. It also participated for a few years in the early 1990s. The 2010 event marks SCT’s best result to date.
The SCT team created this print ad as part of their presentation.
