ETSU’s National Student Advertising team learned Wednesday they won first place in the district 7 competition. They move on to semi-finals May 7.
Students on the NSAC team represent the ETSU Departments of Media and Communication, Art and Design and Digital Media. This semester, they collaborated to create an advertising solution for the 2020 competition client, Adobe, and competed against eight other universities, including second place winner the University of Alabama and third place winner Lee University.
“We worked so hard on this campaign – not to mention having to finish it while working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic – and our determination and work ethic paid off,” said Bailey DeVore, senior Media and Communication student and the team’s lead copywriter.
NSAC is a collegiate advertising competition that takes place each year and is held by the American Advertising Federation. The district competition was originally supposed to be held in Montgomery, Alabama. However, due to the current pandemic, the competition was held virtually this year.
“First, take all of the COVID-19 challenges for a collaborative class, spanning three departments and two colleges,” said Jonathan Hounshell, a faculty advisor and digital media professor. “Add in some really big name drops for the schools competing in our district. Then top it all off with one of the most challenging case studies that I’ve seen in eight season. You can’t tackle such challenges without all hands on deck. Our students really delivered.”
DeVore, Kelsey Bailey, Karina Jurayeva and Isaiah Harwood presented during the virtual competition this year. The ETSU team had 27 students contributing to the advertising strategy and creative execution.
“NSAC puts everything on the line – research, strategy, media and creative – against some of the best schools in the country,” said Megan Fannon, a faculty advisor to the team and lecturer in media and communication. “Our students continue to push their limits and dig deep to develop campaigns of professional caliber. The collaborative approach across departments set us apart. The win is hard fought, and we’re excited to move forward.”
The team began working on the campaign in January and submitted their pitch presentation video to NSAC panel judges last week. The competition requires teams to create a presentation and a plan book, which students work on during a designated NSAC class and outside of class.
“From working late nights on campus to late nights over Zoom, I am incredibly proud of everything this team has accomplished despite the circumstances,” said Harwood, a student in the Digital Media Department and the team’s creative director. “Not even a pandemic can stop these Bucs!”
The team learned of their first-place win April 29 in a virtual announcement.
“We are unbelievably happy to win first place in the district,” said Jurayeva, a graphic design student in the Department of Art and Design and an art director on the team. “I am very proud of the results and look forward to competing at the national level.”
Semi-final competition selects eight teams for the finals. At finals, which will be held over the summer, the first-place team wins $3,500, second-place wins $2,500 and third-place wins $2,000. Additional awards go to teams for exceptional work in areas such as marketing research, best presentation and more.
Due to NSAC rules, elements of the teams’ advertising strategies cannot be disclosed.
