Iowa State advertising teams have been chosen by marketing professionals as semi-finalists in two national Collegiate Effie Brand Challenges, with one team in the V8+Energy brand challenge and one in Kleenex challenge, qualifying Greenlee School students for national final status.
The Collegiate Effie competition gives participants a chance to create marketing communication cases that address real-world challenges for marketers. Brands participating in this year’s competition were V8+Energy and Kleenex. Five semi-finalist teams from colleges around country were chosen by marketing professionals for each brand challenge.
Finalists will be named next week and winning teams will present their campaigns to brand managers at V8+Energy (Campbell’s Soup headquarters in Camden, NJ) and Kleenex (J. Walter Thompson – New York City, NY).
V8+Energy semi-finalist team winners: Jake Christensen, Cris Lopez, Alyssa Gonzalez, Andrew Temperly
Kleenex semi-finalist team winners: William Ash, Katie Thompson, Shannon Holmes, Rhiannon Michelson
“This competition was a semester-long project in ADVRT 436 (Portfolio Practicum),” said Lecturer Michael Wigton. “Students received brand challenges from V8+Energy and Kleenex, developed objectives, profiled target audiences, planned/implemented primary research and developed a creative campaign. All this work culminated in a strategy brief and four-minute video judged by professionals in the industry.
“This is a major accomplishment for our students. Every advertiser and agency in the country vie for an Effie. To have this on their résumés will open doors for these students. Only one other school in the country placed teams in both brand challenges.”
Michael Bugeja, Greenlee director, praised Wigton and the Iowa State teams. “The school is amassing so many accolades that it is difficult to keep track of the accomplishments of our students and contributions of our faculty. These semi-finalist teams have a chance now for national acclaim. We all will be rooting for them all the way!”
According to Carrie Osborn, program assistant for Effie Worldwide, Inc., “The judges were very impressed with the quality of this year’s entries and your (ISU) students should definitely be very proud for making it to the semi-finals!”
The Effie Awards are known by advertisers and agencies globally as the pre-eminent award in the industry, and recognize any and all forms of marketing communication that contribute to a brand’s success. Effie Awards honor effective marketing communications in 42 countries and 6 regions worldwide.