While you guys pitch to the market, we pitch to the media.  As a result, the market gets the message, but through a few different forms.  They can learn from the advertisements, but also they can learn from the media.

In terms of AHA, PR and advertising are a lot more team-oriented because we practice very little “traditional” advertising.  What we’ve designed is a system that uses PR as an extra arm to reach the target audience.  AHA teams come up with awesome strategies, which are then delivered to the media by PR.  PR helps the audience understand the advertising message, along with promoting events.  We’re kind of like Batman’s Alfred – we’re the practical yet witty butler who keeps things rollin’ while Batman is out promoting Wayne Enterprise.

So Alfred, a.k.a. me, sends out news releases and social media releases (SMRs) to local Eugene media like The Oregon Daily Emerald, The Register Guard and Eugene Weekly.  I pitch my story to writers and editors, cross my fingers and hope for the story to make it to press.  If not, then better luck next time.  Kind of how the cookie crumbles, or I guess how the bat flies?

Apparently this is not the case. We’re different than other schools and believe it or not, this school, our program and groups like AHA and Ad team are making us- dare I say- indispensible.

Let me tell you a story.

University of Oregon’s ad team, or Upstream Advertising as we’re known on the street, joined nine other student teams in Spokane, Washington this past Friday to compete in the District 11 Regional’s for the 2009 National Student Advertising Competition.

Our team worked tirelessly for two and a half terms, spending night after night in the Ballmer lab to create a unique and strategic campaign for the Century Council, this year’s NSAC client. We devoted much of this time to discussing strategy and building a brand around a concept: Binge Drinking. We took a broad look at the subject, worked until we understood it in great depth, found our audience and how to speak to them and built strategic ideas for how to change behaviors.

Now, we stood in front of schools from Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon, representing not only our campaign and the work we put into it, but also our university as a whole.

As the competition progressed we noted differences between the schools in the district, most notably that the majority of them were marketing programs and a lot of the work looked forced. And once the final presentation of the day was complete one truth became apparent: our school truly does function differently.

We could go into our levels of professionalism (we’re top-notch), passion for our work and the like (we actually believe in what we do), but I’d most like to emphasize our thought process. We’ve been trained to be cautious of advertising, love branding, believe in ideas, see connections, swap DNA and sweat strategy. All of it, everything, has made us smarter more professional students.

The key to our process that makes us stand apart is strategy, because without it you look like you don’t “get it” and you appear to be making things just to make them. Our team’s extensive strategy made for an obvious contrast from other teams and the judges noticed.

[Unfortunately having great ideas and strategy won’t win you competitions and that’s a whole separate topic of production skills- something our school knows needs improvement.]

Back to it.

So be strategic, conceptual thinkers! I believe the shift we’re experiencing towards a more creative, thoughtful and positive advertising industry stems from this kind of conceptual thought. It’s easy to get jaded about advertising and think that most of the work out there is garbage, because quite frankly it is. But if we continue to push the strategy and conceptual skills and lead other student organizations by example we have the potential to a) get jobs despite a rough market and b) change the way people view advertising.

We should be excited by this and work diligently to show the same kind of presence during our trip to New York next month.

-David Zavertnik

Working with clients can be difficult, but it yields lessons that can only be taught through tough love and hard work.

Five insights gained through working with real clients:

1.    Your idea is only as good as you can sell it
Half of working with real clients is convincing them that your ideas are amazing. I don’t care if you know how to save the polar bears, eliminate carbon emissions and end illiteracy all at once. Your ideas are useless unless you can effectively and succinctly sell them to your clients.

2.    Clients are people; people are picky
Working with real clients can be one of the most frustrating but valuable experiences. Clients want professional work, yet at the same time we are only students. Endless rounds of rewrites can only strengthen your work.

3.    Ruthless deadlines create personal growth
Clients don’t care if it’s spring break or finals week; deadlines are still deadlines and must be met.  Working with nonnegotiable deadlines pushes you to limits and shows you how to work under pressure.

4.    Projects must be realistic
In a portfolio class the sky is the limit. While AHA encourages innovation, we have to find ways to make our grand ideas possible. This means nimble thinking and action oriented skills. Here, there are larger consequences than a poor grade if you don’t get the job done. This added element of responsibility not only shines on a resume but teaches work ethic.

5.    Everyone wins with visibility
We can make as many fake ads as we want in classes, but they will be just that– fake. However, with real clients come real budgets. This means real media buys allowing your campaigns to become more than just a page in a portfolio. Exposure beyond the U of O can leads to jobs, networking and national exposure.

- Megan Nuttall