September 6, 2014

ADS & STUFF Creative Happenings in Spartan Ad Land

So it looks like I did, indeed, wait a whole semester to get this magazine out. It’s been eventful, it’s been a real PSA kinda semester! Let’s start with the main one, the biggy. !!The Campaigns class (ADV-129) had a warm up exercise designing a name and branding an organization within the University dedicated to the success of

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This is the cover from the winning team’s campaign book. The client group was pretty much bowled over!

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Hispanic/Latino students. The winning idea, which is in the process of implementation, was “Adelante!” by Alex Blaser and Colin Rickard. The idea was to take the Spartan logo and add stylistic elements that reference cultural designs. These are some of the examples they presented to the client ! ! !!!!!!!!!!

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!!!!The big Campaign brief was a PSA for Las Campeonas de la Salud, a non-profit organization based in the McKinley neighborhood of San Jose. The brief asked for a campaign that

talked to middle schoolers about the choices they have to make regarding a healthy lifestyle. The central focus was drug awareness. These kids are subject to a normalized drug culture. Their moms, Las Campeonas, have

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Variations of logos, style sheets, typography and merchandising were part of the overall package that Alex and Colin presented to the client. This identity is going into production soon

“It was great pleasure and honor to listen to your groups and help advise where I could.”

-KAITLYN WINKLER, MAS

Members of Visionary Inc. presenting their sports themed campaign

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tried hard up to this point to establish an awareness of healthy lifestyles and nutrition, respecting themselves and others, only to see their influence move to the older kids in the neighborhood, away from their families. There were a number of strong ideas across all campaigns - from campaigns that pushed aspirations to campaigns that involved San Jose’s sporting heroes, to the winning idea of Lucha Libre. This campaign, “Lucha y Logra”, was resonant and relevant. It spoke to audience without preaching and is going to go into production. !!The judges for this semester were members of Las Campeonas, Maziel Giron and Jeannette Ramos from CommUniverCity, David Ocampo from Milagro Marketing in San Jose, Kaitlyn Winkler from Miami Ad School in San Francisco, Tim Hendrick and myself. The client wanted the campaign to become a reality so it is being passed on to Dwight Bentel and Hall, our student ad agency, for further development in the Fall. David Ocampo and myself will be working with the agency team to make this happen.!

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Blueprint holding up the Blue Cow Award. Blueprint and some of the moms from Las Campeonas

“Great use of code switching. Easy, fun, engaging. Tone and style were very much on target and on message.”

-DAVID OCAMPO, MILAGRO MARKETING

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!What else, what else … well, both the ADV-124 Copywriting and ADV-125 Production classes had a couple of very challenging live briefs to work on. The clients were Save Our Shores, a non-profit, grass roots organization that organizes beach clean-ups and advocates responsible stewardship of our oceans and coastlines, and the New York Health Dept. via Bandujo Advertising and Design.!

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SOS actually set two briefs for us, one was a print campaign for the Copywriting class that would target over-the-hillers (beach visitors from San Jose) and a mini-brief for the Production class focusing on a new set of bumper stickers. Some of the Copywriting examples are above. The aim was to remind beachgoers to keep the beaches clean. It ran just before the July 4th weekend and rallied support for the big July 5th beach clean-ups. The wining poster ran in the Santa Cruz Good Times, the San Jose Mercury News and the Monterey County Weekly. Melissa Bergman, Kiana Hall and Jazmin Tillman created a series of print executions that resonated with a younger audience. The main “Beaches Need Love Too” press ad was a resounding success for SOS. !!In the words of Lauren Dockendorf,

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1 and 2. Veronika Volok and Kristine Young’s poster campaign,

3. Dominique Porras, Kieu-Kelly Tran and Catalina Del Ponte’s social media inspired campaign

4. Justin Kerley and Art Derechos’s irreverent humor

The winning ad in the Monterey County Weekly

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Communications Director for Save Our Shores: “Too often students just learn the basics of the subject they are studying and are not able to transfer that knowledge to a real job. These students worked hard to create unique and creative advertising products for one of our largest beach cleanups of the year. We decided to use one of the student’s work for all of our newspaper advertising, a highlight on our homepage, and we also used the tagline in our radio ads.”!!

!The bumper sticker project was fast, engaging and produced some very good results. The brief asked for a series of new bumper stickers that felt contemporary and communicated the SOS message in a fun and engaging way. Matt Machen and Julia Martin created a type-led response to the brief that was SOS’s favorite set. !

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!This project was part of a series of quick-fire portfolio exercises that have become an integral part of the Production class. Another brief the class worked on was Post-It Doodles. This brief was inspired by the work of illustrator October Jones who regularly draws cartoon heads on post-its during his daily commute. The idea was to observe their classmates and draw cartoon characters that matched their appearance or their personality. Once the heads are sketched out, the post-it is held out and placed, from a distance, so that it appears to sit on top of the subject’s shoulders. A photo is then taken, Instagrammed, hash-tagged and uploaded. These are some of the results.!!!

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!“These students worked hard to create unique and creative advertising products for one of our largest beach cleanups of the year.” - LAUREN DOCKENDORF, SAVE OUR SHORES!

Melissa Bergman, Jazmin Tilman and Kiana Hall’s billboard for SOS

Matt Machen and Julia Martin’s bumper stickers

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!The SOS brief for Copywriting was a good way to get students involved with a PSA, but the next brief they worked on was lighter in tone. The brief asked for a campaign to introduce the Kinder Egg to the USA. This chocolate delight (with a surprise in every egg!) is banned in the US. The campaign imagined a lifting of the ban. Oh, and the target was Hipsters. Here are some examples that were true to Hipster culture.! !!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Some of many classroom doodles.

Veronica Volok and Kristine Young’s print ad.

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!Other great things happened along the way. The DBH team presented their campaign for Mary Kay Cosmetics as part of the NSAAC student competition at UC Berkeley. The team did a great job presenting. One of our students, Chris Phillips, took Gold and Silver at the ADDYS.!!!!!!!!!!

!And the Campaigns class spent time at Miami Ad School in SF. This has become a continuing tradition that helps our agency teams work intensively on cracking the brief. The exercises and brainstorming sessions bring them closer together as a team, in a setting conducive to creative thinking. This is that key moment in the semester where creative strategies begin to unfold. Have a look at some of the photos from the day’s event.!!!

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Catalina Del Ponte, Kieu-Kelly Tran and Domminique Poras’s piece.

Chris Phillips receiving his Gold Award for a radio commercial at the ADDYS

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There’s more to come in the Fall. Work has started on a number of projects, we have a great client for the Campaigns class and the new studio is underway. Here’s a sneak peak at how it looks right now.!

!This space is going to be awesome and the creative track classes as well as the agency will be moving in there as soon as it’s good to go. !!There were many other highs over the Semester but these are the key moments that have stayed with me since we started cranking up the heat on Fall Semester ’14. Watch this space!!!John Delacruz!Advertising Prof.!!!!

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