Photo of the 2015 advertising class teamTwelve MSU students from the Jake Jabs College of Business & Entrepreneurship (JJCBE) and College of Arts and Architecture placed second at the regional level of the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) held April 9-11 in Boise, Idaho.

Each year, corporate sponsors provides a case study reflecting a real-world situation to challenge students competing in the event. This year Pizza Hut’s objective was to encourage millennials to order digitally rather than over the phone.

Mike Gold, the advisor to the class said “Once again our students demonstrated they can compete at the highest level against other top quality schools”

The team also won awards for best overall ad, best digital campaign and best innovative digital ordering experience.  Gold said “This type of hands-on experiential class for our seniors really delivers on the JJCBE mission to inspire innovation, creativity and growth”.

Kregg Aytes, dean of the college, added, “Our students are successful because they understand that creativity takes hard work, and Mike Gold does a great job of pulling students from the business school and the College of Arts and Architecture together into a cohesive team.”

Calling themselves, Beartooth Creative, the students put together an extensive integrated campaign that included target market research, multi-media and email campaigns, guerrilla marketing tactics, strategic partnerships, mobile apps and social media. The campaign to encourage digital ordering had a call to action of “Click. Eat. Share.”

The student team presented their extensive advertising campaign to a panel of judges, consisting of professionals in the communications industry, during the competition in Boise. Other schools represented at the competition included Boise State University, Brigham Young University-Idaho, Idaho State University, University of Idaho, University of Oregon and Washington State University.

The students involved were: Carlee Benson, Josh Hartmann, Makenzie Johnson, Bertie Lord from the JJCBE and Riley Emmer, Taylor Grady, Katie Joyce, Dane Kuhn, Sam Lustig, Jessie Morin, Trevor Nelson, Kinsey White from the School of Art.

Sponsors supporting this group of students: Jim and Connie Alderson, Flying Horse Communication, Great Falls Ad Federation, KBZK, MSU School of Art, Northwestern Mutual, and MSU JJCBE.

For more information about this advertising course, please contact Mike Gold: mgold@montana.edu.