Tag Archives: Advertising

Advertising students star in their own advert

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Four BU advertising students can be seen smiling down from a billboard on Bath Road in Bournemouth after presenting the winning pitch for a national advertising campaign.

Final year students of the BA (Hons) Advertising degree programme were invited to compete for a £1.5million campaign for VisitEngland. As a prize for winning the students got the chance to star in their own billboard advertisement.

Students received a live brief to create a campaign aimed at encouraging families to stay in England and to include cycling as part of their holiday activities. Final pitches were presented to VisitEngland, MediaCom, industry practitioners and tutors, who were looking for a credible, convincing solution to the brief.

The winning team were Totem advertising agency, made up of students, Victoria Sayer, Loren Hargreaves, Jennifer Gale and James Reeves. Based on the theme, ‘Escape the ordinary. Live the extraordinary’, Totem’s campaign impressed the judges with thorough research and a fully integrated communications plan.  Jennifer Gale, one of the team, spoke on behalf of her fellow students,

“We’ve been on quite a journey within the campaign planning experience and it’s been great to see the team grow throughout the whole process. We couldn’t be more pleased with the result and it’s amazing to know that all of those late nights paid off.”

“We were just happy to have answered a difficult brief with ideas that our lecturers and MediaCom liked as much as we did! It’s a really good feeling when it all seems to fall into place.”

The Campaign Planning unit of the BA (Hons) Advertising programme requires that students team up to form a professional advertising agency to complete assignments and leads up to tackling a real client brief under the banner, ‘A BIG, BOLD National advertising campaign’. This year the assignment was supported by VisitEngland tourism board and international media agency, MediaCom.

Course tutors at BU were also impressed with their students’ achievements. Melanie Gray, the unit leader for Campaign Planning, commented,

“Seeing the students respond to the challenge set by a real client brief was fantastic. The challenge by VisitEngland was complex and involved some real investigation and creative thinking by the students.”

“The students really embraced the opportunity and the quality of work produced by many of them was outstanding. Totem were worthy winners of the final pitch, receiving the highest grade for their campaign solution based on extremely well researched insight and some fantastic communication ideas.”

BU student team wins European-wide advertising competition

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A team from Bournemouth University (BU) has won a student advertising competition that received entries from across Europe.

The team – made up of four BU final year Advertising students – won Ad Venture, an annual competition organised by the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) for students across Europe.

The competition aims to give students a taste of life working for an advertising agency and the BU team, called Fellow, won for their campaign called Change The Story, based on a brief about European opportunities to target youth unemployment.

The team – made up of Laura Merchan McAulay, Florence Evans, Cameron Black and Marta Cownburn Cuesta – won the Ad Venture competition after presenting their campaign idea to leading comms professionals from across Europe at the edcom conference in Barcelona.

Two teams from BU made the three competition finalists – out of more than 90 entries from across Europe – and the winning team from Fellow has now won an all-expenses paid week at the Cannes Lions Festival.

Cameron Black, who was the Creative for Fellow, said: “We were extremely surprised and still can’t believe we’ve just won the Ad Venture competition.

“It felt incredible to be one of two teams representing Bournemouth on a European stage and to give our lecturers and the university the recognition it deserves.

“We can’t wait to go to Cannes and fully embrace an amazing opportunity for starting our careers after our incredible time at Bournemouth.”

This year was the first time that two teams from the same university have been named as finalists in the competition.

The competition made up an integral part of the final year Campaign Planning unit, and the other BU team, Daffadowndilly – made up of Rachel Banks, Darrell Pont, Georgina Robb and Joel Blackie – presented a campaign called Map Your Future.

It’s not the first time students from the Corporate Marketing Communications department at BU have had success in Ad Venture, with BU students winning the competition in 2011-12 and a number of finalist spots over the years.

Melanie Gray, Lecturer in Advertising and Marketing at BU, said: “Once again, stand out achievements like this show that the BU Advertising degree produces some of the best quality student work in the country.

“This is a fantastic reward for the extra time and effort that has gone into this final year unit – I am so pleased that all the additional elements which were put in place to really give the students a great experience on Campaign Planning have resulted in this.

“Of course the students are rightly over the moon and are now looking forward to their prize – a fully-expensed trip to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.”

BU teams in final of European student advertising competition

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Two teams from Bournemouth University (BU) are in the final three for a student advertising competition that received entries from across Europe.

The teams – each made up of four BU final year BA (Hons) Advertising students – are through to the final of Ad Venture, an annual competition organised by the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) for students across Europe.

It is the first time two teams from the same university have been named as finalists in the competition, which aims to give students a taste of life working for an advertising agency.

Melanie Gray, Lecturer in Advertising and Marketing at BU, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for those students that have reached the finals of this European competition.

“It really does make all the teaching staff here on the BU Advertising degree immensely proud, both of the students and also for what it says about the degree course.

“Although entry into this competition is an integral part of their final year unit Campaign Planning, the quality of student entries from Bournemouth does reflect their entire education and experiences they have had over all their time here at BU.”

Teams are given a brief to create a campaign around, with this year’s challenge being to raise awareness of opportunities in Europe to support young people in gaining work experience.

The two finalist teams from BU – called Daffadowndilly and Fellow – will head to Barcelona on 9 May to present their campaigns to leading comms professionals from across Europe at the edcom conference.

The winners will receive a week at the Cannes Lions Festival in June, the biggest festival for those in the creative communications industries.

Daffadowndilly – made up of Rachel Banks, Darrell Pont, Georgina Robb and Joel Blackie – will be presenting their campaign called Map Your Future.

Daffadowndilly team photo

The Daffadowndilly team

Georgina, who acted as media planner for the group, said: “To get this far in the competition has been a very exciting but unexpected accomplishment. The team has worked so well together and enjoyed the challenge of a European brief.

“Presenting our idea to the judges in Barcelona will be a great opportunity that we are looking forward to. We’re also very proud for BU to be representing two out of the three final teams.”

Fellow – Laura Merchan McAulay, Florence Evans, Cameron Black and Marta Cownburn Cuesta – responded to the brief with a campaign called Change The Story.

Cameron, who was the Creative for the Fellow team, said they were “absolutely over the moon” to have reached the finals.

He added: “We feel incredibly proud to have the opportunity to represent BU at a European level and end our degree on a high.”

It’s not the first time students from the Corporate Marketing Communications department at BU have had success in Ad Venture, with BU students winning the competition in 2012 and a number of finalist spots over the years.

Melanie said:  “Once again, stand out achievements like this show that the BU Advertising degree produces some of the best quality student work in the country.”

Marketing multi-award pathway gets thumbs up from BU students

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A total of 114 BU students have signed up for The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Introductory Certificate in Marketing programme, which is currently one of the single largest cohorts studying for this qualification in the UK.

The launch of the programme follows the award of Multi Award Pathway (MAP) status by CIM earlier in the year to three of Bournemouth University’s degree courses; BA (Hons) Marketing Communications, BA (Hons) Advertising and BSc (Hons) Marketing degrees.

The programme offers students the opportunity to achieve CIM’s professional qualification, the Introductory Certificate, during the current academic year. Successful students will receive their award in the summer of 2014.

The programme has already met with a favourable reaction from students.

“I’m really keen to get the CIM qualification, as it will enhance my CV and help me get a great placement next year,” said Ben Ridsdale, first year BA (Hons) Marketing Communications student.

Students are already updating their CVs to include their participation in the MAP study programme and give themselves an edge in seeking placement interviews.

The programme was launched by Graham Goode, senior lecturer at Bournemouth University with support from CIM’s network managers; Emma Neale and Christine Boswell-Munday.

Graham, a senior lecturer in marketing communications, said: “The strong take-up from BU Marketing and Advertising students demonstrates the benefits of additional practice-focussed learning, obtained from studying for recognised professional qualifications alongside what are good academic degree programmes.

“Students see this value-added opportunity as a first step in engagement with their discipline’s professional body, CIM, and a way to enhance their future employment and placement prospects”.

The programme will be evaluated during the coming year to determine what shape it should take for 2014/2015. The evaluation will assess the potential for additional study programmes on higher level CIM qualifications, where students now hold exemptions under the MAP award.

Dr Jeff Bray appears on BBC Radio Solent

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Dr Jeff Bray, a Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Retail management, appeared on Steve Harris’ Drivetime show on BBC Radio Solent, discussing the marketisation of Christmas and whether the popularity of adverts translates into sales.

Bray suggested advertising is money well spent saying “advertising helps to build retailers brand value and it subtly influences our purchase decisions”.

“Talkability is the important thing… Spending a lot on a creating a decent advert means businesses don’t have to spend that much showing it” said Bray, suggesting that YouTube and other online video outlets are the perfect place to watch a good advert.

Although he went on to suggest that advertising is hard to quantify as it is “difficult to know what is having influence on the customer”.

BU student saving money in the Mail on Sunday

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By Dean Eastmond

Students take note, being careful with your money really does pay off!

Fourth Year Advertising and Marketing Communications student, Garry Hendry, featured in The Mail on Sunday talking about how, by budgeting and performing a few sneaky tips and tricks, issues with finance are few and far between.

One of his tricks was moving £1,000 from his fee-free overdraft account into a tax-free ISA account; saving himself £19 just for moving his money around.

“It’s only £19 extra a year”, he added. “But in perspective that is a week’s food. It’s a trick for only the financially disciplined student”.

Another one of his tips was using cashback deals through TopCashBack, by using big brand online shops, he earns cashback on his purchase.

Hendry explains how he’s saved £500 over three years at Bournemouth University.

“Some of my cash back I use to offset the cost of monthly bills but most goes into a rainy-days saving account for the future”, Garry explains after receiving £80 and £120 pay-outs for switching his broadband and making the most of promotional offers such as Orange’s “Orange Wednesdays”.

“Every penny counts when you’re a student,” said Garry, showing that being careful with your money can help to make your time at university more manageable.

Dean is a student at Budmouth College in Weymouth, who is working at Bournemouth University in the Press and PR Department. He joined BU on a Sir Samuel Mico Scholarship, which provides 10 students from his college with essential work experience for four weeks over the summer.