Honda has designed a contest for college students to create an advertising campaign for the 2010 Honda Insight hybrid.
A group of advertising students at UH has taken on the Honda challenge.’ UH is one of 20 universities participating in the competition.
The students are part of a class that will have the opportunity to create a campaign from the ground up.
‘ ‘(Local Campaigns) is a class that we chose to take,’ team leader Vanessa Betancur said. ‘When we registered for it, we did not know what client we would be working with or what product we would be given.’
Each member of the team has a specific goal and purpose, ranging from public relations leader to the creative groundwork.
The team, named Cougar Concepts, has learned to work together as several small teams all focused on one goal: designing and implementing an advertising campaign on campus that will increase awareness of the car.’
‘We will be holding an event to promote the 2010 Honda Insight among UH students,’ Betancur said. ‘We have to come up with a strategy that includes research, fliers, posters and anything we believe will be beneficial to get awareness out to the UH community.’
The campaign is not about what team can sell the most cars, but who can best represent the vehicle.
The team’s public relations leader, Sarah Bell, believes this contest’s most rewarding experience is ‘the opportunity to hear the feedback from the Honda executives in person.’
‘The prospect of impressing them is an enriching educational experience,’ Bell said, ‘because they will be entering the workforce with tangible work-force experience.”
The top teams will go to California, where they will compete for a monetary prize for their campus in addition to the opportunity to have their concept used by a major company.
‘ The team has been working on the campaign since the beginning of the fall semester.
‘The best part of this competition is that we all get to showcase our talents and everything we have learned throughout our advertising education,’ Betancur said. ‘Our team members are looking to gain real world experience out of this.’
The judging of the submissions will take place from Dec. 2-9. The top groups will then go to Los Angeles, and the winner will be chosen Dec. 18.
