The University of Texas at Austin Department of Advertising has been chosen as one of five universities to participate in Nokia's North American collegiate advertising competition.
The Nokia ADvantage competition, which was piloted at The Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia during the fall 2002 and spring 2003 semesters, is designed to find, foster and promote the best creative minds among university-level advertising programs. Students in the competition are challenged to create fresh, cutting-edge TV ads for selected Nokia products. In addition to UT Austin, participants for the fall 2003 program include senior advertising students from Southern Methodist University, the University of Colorado, the University of Missouri-Columbia and Georgian College in Ontario, Canada.
Nokia advertising executives recently visited the UT Austin campus to brief the students, who will create TV ads including concept creation, copywriting, filming, editing and presentation to Nokia.
"Nokia's advertising competition gives students with great creative minds the opportunity to develop TV commercials for real products and materials for their portfolios at graduation," explained Bridget Ahr, Group Manager of Consumer Marketing for Nokia. "Our goal is to bring the real-life experience of ad creation to the classroom and immerse students in the challenges and excitement that comes with a true client-advertising agency relationship."
Two finalists from each of the participating U.S. universities will win an all expense paid trip to the Nokia Sugar Bowl in January 2004. Following the Nokia Sugar Bowl, which is this season's BCS National Championship Game, all student finalists' ads will be displayed on www.nokiaadvantage.com. Finalists from Georgian College in Canada will win an all expense paid trip to Nokia FIS Snowboarding championships in Stoneham, Quebec. Consumers are invited to visit the website to grade the student ads and register for a chance to win the featured Nokia product.
"We're pleased that our students have been chosen to participate in the Nokia ADvantage competition," said Dr. Isabella Cunningham, chair of the University of Texas Department of Advertising. "Our creative sequence is one of the most recognized and has a reputation for producing some of the most talented copywriters and art directors in the advertising industry."
Television ads developed by previous Nokia ADvantage student winners aired nationally last April. The student-developed ads were produced by Nokia's advertising agency, The Richards Group, and participants from the winning university were on-site as art directors during the shoot.
Beginning this month, the Nokia ADvantage website will feature seven ads developed by the University of Missouri-Columbia students in the spring 2003 semester which showcase the new Nokia 3300 music phone. Consumers may log on, grade the ads and register for a chance to win a Nokia 3300 music phone and prepaid phone service. See official rules for the consumer contest at www.nokiaadvantage.com.
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience, innovation, user-friendliness and secure solutions, the company has become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on six major exchanges.
10/15/2003