AdGrad Wins Big Ad Gig at Facebook

Second-year master's student Jonathan Westerfield returned from New York last month with more than a case of jet lag. He came home with a job offer from Facebook.

Westerfield was one of eight finalists who were awarded paid, 30-day freelance positions by competing in a contest called The Big Ad Gig, held during Advertising Week 2011. The competition, which was hosted by The New York Times, was sponsored by Atmosphere Proximity, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the Martin Agency, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide and Facebook – all of which judged the competition and awarded the coveted ad gigs.

For the competition, the eight finalists were given four minutes to present a campaign to be used by the Ad Council and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to dissuade 16-24 year-olds from texting while driving. Westerfield's campaign, called Gone Driving, encouraged Facebook users to download an app on their phone that would auto-respond to incoming text messages that they had "gone driving." In addition to the text messages, the "gone driving" message would also appear on a user's Facebook profile and news feed updates while driving. Using the app would also enter them into a contest to win a free car. Watch the full presentations here.

This was the third year of the competition and the first in which all eight rather than just five of the finalists were awarded with positions – a surprise announced by the judges after the presentations. Although Westerfield was not the overall winner of the competition – that honor belonged to Mike Merritt and his "Shut the phone up and drive" campaign – he still received an offer from Carolyn Everson, VP of Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook to work for her.

Westerfield's work with Facebook will begin after the end of this semester in California where he says he will be working on building brand narratives for the social network.

Prior to becoming a finalist, Westerfield and the other contestants had to submit a resumé, portfolio and video entry and then garner enough votes from fans and friends to make it into the top eight. This year's video prompt was to capture a moment – real or imagined – in advertising history. Watch Westerfield's entry here.

"I'd recommend everyone apply for it next year," said Westerfield. "It's the best opportunity I've had. I just got a stack of business cards."

Westerfield is not the first student to win an advertising job through unconventional means. AdGrad Jonathan Pelleg won a job with Saatchi & Saatchi LA in 2010 through a Twitter competition.