Undergrad account planning uses unique observation for campaign
Dr. Mike Mackert's account planning class has always been a thought-provoking elective and this semester is no different. The class helps teach students how to use thoughtful research and insights to guide advertising campaigns.
Last week six teams competed in the first semester project called "Street Crossing". The client, University Health Services, gave the class two topics to work on, condom promotion and prescription stimulant abuse.
As the first stage of research the students were asked by Dr. Mackert to observe people crossing the street and use the research findings to guide their campaign strategy.
"The purpose of street crossing, and getting students to observe how people cross the street, is that people often don’t tell the truth about how they behave," Dr. Mackert said. "This project challenges students to observe how people actually go about one health behavior (crossing the street) and then apply insights learned from that research to another health behavior."
Three teams competed for the best condom promotion campaign and three for the best prescription stimulant abuse campaign. All the teams presented quality work and comprehensive campaigns, but only two teams prevailed, Analytical Anarchy and HojPoj.
Analytical Anarchy
Analytical Anarchy (Cailun Booker, Kelly Coonan, Samantha Chavez, Kirby Dunavin and Sara McGee) created the best condom promotion campaign. The team was nervous before the project because they had never had to address a topic so private before in class, but upon finishing the campaign they all felt more confident in their ability to address the tough topics.
"The street crossing project has been by far my favorite project at UT," Samantha Chavez said. "I really enjoyed getting to stretch my abilities with a topic that can be difficult."
Analytical Anarchy completed multiple stages of research, found insights and created a campaign that would encourage condom use. To see how their street crossing research was blended with both primary and secondary research check out their presentation below.
HojPoj
HojPoj (Daevonnie Barientos, Hannah Casper, Annie Jackson, Bertha Sencherey, Becky Wong) developed the best prescription stimulant abuse campaign. The team had no idea what they would uncover just from watching people cross the street, but they quickly realized how this type of research was going to help them segment their campaign audience.
"It wasn’t until the project started coming together when I realized how much you can learn from just watching people cross the street," Hannah Casper said. "We cross the street about a hundred times a day but don’t see the way we approach crossing effects our decisions and actions."
It was a unique experience that required blending both primary and secondary research in order to create the best campaign message as possible. When reflecting on the project the team shared they were glad it gave them an opportunity to step outside the box and tackle this unique issue.
"Interviewing UT students about such a widely known problem was probably my favorite part of the project because it allowed my group and I to understand why students resort to such drastic measures in times of stress," Daevonnie Barientos said.
To see how their project evolved from research, to insights, to a strategy, check out their presentation below.
As the semester continues Dr. Mackert has high hopes for the six teams.
"I’m proud of all the teams in the class, because all six teams showed progress over the exercise from the previous week," Dr. Mackert said. "The teams that won did the best work on this particular project, but moving forward it’s about continuous improvement – teams need to build on what they did well and learn from their mistakes."