Ad Club competes at National Student Advertising Competition Friday

This year’s American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition challenged students to target three specific minority groups for their client, Nissan.

This year’s competition challenged students to create a campaign that targeted Hispanics, Chinese and African Americans.

Central Michigan University’s Ad club sent a team of five presenters to the Embassy Suites in Southfield on Friday to compete against 22 other teams including the University of Michigan, Purdue University, Butler University and Indiana University.

“This is as close to — except for an internship — the most hands-on experience you can get in college,” said Brighton junior Devann Madden.

There are 50 active members in Ad Club that helped worked on various aspects of the campaign, said Ad Club president Sarah France.

France said she was excited when she saw this year’s creative brief, but knew it would be a challenge.

“The market research was hard to get,” the Woodland senior said. “Specifically for Chinese, African Americans and Hispanics, then create a campaign for all three. It was a hard scope to narrow on.”

The Ad Club’s strategy was “Nissan brings us together.” The team was given 20 minutes to present, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Farmington senior Paul Clark said their competitive advantage was that their campaign was different, because it was a brand campaign.

“I think our campaign is not just a car campaign,” he said. “We try to really connect with the target market. We wanted to bring it all into one — in a community — what we call ‘Nissan Nation.’ This campaign focuses on bringing together diverse people under one love for Nisssan.”

Unfortunately the team did not place and was beat out by Butler University, which won its heat the past two years.

The three said they had a great experience nonetheless.

“It was a really great experience,” France said. “We’re a little disappointed that we didn’t place, but in the end, that’s not what it’s about. It’s about the experience and getting that leg up and what it’s like to put together an advertising campaign.”