OSU communications ad team places second in district competition

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The OSU National Student Advertising Competition Team placed second at the American Advertising Federation competition in Dallas last week. First row from left to right: Desiree Brown, Mallory Pence, Bethany Dotson, Devin Fortner, Amanda Taylor; Second row: Sarah Waller, Brittany Crutchfield, Sierra Winrow; Third row: Professor Matt Elliott, Jordan Leatherman, Lindsey Willis, Kaitlin Loyd, Macy Myrick, Susan Occhipinti, Alyssa Simmons and Dena Jackson.

A team of Oklahoma State University undergraduates took second place and one member earned a top individual award during the district match of the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition, which included 18 universities from Oklahoma and Texas. The contest, held last week in Dallas, gives students the opportunity to research, develop, execute and present an advertising campaign for a national client.

In addition to the 15-member team’s overall second place award, Susan Occhipinti, a senior from Dunmore, Pennsylvania, won the coveted “best presenter” award in the competition.

“I’m very proud of our students and the work they put in for this competition, to see them place was a dream come true,” said the team’s co-adviser and instructor, Matt Elliott, a lecturer in the School of Media & Strategic Communications. Elliott led the team along with Dr. Jami Fullerton, Peggy Welch Chair in Strategic Communications at OSU. “The team started working on its research in October, worked every day and pulled more than a few all-nighters until the competition, and missed first place by only 10 points,” said Elliott.

He and Fullerton congratulated the students for doing the best research of any OSU team in the competition’s history. In addition to this year, OSU earned a first place award in 2011 and third place in 2013.

OSU’s team included strategic communications seniors Occhipinti, Sarah Waller from Flower Mound, Texas; Kaitlin Loyd from Bartlesville; Macy Myrick from Canyon, Texas; Lindsey Willis from Tulsa; Devin Fortner from Colorado Springs; Dena Jackson from Allen, Texas; Alyssa Simmons from Aledo, Texas; Amanda Taylor from Collinsville, Oklahoma; Jordan Leatherman from Muskogee; Brittany Crutchfield from Denton, Texas; and Mallory Pence from Bedford, Texas; and juniors Bethany Dotson from Arlington, Texas; and Sierra Winrow from Oklahoma City. Marketing senior Desiree Brown from Tulsa was the team’s account executive.

Each year, a national client sponsors the advertising competition, and 2014-2015’s was Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut restaurant chain. Student teams compete by researching, developing, executing and presenting an integrated marketing communications campaign to judges, who are leading advertising executives from across the country that represent the client.

Hosted annually by AAF, the nation’s oldest national advertising trade association, the competition offers students the rare opportunity to work with a national client and get a behind-the-scenes, ground-level view of life in the advertising business, explained Elliott.