Photo Courtesy: Kelsey Purcell
By: Kelsey Purcell & Elizabeth Egan, Features Staff
Twenty-five St. Bonaventure University students sat anxiously in their seats at Pace University, as the award ceremony for the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition began.
Their co-professors, Mike Jones-Kelley, a lecturer in the Jandoli School of Communication, and Lu Liu, assistant professor of marketing, still had not arrived at the ceremony. Students were worried they’d miss the awards.
Katie Dunn, junior marketing major and communication minor, said she called Jones-Kelley to ask if he would make it on time.
“I remember he said on the phone he was like, ‘Don’t worry. This is your moment. This is not about me. It’s all about you guys. Just enjoy and be in the moment,’” she said.
Coincidentally, the competition directors were having technical difficulties that were resolved just moments after the professors arrived.
Dunn said she felt that the directors might have been stalling for their professors to arrive.
Deandre Allen, a senior strategic communication major and president of Bonaventure’s AAF agency, said he felt confident about the pitch and how the team answered the judges’ questions.
“I thought we might have gotten third place or one of the ‘best’ awards,” he said. “We took a different approach, and the judges said all these good things, so I felt like something good was coming.”
The award for “Best Vibe” was called. Bonaventure didn’t win. The award for “Best Insight” was announced. Bonaventure didn’t win. Best use of media not Bonaventure.
Third place, not Bonaventure. Second place, not Bonaventure. For a moment spirits dipped.
Jones-Kelley, who had been teaching AAF for fifteen years, said he turned to Tom Durante, a Bonaventure AAF volunteer, and said, “We either placed first or last.”
In 35 years of attending the competition, Bonaventure had never placed above third.
Were they about to go home with nothing, or make Bonaventure AAF history?
The judges began to announce first place. In their intro, they made specific references to aspects that were unique to Bonaventure’s campaign. Spirits lifted, eyes widened and murmurs began. Students began whispering about the idea of potentially winning.
Finally, Bonaventure’s team was announced as the winner.
Everyone leaped out of their seats, roars of excitement filled the room as the trophy was passed among the group. The judges never had a chance to give closing remarks because the team was wildly celebrating.
“I am mildly embarrassed because the ponies created so much pandemonium, so many unbridled tears, laughter and joy, that we completely derailed the rest of the ceremony,” said Jones-Kelley. “The people up in charge of the room just lost control of the room to us, because we were completely out of our minds.”
This is Liu’s third year co-teaching with Jones-Kelley. He helps the planners conduct research to help guide the direction of the mock campaign. This year, that research led the group to go outside the demographic that the competition specified and market to a separate group, playing a crucial role in Bonaventure’s win.
“Liu teaches the team about the analytical side of things,” said Allen. “He helped us research, which led to discovering major insights for the campaign.
The team took a risk by acting on the major insight their research found in the campaign. It paid off and led to winning first place.
After the ceremony, Jones-Kelley said the judges told him that Bonaventure’s agency gave the client what they needed, not what they wanted.
Durante, a former Bonaventure AAF student, is now a successful art director in the advertising industry. He took the time to meet with AAF students to help craft the creative elements of their pitch.
“We owe a massive thank you to Tom for just simply sacrificing so much of his time,” Allen said. “He has his own workload and everything and for him to just take time to cut out to schedule a Zoom meeting with us to just help oversee our creative.”
Durante flew to New York City to support the team as they delivered their pitch.
The team who delivered the pitch included Deandre Allen, Faith Gworek, Gracie Miller and Richard Williams. They spent hours practicing the pitch to present a smooth campaign to the judges.
Dunn said the competition exhibited the hard work and effort everyone in the agency put in to make a great campaign.
“It was a really rewarding moment to know that something that we worked so hard on was well received,” she said.
Jones-Kelley said this win lets Bonaventure know that they have the talent and determination here.
“Bonaventure is always the mouse that roared,” he said. “We are apparently the only AAF team that is not funded by their university at all.”
Bonaventure only has one semester to work on their campaign, while other schools have the full academic year. Bonaventure also doesn’t have an advertising program – just a few classes.
“I’m so excited for a new subject and to do even better than last year,” Dunn said. “I think it’s gonna be great and I’m excited to hopefully win first again.”
Once the students had time to process their win, the reality quickly settled in. Next stop: regionals.
The pitch team will record a video to submit for the next round. The semi-final competition will be on May 4 and 5.
