On Wednesday, April 16, the Texas Tech Ad Team hit the road early in the morning to head to Austin for the district National Student Advertising Competition. It had been a rough year working hard and many late nights, but I’m proud to say that we won first place!
6 a.m.: Several cars filled with students and props headed out of Lubbock and made that journey to Austin. It took many of us a while to finally get out of bed and head out on the road. I got a phone call from one of the members worried about one of our girls not answering her phone! We all had a rough start but got on the road quickly.
1 p.m.: We checked in the Renaissance Austin Hotel and settled in. Presentation team went into the faculty adviser’s room to continue practicing before our performance that night!
4:45 p.m.: All the teams met downstairs for orientation. At this time, we were explained the rules and how the event would be run. The judges were also introduced. It made me very nervous sitting in the second row and staring at the three people who would determine our fate with the rest of the teams we were competing against sitting right behind me.
5:15 p.m.: All the teams headed up stairs to see the two rooms that everyone would be preforming in. Since our district has so many schools, we were randomly split into two brackets. The first bracket would perform in one room and the second in the other. After the first team performed each team would be able to walk over the other room to see the next performance and so on.
6:30 p.m.: We were the first team to present in our bracket which made everyone a little nervous. We were allowed to go into our room early to set up props and check to make sure all the sound equipment was working properly. We finished everything pretty fast and our presenters were able to run through their lines one more time.
7:15 p.m.: The doors opened for everyone to sit down and wait for us to start.
7:30 p.m.: The judges enter and sit down at their table in the front. Our nerves quickly set in.
7:50 p.m.: Done! Our presenters were amazing and there were no mistakes. At this point we felt very confident as we had just watched the judges node their heads, hopefully in approval, and take many notes. At this time, the audience left the room and the rest of the team headed up on stage for Q&A. The judges were given 10 minutes to ask clarification questions to the team to make sure they understand our pitch.
8 p.m.: We’re done. We finished. Nine months of hard work is finally over! There were no mistakes and the judges seemed impressed. With our confidence boosted, we headed to the next room to see how the other bracket’s teams are performing.
Thursday
The first round of presentations began at 8:00 a.m. which only very few of us were able to wake up and see. After the long drive and excitement from the previous day, my roommates and I felt like sleeping in just a bit. Our faculty adviser, Professor Shannon Bichard, required the ad team to view at least three other performances and critique their work. My roommates and I were able to finish those in the morning and then head out to lunch. The afternoon was filled with more presentations before the awards ceremony that night.
The awards ceremony was supposed to begin at 7 p.m. but if you know how the advertising world works, you know that would never happen. Instead, all of the students had a giant dance party until the judges finally walked in.
It’s safe to say everyone was extremely nervous. We obviously wanted to win after all of the hard work we put into the entire campaign throughout the year — the hours researching, designing, host focus groups and interviews. We took the time to sit down with the independent beauty consultants and see how they worked and what would be good for them to learn. We attended Mary Kay parties and their monthly meetings to truly get into the Mary Kay spirit. After all the hard work and effort, it all came down to this.
The awards ceremony began with giving away the American Advertising Federation scholarships to several students who previously applied. The first round of awards went to the teams with the best promotional concept, best media plan, and best presenter for each bracket.
Finally, it was down to the top three in each bracket. The first bracket was announced first. By this time my hands were sweaty and I was very nervous. If I didn’t have my adult beverage to drink before, I would have been in worse shape. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest but all I could do was wait.
Third place was announced. We were in shock! Many of us had seen that presentation and thought they could have possibly beat us for first place. At this point, many of us were losing our confidence in how well we actually did. Second place was announced. We thought it wasn’t the best presentation or concept. Although advertising is very subjective so it all depends on the judge’s perspective.
First place was about to be announced. I wiped off my hands and reached for the person sitting next to me. I clenched my whole body waiting to hear someone else’s name instead of ours. I didn’t think that we had a shot at this point. Wait. Did they just call Bullet Advertising?
I looked up and screamed! Everyone jumped up out of their seats and some of the girls almost started crying. We did it! First Place! We all ran up onto the stage to grab our trophies and take a group picture.
That was one of the best feelings in my life knowing that all of our hard work paid off and we won. It was definitely time to celebrate. We got back to the table and everyone started taking pictures and calling their families. It was great to heard how proud and excited my mom sounded over the phone. I couldn’t have asked for a greater moment!
Since we won district competition, we now have to prepare for the semi-finals round. This is the first year the competition has added this layer so we are a bit nervous. There are currently 18 teams competing against each other for the top 8 spots for Nationals in Boca Raton, Fla.
At 1:15 p.m. on Friday, April 25, we had a conference call with five judges for a 15-minute Q-and-A session to clarify things from our plans book, which is the only part of our campaign they have seen. There were only a handful of team members in the room during the conference call nervously counting down the seconds until we could call in. We had been preparing for a few days for any questions the judges could ask.
On the call, we went around the room introducing ourselves and our position on the team before the judges asked their questions. We were shocked that they only asked five questions about our campaign. The rest of the time the judges were complimenting our team about the design and layout of the book, our creative concept and everything in between. It felt more like a compliment-and-answer session!
At 4:30 p.m. all the teams called into the conference call to see who made the top eight! The judges still needed a little more time to deliberate, so we had to waiting anxiously for another 20 minutes until they were ready. When the judges joined the conference call, they told us how proud they were of everyone and could see all the time and effort put into each campaign. They also went over the important pieces they were looking for in each plans book. It was then time to reveal the top eight in ranked order:
8. University of Texas
7. University of North Carolina
6. University of Nebraska
5-4. (Tied) Purdue University Calumet
5-4. (Tied) University of Miami
3. University of California, Berkeley
2. Texas Tech University
1. Johnson & Wales University
Bullet Advertising is currently ranked No. 2 out of 150 schools competing in the National Student Advertising Competition headed to Nationals in Boca Raton on Thursday, May 29th!
About Olivia Utley
