College of Media & Communication – Office of Communications & Marketing
By Melanie Escalante, The Hub@TTU
Texas Tech College of Media and Communication’s Raider Cre8ive brand — established in the college’s advertising campaigns course — recently partnered with the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Southwest, combining an opportunity for real-world work experience with the charity of supporting families across the South Plains.
Each semester, the college’s advertising campaign course partners with a nonprofit to teach student’s the unique lesson of marketing and advertising in real life while concurrently supporting those in need.
Professor Cyndie Buckle, who teaches the advertising capstone course, said she divides the class into teams at the beginning of each semester to work on their campaign. Each receive the same client, but all partner with a different organization to support their fundraising, she said.
This year, the beneficiary is RMHC of the Southwest.
After student’s learn the details of their client, they immediately began research, plan a nonprofit fundraising event and build their campaigns to support their efforts, Buckle said, before the work culminates into a presentation at the end of the semester, in which students will present the director of development and president & chief executive officer of the RMHC of the Southwest, showcasing the course’s value and the lessons learned.
“From a real world perspective I couldn’t wrap my head around doing all that work and then not getting to test it to see if it would even result in what you wanted it to result in,” Buckle said. “Would it achieve your goals and objectives? Were your tactics sound?”
This year, the four teams created a budget with $250 each, partnering with At’l Do Farms, One Guy from Italy on University location Ave., Two Docs Brewing Co. and He-Brews Coffee.
With two events already in the capstone’s rearview, Buckle said the two teams who organized the “S’More Time Together” event at Atl’ Do Farms and “Your Pumpkin Their Tomorrow” event at He-Brews Coffee already done an amazing job. To date, the two events have raised $1400.
“Everybody has kind of just given a subtle nod to RMHC of the Southwest without mentioning them in any way and it also sparks conversations,” Buckle said. “People want to know, ‘what is this about? What is this for?’”
The last two fundraising events for the semester — “806 Live It Starts With You” and “Raising Dough Changing Lives” — are both schedule to take place in the next couple weeks.
“806 Live It Starts With You” will begin at noon Saturday and continue through 10 p.m. at Two Docs Brewing Co., consisting of a game day watch party, food trucks, vendors, local business raffles, children activities and and a silent auction combined with friendly competition between Texas Tech Head Basketball Coach Mark Adams and Texas Tech Head Football Coach Joey McGuire, in which the silent auction prize will either be a signed football or basketball depending on who raised the greater amount.
Katie Cobden, public relations and advertising double major who is the account manager for the team that created 806 Live, said they wanted to hone in on the outdoor community atmosphere and make sure Tech students, staff working for RMHC of the Southwest, children and everyone else in the community feel welcome.
“I love fast-paced environments,” Cobden said. “I love a ton of stuff on my plate and everything going on at once so I’m really excited to go to Two Docs and start setting up and start seeing everybody get in their positions and really visualize what the event will actually be.”
Next week, Raising Dough Changing Lives will take place on Nov. 10 at One Guy from Italy on University Avenue from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., combining food food, fundraising and three raffles.
Savanna Hefner, advertising major whose group is running the November 10 event, said they have been going to different companies around Lubbock asking for donations, staying in communication with them and making sure they get the credit they are due for their donations.
“It’s been a really fun experience doing this and it definitely has prepared me,” Hefner said. “I’ve had a few job interviews since I’m graduating in December and I’ve been able to bring up this class a few times.”
Cobden said she already had an interest in non-profit work and helping to plan this event was right up her alley.
“I was telling my team I was like, ‘I’m just excited to stand back once everything is set up and be like, ‘wow, we did this — we’re doing this for a cause,” Cobden added.
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