Nebraska’s National Student Advertising Competition team wins second place at districts

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) team placed second at the District 9 American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition on April 22, 2022. The District 9 regional competitors come from colleges and universities in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. Nine schools competed at this year’s competition.

Each year the selected client provides a brief that outlines the history of its product and current challenges they’re facing. The teams of students research the company and its competition then identify potential problem areas and devise an integrated marketing campaign.

In April, the students presented their campaign to a panel of judges at their corresponding district competition. The 2022 client was Meta Quest virtual reality headset technology, Quest 2.

Nebraska’s team was made up of students from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, Emerging Media Arts College, and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

Senior advertising and public relations major Sophia Messineo was a co-creative director for the team and one of the presenters. She’s proud of the team for finding a way to stand out in an AAF district that’s so competitive.

“The experience of working on a project like this has taught me a lot about the industry and how to do great work, but it wouldn't be the same without the team,” Messineo said. “This process can be really hard at times, but each difficult time was met with another handful of funny and meaningful moments with a truly special group of people.”

Senior advertising and public relations and communication studies dual major Kat Esser was the team’s account executive. Esser was also part of the trio that presented, along with the team’s project manager, junior advertising and public relations and journalism dual major Quin Sleddens.

“There isn’t anything I would change about our campaign,” Esser said. “You can point to any part of our campaign and find a piece of every single team member’s contribution, and to me, that makes our work all the more special and impactful.”

For junior advertising and public relations and accounting dual major and director of research Sadie Lamplot, the hours spent perfecting the project–including some late nights that stretched to 3 in the morning–were definitely worth it.

“No one complained about the late nights because we were all passionate about creating the best project possible, and that made it easy for each person’s talents to shine through,” Lamplot said. “I also want to emphasize how integral the guidance of our advisers was throughout the entire process. Because of their support we made a project that we’re all proud of.”

The UNL National Student Advertising Competition team advisers are assistant professor of practice Kelli Britten, lecturer Rich Bailey and lecturer Diane Krajicek. This year Britten was awarded the AAF District 9 Faculty Advisor of the Year award. Read more on that here.

“Working with this team of passionate and motivated professionals was an honor,” Britten said. “These students were responsible for developing a professional-level campaign strategy and creative concept and that’s exactly what they did. I couldn’t be more proud of this crew, and I am going to miss working and laughing with them so much.”

The following is a list of the 2022 UNL NSAC team members: