Two groups of College and Communication Information students walked away with awards from The American Advertising Awards (ADDYs) last week in recognition of outstanding work they produced in their classes. The ADDYs are offered through the Knoxville chapter of the American Advertising Federation, which states that “The ADDY Awards represent the true spirit of creative excellence by recognizing all forms of advertising from media of all types, creative by all sizes, and entrants of all levels from anywhere in the world.”
The awards won by CCI students are a Silver Addy for the students who produced the 2022 issue of SCOOP Magazine in JREM 415: Magazine Industry Workshop, and a Bronze Citation of Excellence award for a video advertisement produced by students in ADVT 350: Advertising Creative Strategy.
Silver Addy – SCOOP Magazine
SCOOP Magazine is a semester-long product that is mostly student produced with guidance from Steven Friedlander, adjunct lecturer for the School of Journalism and Electronic Media. The students decide on a theme and then work the entire semester to build a magazine that ends with print publication. Besides producing an end product, Friedlander said the course also pushes students to think like magazine editors and to make intellectual connections. He entered this issue into the ADDYs because he thought his students did an excellent job on it, and this award indicates he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
“I really am a big believer in entering these contests on behalf of students’ work. It is always a thrill for everyone involved and I want my students to have an opportunity to experience that thrill,” he said.
The theme for the 2022 issue was “Refresh” and included personal essays written by students. One such essay was Refresh After Failure: Confessions of a Perfectionist, by Riley Woody, who was also co-editor of the magazine. Woody said working on multiple aspects of a magazine was an incredible experience and she would push any student who is considering the class to take it.
“Of all the classes I took in the College of Communications, this was my favorite and definitely one of the top three most influential and helpful courses in directing my career. It gives anyone even slightly interested in magazine or digital design a place to explore that world and the employment possibilities,” she said. “It was the most creative of my classes, and the professionals who regularly came in to speak with us provided great networking opportunities and helped us know what our options are career-wise.”
Woody said she grew as a writer through the editing process with Friedlander, and she gained an incredible amount of confidence working as an editor; overall, it solidified her career path towards becoming an editor at a major publication. Winning the Silver ADDY was just another affirming experience.
“I was really proud of what we produced as a team and to see someone from the outside world recognize that we should be proud was encouraging and validating as a writer, a designer, and an editor,” she said.
Bronze Citizens of Excellence – “By Her Side When You Can’t Be”
In the Advertising Creative Strategy course taught by Minjie Li, assistant professor in the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations, students use research and data to make evidence-backed decision making to create strategies and big ideas, which ultimately produce deliverables the same as they would in a professional advertising agency setting.
They have to do a lot of strategizing, idea incubation, and designing to create a campaign that has deliverables across multimedia platforms and formats. This includes the traditional poster and outdoor ads—such as billboards and bus station ads—as well as social media pieces and a video commercial. They materialize one big idea across different media,” Li said. “We try to create an environment similar to the real agency setting so that our students not only generate portfolio pieces but also are equipped to thrive within the creative strategy workflow.”
The idea that students Summer Bryant, Abby Madan, Isabella Costner, and Natalie Lancaster decided to build a campaign around was for a personal safety alarm called a Birdie, a small device that can produce a very loud alarm when activated by the user. They created the slogan, “By Her Side When You Can’t Be” and created their video commercial targeting college-aged women.
“We had never made a commercial or anything like that before and we were a little nervous starting out. Winning the ADDY makes us feel a lot more confident in ourselves, especially because we had been a bit intimidated by the video aspect of campaigns,” Bryant said.
Madan said the entire class really helped them learn a lot more about storytelling in their campaigns and that it was fun to be able to pick their topic and create their strategies for a specific audience. Li said he’s very proud of the students and that they worked hard towards producing their deliverables.
“I hope winning this award can lead to networking and job opportunities like it did for my former students in the past few years. More importantly, I hope this award instills confidence into, not only this group of students, but all the advertising students who are going through this course sequence. I have no doubt they will keep doing great things,” Li said.