Chapman University students have nearly swept the student category for the American Advertising Federation of Orange County’s 2020 Advertising Awards, winning 10 ADDY’s for their campaigns.

NSAC’s Nine Addy’s

The NSAC (National Student Advertising Competition) team won nine of the OC ADDY’s, two Golds, three Silvers, and four Bronze. Golds were for the Wienerschnitzel Integrated Advertising Campaign and the Wienerschnitzel Guerrilla Campaign. These two ADDY’s automatically went on to compete at District 15. One of the OC Gold Addy’s (Wienerschnitzel Integrated Advertising Campaign) won a Silver Addy at the District 15 level in the Student Competition category. This win will next go onto the Nationals for judging.

 

What an outstanding accomplishment and proving moment for this team to win nine ADDY’s for their hard work creating an integrated campaign for the client, Wienerschnitzel, under the guidance of John Most, Associate Professor who retired last spring. Winning Gold ADDY’s for two different campaign aspects – Guerrilla Campaign and Integrated Campaign – is especially rewarding since they represent a breadth of work rather than a single execution. It’s a testament to the dedication of the students and a reflection of Chapman’s Dodge College’s Public Relations and Advertising program, which emphasizes the theory and practice of the profession.

– Kathryn Thibault, Assistant Professor, Public Relations and Advertising

Let’s Hear from the Students!

Winning nine ADDY Awards was such a shock. I was the Media Director my sophomore year and was literally terrified to step into that role. I was the youngest in my department and leading seniors and juniors was so daunting. My media department was in charge of planning the campaign’s calendar and spending our $25 budget. I would have never taken on the role if it weren’t for Dodge’s supportive professors like John Most and fellow classmates who were there when things got stressful. I’m so proud of the entire team and thankful our nine months of hard work paid off in the form of nine ADDY Awards.

– Kelly Itatani, Media Director

Being a part of Chapman’s team for the National Student Advertising Competition has been the most rewarding journey of my college experience. Every year was a new brand with a new challenge and new team members, it was so fun to be a part of. For me, NSAC is a community of go-getters that inspire each other to think outside the box. Without a doubt, NSAC is the most influential extracurricular I’ve had the pleasure to be a part of. It granted me opportunities to push myself while working with the most passionate, ambitious and creative team members and faculty mentors. As Director of Strategy, this campaign had an absolutely sensational research department that was more than willing to put in the late nights to uncover insights that inspired our foundational strategy, to Celebrate Our Links. We’re really proud of our work and it’s amazing to see the culmination of long nights and tireless work ethic come together in this campaign. We go into this competition hungry to win and the ADDY awards is a reflection of eight months of dedicated, hard work across all departments.

– Christina Cherekdjian, Director of Strategy

Working on this campaign was the most gratifying experience as a leader and a student for me. To be recognized in this way was incredibly affirming to all of the work we have done to create a strategically thorough and conceptually innovative campaign. I could not be more proud of my team, a hand selected group of multifaceted individuals who went above and beyond in their commitment to achieve and grow. I’m proud to consider this campaign the start of my career in a field I am challenged in and passionate about.

– Hailey Todhunter, Creative Concept & Development

Leading the NSAC team as account director was my most fulfilling experience at Chapman. Guiding our student agency, Circle Advertising, to create dynamic, national campaigns prepared me for a real agency job after graduation. As an alumna working in PR and marketing in Orange County, it was an awesome feeling to see the 2019 NSAC team win nine ADDY’s alongside the agency that I now work for, Idea Hall.

 

– Emiko Kaneoka, Account Director

We’re Chapman’s National Student Advertising Competition team. As a student-run ad agency, we spend a year building an all-encompassing campaign for a national brand and compete against top schools in the nation. Last year’s client was Wienerschnitzel, which is the campaign we’ve won these ADDY’s for.

Last year, I was a part of the Media department, and now I’m serving with Ned Peterson as an Account Director. I’ve really enjoyed my experience with the team—it has taught me so much and pushed me professionally. There are so many talented people responsible for this achievement. It’s the brainchild of last year’s team, especially the executive board, with the expertise of our recently retired faculty advisor, John Most, and submitted with the help of our new faculty advisor, Kathryn Thibault.

These ADDY awards mean a lot to us especially since we didn’t make it past the first round of last year’s NSAC competition—we were only a few decimals off from winning. And when we submitted the same work in a different competition and placed higher, it really further validates all of our hard work. We recently received word that out of these nine awards, two golds were forwarded onto the next round, with one placing silver (in the category of integrated campaigns which basically means our whole campaign rather than a single execution). Since there are three rounds of the Student Addy Awards, we forwarded that silver to the final national round. We’re just waiting to hear back now on how it does there!

– Marie Tobias, Account Director

Nico Dowdy’s Mercedes Commercial Wins an Addy

In addition to the NSAC team’s victories, Nico Dowdy, who took Professor Jim Fredrick’s “Producing Commercials” class in Fall 2019, won the bronze award for his “Mercedes-Benz S-Class: Aspirations” commercial. (Note: the great majority of the entries are not part of a class assignment, rather, they are independently funded and made outside of an academic situation.)

The truth is that I was just making an opportunity for a class assignment to be about something I loved. In this case it was cars, and it stood out enough to earn a Bronze ADDY. I couldn’t and probably wouldn’t have done it or gone as far without [Professor Jim Fredrick] motivating me or other friends and mentors helping me.

– Nico Dowdy

Check out Nico’s “Mercedes-Benz S-Class: Aspirations” commercial on Vimeo.

Congratulations to our talented and tenacious students!