NEWS
O’Connor, the adviser for Chapman’s ad team, was celebrating the team’s win in the National Student Advertising Competition Division 15 Regionals for the second time in a row. The students will head to Orlando, Florida, for Nationals, which take place from June 10 to 12.
After seven years of competition and three NSAC Regional victories, the third from 2006, Chapman’s team is getting more notice with its professional looking campaigns. Despite spending countless hours beating out fierce local competitors like University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California, the team has never placed higher than fifth place in the national competition. After slaying regional giants, Chapman still feels like an underdog.
“It takes a certain type of person to do this. They’re probably quirky or strange. And we probably smell, because we haven’t showered,” said Nathalie Con, team member and campaign presenter.
The tagline of the team’s campaign for insurance giant State Farm is “Feel free.” Its 30-second commercial opens with a young man happily shaking a State Farm agent’s hand and then rolls back in time to show him going to a date at a swanky restaurant and playing soccer with friends. Throughout it all, he looks calm. The spot flash forwards with his panicked expression after a car accident.
Senior and account director Kimmy Kirkwood explains how the ad shows State Farm turning that first moment of panic into a sigh of relief.
“You have a holy crap moment. We call it the inhale moment. But State Farm agents let students exhale,” she said.
State Farm may be more expensive than other insurance companies, but the ad shows the cost is worth the comfort of knowing the agents have their clients’ backs, Kirkwood said.
The ad team is made up of five groups: Creative, public relations, research, promotions and media. Three account directors choose five people to present the team’s campaign to the panel of judges, Con said.
And the students aren’t just public relations majors. Among members are communications, film, psychology and graphic design majors, Kirkwood said.
“People get sucked in and just keep coming back,” she said.
Part of that is because of the familial quality of the team. Although the student application process for the team is serious, closing interviews end on a silly note. Each applicant is asked to answer a whimsical question or to do something ridiculous.
When Kirkwood applied, she was asked to sing 30 seconds of any song. The first song that popped into her head was “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” from Disney’s “The Lion King.”
“It’s a funny little tradition we have,” she said.
The silly questions change from year to year. Previously, students were asked where they’d go in case of a zombie invasion.
“I love games and competitions. It’s just a big ol’ ad game,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor requires all team members to use Twitter, so students Tweeted constantly throughout the late nights of preparation. Tweets ranged from begging for food at 3 a.m. to using teen pop singer Justin Bieber to tease competing East Coast schools like Rhode Island’s Johnson and Wales University, Kirkwood said.
“Everyone knows we enjoy their company on Twitter,” Con said.
The team can be followed through ChapmanPRA and NSAC hashtags on Twitter.
Other universities have taken notice of Chapman. UCLA sported competition shirts that read “Chuck Fapman” in 2008 because its team feels that the Chapman team, not the USC team, is its rival, O’Connor said.
As a USC alumnus, O’Connor is pumped for next year when USC hosts Regionals.
“I want to go to USC next year and win [Regionals] for the third consecutive year,” he said.
Contact this reporter: crystal.saavedra@thepantheronline.com
