Taking classes during summer semesters can often mean a lot of work in a short time. While the condensed schedules can be difficult, no matter the course content, James Dalthorp’s Integrated Communications Campaigns class asks students to create an entire advertising campaign in less than two months.

“We're hitting the ground running,” Dalthorp, an assistant professor of practice in Moody College’s Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations, said. “And that's really the way an agency works in this day and age.”

The Integrated Communications Campaigns class is known for bringing real clients into the classroom. By working with actual brands, students have the unique opportunity to experience what working at an ad agency is like while creating actual campaigns that are often used by the clients. This summer, the class was tasked with marketing the Lincoln Navigator to gen Z and millennials. Given their charge by Hudson Rouge, the New York-based advertising agency for Lincoln Motor Company, each group was to use the Navigator’s new “Rejuvenate” feature as the crux of their campaigns.

“This is a real assignment that can benefit Lincoln,” said Jon Pearce, Chief Creative Officer of Hudson Rouge. “They will get a review with us and our client from Lincoln. So, they will get real-world advice and criticism to get a sense of what it's really like putting ideas out there.”

Pearce said that he feels he would have benefited from this type of input from working professionals when he was starting out in the business. Pearce helped lead the charge at Hudson Rouge during the creation of one of Lincoln’s most famous campaigns featuring Matthew McConaughey.

Throughout the summer, three student teams worked together to develop their campaigns. Each team is structured like an advertising agency, some students focus on campaign strategy, others on building creative elements, while others work on public relations, and so on. Though each brainstormed different ways to market the Navigator, many said that the opportunity to work together was the highlight of the class.

“I'm in the creative department, and we have account managers and other positions like those that would actually be in an advertising agency,” Bailey Evertson, an advertising major, said. “It’s been really cool to see how those positions work together and how we've really found success with each other.”

Each team did extensive research on what’s important to Gen Z and millennials and two of them overwhelmingly found that being able to relax and take a break are things that this audience considers a luxury. They seized on this idea for their campaigns. Another team recognized the importance of individuality to Gen Z and millennial audiences. Each team’s campaign was thorough, containing pitches for commercials, events and product activations, influencer marketing ideas and more.

Evertson’s team centered their campaign around the idea of the Rejuvenate feature, allowing users to “press pause” on their day.

“Our campaign is integrating both the Rejuvenate feature with the Sirius XM collaboration that's already in the vehicle,” Evertson said. “So, we're really focusing on the brand and what's already inside the car that’s allowing you to press pause not only on the world, but also on your music and being able to take a breath in the middle of our really busy, expeditious society.”

Eliana Herrera’s team focused their campaign on a similar approach. Herrera, an advertising major, said that getting started wasn’t easy.

“We struggled with where we were going to start,” Herrera said. “Once the ball got rolling though, it was super easy because you just start collaborating. You just start bouncing ideas off each other. You get those ideas flowing and it almost becomes a competition of who has the wildest idea.”

She said that having that ability to spitball ideas felt valuable because she knows it’s something she could bring to an actual agency.

Herrera’s team focused on the vehicle features that the given demographic values, including the rearview camera.

“Our campaign is taking life in reverse and using that Rejuvenate feature that Lincoln has in their cars and taking it as a moment to pause, reflect, rewind,” Herrera said. “And we're doing that by putting our life in reverse.”

Israel Perez, also an advertising major, served as his team’s project manager and quickly learned that having such a title meant juggling a lot of responsibilities but also delegating tasks to his teammates.

“I've learned that delegating gets you a lot closer to your goal than it takes you away from it,” he said. “When you're able to share a passion with seven other people, it just makes the work so much more fun!”

Perez’s group took a deep dive into Lincoln’s history and found that many American icons, including Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Snoop Dog and others drove Lincoln vehicles. He said they felt this was something the brand could brag about.

“What do these people have in common besides being influential in their own field? Not much,” Perez said. “But what we came up with was that no two Lincolns are the same because no two people are the same. I think Gen Z and millennials have really come to love the authenticity of these types of brands.”

During their final presentations, the teams displayed their hard work to UT alumna, Megan McKenzie, director of marketing for the Lincoln Motor Company. If the students were nervous, it wasn’t obvious, each group displaying confidence and preparedness.

“Everyone in all three groups were fully engaged,” Dalthorp said. “I hope the students feel like they got a real behind-the-scenes glimpse at what it's like to work on a real project with real deadlines. I hope that eventually this may give them an opportunity to work in a category like automotive advertising that's hard to get into.”