Moody College advertising students shift into gear creating campaigns for Mazda

Summer courses can be a challenge due to their condensed schedule but add creating a campaign pitch for one of the nation’s biggest automakers and the class becomes even more demanding. 

“When I think of a college course this is exactly what I would have wanted,” says Claire Spillman, a senior majoring in advertising. “I’m really grateful for the opportunity to work with such a prestigious brand.” 

The prestigious brand in this summer’s Integrated Communications Campaigns class was Mazda, represented by the WPP agency, the largest advertising group in the world. The course has a history of bringing in big names and big brands, giving students big opportunities. 

James Dalthorp, assistant professor of practice in the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations, says the class is structured so every discipline of advertising can work collaboratively together to replicate a real-world agency experience. 

“If you want to move into advertising and marketing, it’s a very lucrative career if you can find a path into automotive advertising,” Dalthorp said.

The class exemplifies how Moody College helps prepare students for their careers by giving them the opportunity to dive head-first into the realities of the workforce. This includes successfully taking direction, collaborating with teammates and meeting important deadlines. 

Dalthorp divides the class into groups and within them each student is responsible for a specific portion of the campaign they create, be it public relations, media, creative or strategy. On day one, the client tasks the students with creating the type of campaign they’d like to see and then, on the final day of class, they present their ideas to the client directly. 

“We aren’t just presenting in front of our fellow students like we have in previous classes, we’re presenting in front of real business clients and they’re taking our ideas seriously,” said Sofia Atkinson, an advertising senior. “They weren’t just looking for a typical commercial. This was more about experiential strategies.”  

WPP hoped the students could create an entirely new advertising approach for the Mazda CX-5, along with ways to appeal to first time car buyers. WPP asked students to determine how Mazda could engage consumers in an authentic way and appeal to the things they do and care about most, including safety.

Liam Llewellyn, another senior advertising major, says that the class gave him a true taste of the industry. 

“What makes this class so excellent is that it gives you an opportunity to take what you’re passionate about and tie it into a campaign that is actually going to be seen by people who have impact in real industries,” Llewellyn said. “It’s a great sampler of what the real world is like” 

This summer, Dalthorp, WPP and representatives from Mazda, ensured that the students had a tangible experience, allowing them to travel to a dealership, learn about the vehicle they’d be creating a campaign for and so much more.

“We’ve worked on campaigns before in other classes but never on this scale and never with other people, so I found this to be such a good challenge and learning experience,” said Cassidy Wen. “I’m really proud of what we were able to do even though it was super challenging. As a team we worked really well together!” 

While group projects are commonplace throughout a student’s college experience, students like Emily Wright, a public relations major, says that the type of group work in this class is different. Wright says that creating something that may be implemented somewhere is a new experience and that making the connections with representatives from the industry was priceless.

“They were really taking our ideas seriously and I was honestly surprised by how ready and available they were to actually apply our ideas,” Atkinson continued. “They were taking next steps to involve us in integrating these campaigns.” 

Ultimately, whether Mazda uses one of the student-created campaigns, each person in the class can put this experience on their resume and grow their portfolios long before they enter the job market.

“This showcases that I have real client experience,” Spillman said. “This was a great class, and I had a lot of fun!”