It's been awhile

So it has been awhile since the last post mainly because there is nothing to write about. I have been very busy with the start of school and we have no clients yet. Hopefully tomorrow we will be drafting a new business proposal to send out to groups on campus. I have been receiving questions from people asking where the applications are located. They are on the wall board by the Daily door in Hamilton Hall. There is no deadline on when they need to be turned in, but I would suggest getting it in sooner rather than later. Hopefully things start rolling and this blog will have a purpose again.

I need your help

In order for the agency to live up to its mission I need you to help decide which direction we take this semester. Please let me know what you think we need to do and if you have any comments feel free to leave them. Thank you and I'll see you in August.

Greenlee Presentation

I am the worst kind of blogger, it has been awhile since there was an update. I guess there was a lot going on in the past two weeks VEISHEA and now finals.

Last night we made our pitch to the Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication. We presented our plan along with some rough creative work. Overall the client wanted our ideas for how they could improve their web presence and ideas for updating their print materials. The client was pleased with the material presented, although I should mention this is a work in progress. They need to present and get approval from the faculty before anything gets set into motion.

I want to thank all of the students who devoted their time and energy to this campaign.

I would also like to thank Lindsay Gilbert and Kim McDonough for giving C&G the opportunity to work with them. This has been a great learning experience. Thank you.

Amp'd Bus Ads

I finally saw the Amp'd for Innovation bus ad. It was kind of crazy to see something that we created is now up and all around for everyone to see. So this is the biz? Just kidding.

Material Advantage CyRide Ad

A Material Advantage CyRide ad was sighted on the Orange Route on Thursday. An exciting event considering the orange route has such a high number of passengers. Hopefully pictures to follow if we can track one of the 10 down again...

The Alternate Routes on Conan

The Alternate Routes will be appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien tomorrow night, April 9th!

Greenlee Update

Where has the time gone? It's hard to believe April is already in full swing.

This Tuesday we again met as an agency and then broke into groups. The creatives are looking at developing a micro-site for prospective Greenlee students so a media team member is researching the related university regulations. The creatives are also looking at replacing the brochure the Greenlee School currently hands out which would again be four-panel. The other print piece is a poster, 5.5x17", which would most likely be sent to schools. A member of the media team is contacting Iowa State University Printing & Copy Services to get an estimate on the printing costs.

John divided the creatives into four groups to better tackle the project, they include Brochure Layout, Poster Layout, Copy, and Photo Manager. Collectively the creative department posed some interesting questions and concerns. The job of answering these questions has fallen on both the media and account departments.

In addition to the previously mentioned tasks, media team members are also finding out postage and mailing restrictions, as well as the university rules regarding logo usage.

The account department is busy setting up meetings with new clients - Society of Women Engineers & Interdepartmental Graduate Programs.

It's a busy week for all agency departments, so be sure to check back often for updates!

Hand-off

So last night we handed off the print materials to our client, Material Advantage. The one thing we weren't able to give them was the 3-fold brochure because the copy is still getting approval from the Engineering Outreach and Recruitment office. Now the print is in our client's hands and they have to contact the ISU printing and copy center and Cy Ride.

On a Greenlee note: The creatives have made deadlines for the project. I am very impressed with their organization and leadership skills. They have taken this project and have made it their own. The agency will be having a meeting next Tuesday and the creative will be briefing everyone with their progress and objectives.

Catching up

It has been awhile since I last updated our progress. On Monday we all came back from spring break and on Tuesday we pitched our ideas to Material Advantage. There wasn't a whole lot of communication between the creative team over break, but we got together Monday and managed to put all of our pieces together. I am very proud of the team's devotion and hard work. On Tuesday we had the agency's first ever client pitch. The feedback we got from Material Advantage was very positive and there were only a couple of things that needed to be changed. All of the finalized materials will be due this Tuesday and hopefully sent to the printer on Wednesday. Above is the logo for Amp'd for Innovation. We also created a brochure, flyers, a poster, a radio ad, and a bus ad. All of the pieces look very sharp. Look for a link to a website in the coming weeks.

There was an article written about Cardinal and Gold Advertising in the Iowa State Daily. Ad Students get Real Experience. I'm hoping that this gets our name out and brings in some new business for us next semester.

Ad students get real experience - News

Ad students get real experience - News

Media Plan Rough Final

Although the media plan was due last Friday, we've been working with the Channel Q & CyRide numbers which will probably change again.

Here’s what we have so far: Materials Advantage Media Brief

We have a lot to do

This week is our spring break, but for MA creatives it will not be the kind of break that MTV likes to televise. We have a lot to do before we present to the client the Tuesday after break. We need a central design, posters, brochures, buttons, two flier designs, and more promotional materials. Our media team has really given us a lot of outlets. I know our team is going to pull everything together before deadline. Before I forget the name of the event is "Amp'd for Innovation".

Headliner Announced!

The Alternate Routes will be headlining Material Advantage's concert event. A couple of their songs have been featured on MTV's The Hills and their new CD, Good and Reckless and True, hits stores March 13.

Check out The Alternate Routes's Myspace page for a listen.

Material Advantage Media Meeting

Tonight we had our first media meeting for our Material Advantage client. The group did some great strategic thinking and flushed out some ideas that hadn't occurred to me. The problem is challenging in that we're trying to have college students attend the event as well as having high school students attend in the hopes they would take an interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) majors.

The media group defined the big goal as getting people to attend the event. The overall media strategy then is to promote the band through various inexpensive means and then to supplement that at the high school level with posters and brochures which dive into explaining more about Iowa State University's College of Engineering. The group felt that our funds should go towards getting media pieces to high school students who may already be taking those STEM classes. In contrast, in order to rise above the other clutter on campus we should take things in more of a promotions or event direction. Such promotions would include having a booth and making announcements when two of the shows groups/performers, Rock Rendered & Glove The Funkman, play during VEISHEA week (April 16-20) on central campus.

Creative Meeting

Last night our creative team had its first meeting and brainstorming session. The department was broken up in to two client teams and briefed on their assignments. I didn't really know what I was doing, but after briefing each team they started generating ideas as a group. I'm happy to see that everyone is energetic about the agency. The Material Advantage team is working very hard and coming up with materials before their March 20th deadline. The Greenlee team decided that they needed to do some research and find out more about the School before they could start generating ideas. The Greenlee team has scheduled to meet again after spring break. The MA team is meeting tomorrow in Hamilton commons at 3:30 to discuss and present ideas for logos, fliers and other promotional materials.

Second Client Meeting - Material Advantage

On Wednesday, February 28, the agency directors met with Material Advantage, an Iowa State University student organization for individuals that are interested in material engineering and those that are majors. The group plans to put together a variety of different acts for VEISHEA that will be infused with different science and engineering aspects which will include demos, exhibits, and tours of the Materials Engineering department. The group will have the stage by Friley Hall, details including acts and times will follow on this site as the date draws near.

Material Advantage's goal is to inform high school students on engineering, science, technology, and math as possible career paths and to also inform them of the caliber and opportunities offered by Iowa State's Engineering College. They hope to start the program during the later part of March.

At the agency level, the first deadline is March 9th for the media department. Details to follow our Tuesday meeting at 7 p.m. in Hamilton.

First Agency Meeting

A pretty sizable crowd attended our first meeting on Tuesday, February 27. Nearly 30 individuals joined the agency which already consisted of co-directors for the five departments. We met with our first client, Iowa State University's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. Ultimately, they are looking for updated print materials as well as an updated website that would be geared towards prospective students, but generally want to see what ideas we develop for them.

The general feeling among agency members is a little bit nervous, but mostly excitement at having such a great opportunity. One that speaks to the fact that the Greenlee School trusts its students and its program enough to place their name and public image in the hands of students.

Applications and Availability sheets

At the meeting on Tuesday we will need to get idea of who wants to do what and what time they will be able to meet. We will be handing these forms out at the meeting, I also posted them online (I hope it works). Here are the links to the Application and Availability sheets.

Students Wanted

We need students who want to experience the field of advertising first hand. This will be an excellent way to build your book with real campaigns and the experience for which employers are looking. Don't know what area of advertising you want to go into? This is the perfect chance for you to figure out your passion. We have divided the agency into five departments: New Business, Account Management, Media, Creative, and Production.

First Client Meeting

On Tuesday our first client will be coming in to speak to us. The Greenlee School's undergrad academic advisers, Lindsay Gilbert and Kim McDonough, are going to sit down with us and have a brainstorming session. They want to give us some ideas to work with before we go on spring break. The meeting will be in 172 Hamilton Hall at 7:00 pm Tuesday, Feb. 27th.

Starting an agency

It's been decided! We are going to start a student-run advertising agency. I'm excited and nervous because this is a huge step from what I'm learning in class to actually applying it in a real world setting. We have a couple of groups interested in our services and I have a feeling things are going to get really crazy really fast; but I'm ready for it. Bring it on!