Marietta wows Judges at First AAF competition

On Friday, April 18, four students involved in the AAF (American Adverting Federation), along with professor Lori Smith, traveled to Lexington, Kentucky, to take part in the annual AAF National Student Advertising Competition. Seniors Elicia Bank-Gabriel and Stephen Moore and sophomores Samantha Pocius and Emily Mattson became the first group from Marietta College to take part in the competition.The event, which is the premier advertising competition for college students, gives students the chance to work on an advertising and marketing campaign. The 2008 sponsor was America Online's iconic instant-messaging service AIM.

The four students were required to look at the AIM product and think of ways to expand the brand as well as make the product better.

The other groups, who came from Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucy, had months of preparation time for their presentaions. However, since Marietta's chapter of AAF wasn't formed unitl November, the fearsome foursome had significantly less time to work on the project than other schools.

The winner of the event, Ohio University, was chosen to go on to the national competition, which will be held from June 8-10 in Atlanta. Although Marietta College didn't place in the event, they received very high marks.

The district five coordinator said of Marietta's presentation, "One of the people very involved in the competition and has sat through all the presentations for the past 4 or 5 years mentioned that he overheard this was Marietta's first competition, when I confirmed, he said it was by far the best 'first time' presentation he had ever seen and that they would be a serious contender with a couple more years under their belts."

Banks-Gabriel added, "I learned how to successfully develop an integrated advertising campaign, and how to have fun at the University of Kentucky."

Congratulation to MC's AAF group.