Spread the word - Canada's Next Top Ad Exec is back
Face the Fear.
That's the theme of the 2009 Top Ad Exec Competition - a home grown competition (organized by the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster) for Canadian business students to strut their creativity and competence in developing an experiential campaign for Volkswagon - who by the way, will be providing the winner or winners (up to two students) with VW Golfs. Pretty nice incentive.
I guess if you asked last year's finalists if presenting their proposed campaigns to an elite group of advertising executives evoked fear - the answer would be yes. Honestly though, having the opportunity to sit-in on some of the student presentations last year, what I saw was charisma, polish, and confidence - and an apparent abundance of prep-work. By competing, students have an opportunity to develop skills that will give them a career advantage: critical thinking, research, strategy, creative and innovative thinking, number crunching. And they will get a real taste and feel for the marketing and advertising professions - which we know is not well-understood by the student demographic.
Enrolling in the competition is simple (and NO fee to register). Students must be either a full-time undergrad business or commerce student, an MBA, or undergrad completing a minor in business or commerce in the 2008/2009 year. Students certified in a registered co-op or internship - as part of their degree - are also eligible.
Submission details and guidelines are straight forward.
Key deadlines:
-January 22: submissions due
-February 23: top 25 are selected
-Feb 23: next stage of submission from the top 25
-March 9: top 10 finalists are announced
-March 30 - April 1: finalists deliver their presentation to panel of judges and awards dinner follows
How can you help? Spread the word. Mentor a student through the process. Come on out to the closing ceremonies. It's programs like this that build bridges between academia and the business community - one reason CMA is proud to sponsor Canada's Next Top Ad Exec.
