When a group of Point Park students took on an advertising campaign for Snapple in which they will compete in a national competition, they could not have been more excited to “UnCap Adventure,” which is the theme of their campaign.
“Snapple is a really fun brand that loves to be quirky, so I knew that the campaign would be really creative, which was exciting,” said Emmiley Stern, the account executive of the group.
Point Park students involved in the campaign include: Stern, Kariann Mano, Alex Cromer, Alex McCanna, Maggie McCauley, Leeza Tokarski, Abby Newhouse, Jane McAnallen, Mitch Ridenour, Jenna Collins, Josh Strothers and Belle Levy. The team provided a theme, a logo with other various design work and media relations for a Snapple campaign.
After being assigned this task early in the semester, the twelve member team began their research. They first studied the product and some of Snapple’s old campaigns, looking at how popular they were and trying to gain perspective on the brands identity. Along with this, they researched Snapple’s competitors, like Lipton, to get a feel for what may and may not work for the campaign.
“The creative process has been a three-way split between conducting research, creating the campaign and planning the presentation,” Stern said.
The team also conducted surveys and focus groups to determine the target market and the best ways to reach consumers and gain their interest. From this, they learned that their target market was people aged 24-to-34, and the team wanted to focus the campaign around the everyday person.
“Our target market is the hard-working person who wants to have Instagram-worthy adventures but don’t necessarily have the time or resources to do so,” Stern said.
After conducting the research and analyzing the results, the team has decided the theme of the campaign will be “UnCap Adventure,” which highlights breaking the everyday routine by opening up a Snapple. They arrived at this decision by learning that their target market is a group of individuals who are looking for some fun and adventure in their lives.
“Though our target market may not be doing things like going skydiving every day, there are a myriad of adventures between Point A and Point B,” Stern said.
Although the theme of the campaign has been decided upon, ideas continue to bounce around regarding promotion and tying in their campaign with the actual Snapple product. For instance, the team is thinking about creating personalized labels and bottles that correspond to the region they are being sold in. Another idea is partnering with a large-scale event in which Snapple will be distributed to all those attending. They would also like to highlight the natural and organic products found in Snapple.
“The creative process isn’t complete yet, but I can say we have really been trying to find a unique idea,” said Kariann Mano, one of the media planners on the team.
In order to prepare for the competition, the team will put the finishing touches on its campaign and put it all together in the next month.
After it is has been finalized, the team will hold a dress rehearsal before the competition that takes place the weekend of April 15 in New York City. At this competition, they will present their campaign and ideas for the brand to a panel of judges while competing for the top spot against schools like Syracuse and New York University.
The team hopes their hard work on this campaign will pay off and they will be able to advance in the competition from New York to Anaheim, California.
“I think we have some great ideas, and I hope the judges can see that our ideas will help increase sales for Snapple,” Mano said.
Point Park students have been competing in this competition for years now. In the past, the teams have done fairly well, landing in some top spots. The highest any of the teams have placed has been third.
While the team feels confident in their campaign so far, they have some reservations. Competing against schools like NYU, Syracuse and Penn State, the competition is steep.
“The thing about Point Park is that the team is relatively small and we only work on it for one semester, whereas some other schools the teams are working on it as soon as the client is announced, usually early in the school year,” said Alex Cromer, the art director of the team.
The team was given the case study for this campaign at the end of the fall semester. They began working on it in early January.
“We started with research, then moved on to the ‘big idea,’ or the theme of the campaign. From there, it was the creative process, the media mix and so on,” Cromer said.
Now, along with finishing up the creative side of the campaign, the team is deliberating on who will be presenting the campaign at the competition, as there can only be six people presenting it.
“We’re looking for strong speakers who are able to talk loudly and project and also convey our idea to the judges,” Mano said.
With the competition coming up soon, the advertising team feels confident in the campaign thus far and hopes to bring back a win to Point Park University.
“We have a lot of really creative people in the class, so we’re developing a really exciting campaign,” Stern said.
