Last year, I attended the QUT School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations’ Adspace competition with my school, Hillbrook, for the very first time. Hillbrook had never participated in Adspace, or even heard of it, but found out about it through Professor Gayle Kerr.
I thought it would be a great opportunity to gain some experience and insight into the advertising world, so I gathered a group of friends, Corey, Lachie and Ashlee, and attended (and got a day off school with free Subway!).
The aim of the competition was to come up with a new advertising strategy for Breaka milk, to build customer interest in teenagers and people in their early twenties. Our campaign, “The Summer of ‘85” aimed to do just that, with the help of social media, comedy and popular culture (otherwise known as memes) to boost sales in the target audience.
Essentially, the campaign entailed funny 80’s Instagram and Facebook advertisements, attached to a competition, which was to post your best 80’s Breaka video or meme to feature in the next advertisement and win a prize. We placed 6th out of 16 teams which we were pretty proud of.
Overall, Adspace was a great experience in which we learned how to work to client briefs and work as a team under time constraints.
A few weeks later, I attended work experience at Clemenger advertising agency in Brisbane to deepen my knowledge in the world of marketing and advertising. I attended meetings, shoots and every day 9am-5pm work hours, where I would help complete aspects of active client cases, and practice on inactive ones.
I came up with my own ideas and pitched them to the creatives and panel, and got feedback, and was recommended to apply for the Awards School program when I graduate. I attended the RACQ pet insurance calendar shoot, where I met some great photographers, art directors, and pets.
Every day I worked with people from different sectors within the company – the IT department, finance and creatives. IT, although interesting, was not my strong point, but I learned to use Photoshop! The Finance Department wasn’t all that exciting to me but is very important to the success of the company. The Creative Department was my favourite, although coming up with ideas to fit the client brief was challenging.
Overall, my week with Clemenger was amazing, and I learned so much about advertising and marketing, and everything in-between. I would highly recommend work experience and AdSpace to anyone considering pursuing a creative career.
