They had only 15 weeks to pitch their ad to John Deere in Lenexa, Kan.
The spring 2006 Advanced Advertising Class instructed by Jacquie Lamer was given the opportunity by Kevin Fullerton, a 1988 Northwest graduate, to create an ad for John Deere.
Fullerton received a bachelor's degree in journalism and participates in the Professional Advisory Committee, a group of professionals who meet with instructors in the Mass Communication department and give advice to help improve curriculum.
Lamer contacted Fullerton about finding a client for the class to use. Fullerton contacted David Jones from John Deere last fall about the project. Jones had worked with Fullerton before, who is the owner and creative director of Springboard Creative in Mission, Kan.
The class met at least once a week and consisted of 16 students. Each person in the class was on three teams, which were then broken up into small teams. The main teams were creative, research and planning. The class presented their ad to John Deere on April 19.
Senior Sara Zimmerchied was the account coordinator, working as the liaison between the client and the students. Zimmerchied said working on the project was stressful.
"There were weeks where I felt that all I did was eat, sleep and breathe the class," Zimmerchied said.
Lamer said the point of the class was to simulate an advertising agency and the class is offered only every other year.
"There was some pretty real sweat rolling off some foreheads," Lamer said describing the stress of developing the ad.
Students received an e-mail from Lamer over the summer informing them John Deere would be using the ad in "Today's Farmer" magazine.
Zimmerchied said that she really enjoyed the class and that she would take the class again.
"I didn't really know how far it would go," Zimmerchied said."It was such a cool experience."
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