Students Create Campaign for FOX Sports

Creating an advertising campaign for an industry leader and presenting it to executives sounds like the task of a professional with years of experience, unless you were a student in Ed Ackerley’s advertising management course this past semester. Students were given the opportunity to create and potentially implement integrated marketing campaigns for several companies, among them FOX Sports.

Caroline Koss, a senior majoring in marketing and MIS, was one of the students participating. “FOX Sports came into our class and gave us the daunting challenge of creating a cohesive campaign in order to promote their new digital streaming app FOX Sports GO,” Koss explained. “There were many challenges associated with the project such as how to advertise to their target consumers as well as how to increase awareness, downloads, and use of their mobile application.”

The class was divided into six teams and each team was asked to develop a campaign. At the close of the semester, the teams presented their campaigns to executives with FOX Sports. The executives will choose a winning campaign. “It was an incredible experience to be able to work with so many other creative students and take our ideas and transform them into an actual campaign that we were able to present in front of decision makers at FOX Sports,” said Koss.

Koss and teammates decided to base their campaign on current marketing trends, with the ultimate goal of increasing brand awareness and consumer engagement. “We focused on more digital media implementations for our campaign by using Snapchat and other social media platforms in order to reach our target audience,” said Koss.

All six teams worked tirelessly throughout the semester to provide FOX Sports with a well-rounded and detailed campaign. Each student walked into the final presentation wearing both professional attire and a confident smile. “Overall, the presentations in front of the FOX Sports Executives was very successful! Each team was prepared and presented excellently,” Koss said. “It was great getting feedback from the executives as well, whether it be positive or constructive. The feedback gave us insight into how well these plans may or may not work in the real world.”

Koss had a very valuable experience and would recommend that other students take the advertising management course. “I would 100 percent recommend this course!” she said. “It gave me hands-on experience in project management as well as how to execute real life marketing and advertising for clients.”

The FOX Sports GO project is one of many ways that the Eller experience integrates real world situations into the classroom, making the University of Arizona’s 100 percent engagement initiative a reality for business students.

Top photo by University Relations.