Oswego Native Wins National Student Advertising Competition

ITHACA, NY — Connor Sheffield of Oswego was part of the Ithaca College Ad Lab team that won the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition on June 7, in Hollywood, Florida.

The team competed against seven other schools, with Liberty University coming in second and Syracuse University finishing third.

The students are all participants in the college’s Ad Lab, a senior capstone campaigns course in the Integrated Marketing Communications major, housed within the Roy H. Park School of Communications.

The AAF National Student Advertising Competition is the premier college advertising competition that provides college students the real-world experience of creating a strategic advertising/marketing/media campaign for a corporate client.

This year’s client was Wienerschnitzel, and the goals were to improve the image of hot dogs and increase overall sales.

Students in the course developed a marketing communications plan and then pitched their work to advertising professionals at the district, semifinal and national levels.

This marks the first time students from Ithaca College have won the national competition in 26 years (the last win was in 1993), despite competing in the finals multiple times.

In 2011, the Ithaca College team came in second.

One of this year’s judges and Wienerschnitzel’s CMO, Doug Koegeboehn, said he was very impressed with the student campaigns he was able to judge.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that the research, strategic thinking and creative ideas developed by students to change hot dog misperceptions were on the caliber of the best ad agencies,” he said. “After meeting the students and hearing their ideas, I’m encouraged about the future of advertising, marketing and America’s most beloved food, the hot dog.”

About Ithaca College

Founded in 1892, Ithaca College is a residential college dedicated to building knowledge and confidence through a continuous cycle of theory, practice and performance.

Home to some 6,500 students, the college offers more than 100 degree programs in its schools of Business, Communications, Humanities and Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Performance, and Music.

Students, faculty and staff at Ithaca College create an active, inclusive community anchored in a keen desire to make a difference in the local community and the broader world. The college is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top producers of Fulbright scholars, one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly schools in the country, and one of the top 10 colleges in the Northeast.

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