PROJECT: AMERICAN ADVERTISING FEDERATION
The American Advertising Federation is a professional organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the advertising industry. Although Advertising is a popular major at Purdue, there were no organizations on campus that allowed students to explore the industry outside of the classroom. Along with three other students, I decided to re-launch a student chapter of AAF at Purdue to address this issue.
As the President of the organization, I was responsible for overseeing all aspects of our re-launch, from establishing by-laws, creating operating procedures and determining budgets, to defining board positions as well as interviewing and managing board members. I was also responsible for planning and executing membership campaigns, running meetings, and developing activities and programs to benefit our members.
One of the obstacles we faced was in generating awareness of the organization amongst the student body. Due to our limited budget as a startup student organization, we decided to concentrate our efforts primarily on e-marketing. I created a Facebook group and a website to dispense information about the organization. These online efforts were supplemented by creating brightly colored flyers which were hung on bulletin boards in areas that were heavily trafficked by students in our target population (Advertising, Public Relations, Marketing, and Design Majors). I also created a Powerpoint Slide with information about our callout and distributed it to all professors teaching courses within these majors, asking them to announce the callout meeting during their class.
As the President of the organization, I was responsible for overseeing all aspects of our re-launch, from establishing by-laws, creating operating procedures and determining budgets, to defining board positions as well as interviewing and managing board members. I was also responsible for planning and executing membership campaigns, running meetings, and developing activities and programs to benefit our members.
One of the obstacles we faced was in generating awareness of the organization amongst the student body. Due to our limited budget as a startup student organization, we decided to concentrate our efforts primarily on e-marketing. I created a Facebook group and a website to dispense information about the organization. These online efforts were supplemented by creating brightly colored flyers which were hung on bulletin boards in areas that were heavily trafficked by students in our target population (Advertising, Public Relations, Marketing, and Design Majors). I also created a Powerpoint Slide with information about our callout and distributed it to all professors teaching courses within these majors, asking them to announce the callout meeting during their class.
Previously, the Purdue chapter of AAF had disappeared because they could not meet the minimum membership requirement of 10 students. Because of this, our focus was on creating value in membership. In order to do so, we distributed a short survey during our callout meeting. We learned that the top three things students were interested in from the organization were networking opportunities, portfolio building opportunities, and access to industry related competitions.
With this information in mind, I worked with our local professional chapter of AAF to create an “Advertising Day” where students were able to learn more about the industry and network with local professionals, including the President and CEO of the national headquarters for AAF. The partnership with our local professional chapter also generated several internships for our members and allowed us to create a series of skill-development workshops. In order to meet the interest in competition participation, I worked with the Department of Communication at Purdue to offer a 2 credit course dedicated to participation in the National Student Advertising Competition.
With this information in mind, I worked with our local professional chapter of AAF to create an “Advertising Day” where students were able to learn more about the industry and network with local professionals, including the President and CEO of the national headquarters for AAF. The partnership with our local professional chapter also generated several internships for our members and allowed us to create a series of skill-development workshops. In order to meet the interest in competition participation, I worked with the Department of Communication at Purdue to offer a 2 credit course dedicated to participation in the National Student Advertising Competition.