Shocker Ad Lab students paused, slightly daunted, when a request came in from the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean鈥檚 office. The charge: Produce a short commercial to create awareness of the breadth of liberal arts and sciences disciplines within the college.
To debut at the Oct. 20 volleyball game against Tulsa in Koch Arena.
On the Jumbotron.
鈥淲e were all a little apprehensive. I don鈥檛 think any of us had ever done something to that scale before,鈥� Madison Murray, script writer and director for the video in Shocker Ad Lab, said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e all made videos for our own classes, but never anything to the scale of a WSU volleyball game, which was terrifying because it鈥檚 going to be up on the big screen.鈥�
Students enrolled in the Shocker Ad Lab course in the Elliott School of Communication tackle all sorts of requests, including print and digital pieces, event planning and branding. Described as a full-service, creative strategic ad agency, students in the class get applied learning experience ranging from concept creation to copy writing to production.
鈥淢oving up to a storyboard-shot video with editing and all that was a bit of a jump,鈥� David Williams, production assistant for the video, said. 鈥淚t was a welcome jump because it was pretty enjoyable to do and it was a bit of a test for our working together as a bigger unit.鈥�
As the team brainstormed how to keep viewers engaged while expressing the complexity of the college, a theme emerged. As a whole, Fairmount College students wear many hats.
Filmed on campus, the commercial features individual students, each wearing a unique hat and stating the major they represent. The video ends with the idea of wearing the best hat of all鈥攁 mortar board.
During the experience, Shocker Ad Lab students challenged themselves and enhanced their skills.
鈥淒oing copywriting was originally my plan, and then realizing that we needed a director, I thought I was capable of doing it,鈥� Murray said. 鈥淗aving that confidence to do it and directing was a skill I learned.鈥�
鈥淭his is not a class where students come in and learn how to use InDesign or learn how to run a video camera and edit in Premiere,鈥� Madeline McCullough, the instructor, said. 鈥淭hey come in with skills and we put them to work for clients. Everyone identified what they were good at and decided who did what.鈥�
Work done by students since the lab鈥檚 2015 inception has resulted in numerous awards from the National Federation of Press Women and Kansas Professional Communicators.
鈥淚鈥檒l be submitting this video to the 2024 communication contests,鈥� McCullough said. 鈥淭he students came up with a fun solution to a complex problem of how to represent the 18 academic departments that fall under Fairmount College.鈥�