RHUL Advertising students showcase

This blog pertains mainly to postgraduate marketing students, but for variety I’d like to highlight some achievements of the RH marketing undergraduates. As part of the assessment for the third year Advertising course on the Marketing pathway of the BSc Management programme, I ask students to pitch for an advertising campaign. We don’t teach creative skills so we can’t assess them, but students do come up with campaign ideas. They can illustrate these any way they choose, using stick men cartoons, storyboards, scripts, role play, whatever, but quite a few make movies. I'm often astounded at my students' creativity and technical ability with the most rudimentary kit, like iPhone cameras and basic editing software. Some post their work on Youtube. Some are designed to be TV spots, others virals or promo films.

For example, there have been a few gifted animators, as with this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CBQdV3B2mI&feature=related

This one for smoothies is cutesy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoaayDOw9JQ&feature=related and this one is sentimental http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3xjuAxPFHw&feature=related

Others are pretty good at editing, scripting, acting and arranging short movies, like this one for Yop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZvYjIi3Nxs&feature=fvsr and this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WaqPstc_Fc

This one is kinda beautiful, compiled mainly from other clips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-c-tmK4Ha0&feature=related nicely put together. So is this one, for skin care cream, and both show talented film making: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC4Zq2fm5mw&feature=related

This one is a cute collage of still photography http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwQ1NXcmOSA&NR=1 while this one features an exciting chase through Egham http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJNDBtOLEa4&feature=related This one also has some really nice images http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RBaVg5YhVg&feature=related

I'm happy for them to do something around a commercial brand or non-profit and 'social' marketing. If you've ever wondered what Chlamydia Man looked like, wonder no more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J2VPnN_X0o&feature=related

Some seem to have a costume budget http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v6v54PNYf0&feature=related others are talented lip-syncers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvHriJ1nFgg&feature=related and still others go for laughs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxo0wkmZGTM&NR=1

I enjoy these so I ask students who want to put them up to tag them as MN3455, the course code, so I can find them again. But there are lots up there under different tags, so they're hard to find. There are many more examples if you look around.

I have to finish with one of my all time favourites, in which Prince Charles appeared, and he demanded no fee because he is a family friend of the film maker:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oci4IXV5yFA

Quite a guy, eh? 

These do beg the question of what it takes to make a good, short video ad. The answer to that is, it depends on the purpose. Advertising sometimes tries to sell something, but more often it's intended to build the brand, connect with a specified target group, activate the consumer, and perhaps stimulate an audience to engage with the brand in other media. Hard sell, soft sell. Some ads are made to get banned, others to go viral, still others to win creative awards. Sometimes, a campaign is created simply to match the adspend of a market rival.       

Of course, everyone’s a critic as someone once said, so if you fancy yourself as a marketing pro, make a better ad, go viral and get a million hits. If it’s so easy.