The AAF-Inland Empire is member of American Advertising Federation District 15, which includes Southern California and Las Vegas.  We continue to support students in the fields of advertising, marketing and design, through programs like the NSAC , Student ADDYs, and our Annual Art Bash on May 11th.

University of California Los Angeles took top honors in the Southern California and Southern Nevada district level student competition sponsored by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). UCLA topped eight college and university teams during the competition held at University of Nevada Las Vegas on Saturday April 28th. UCLA will represent AAF District 15, competing against teams from 14 other districts across the country, at the AAF National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) in Austin, TX June 2-5, 2012.

The NSAC is a unique, real-world experience that prepares students for successful careers in the advertising industry and provides sponsoring companies with tangible, effective, integrated marketing campaigns. The Education Services division of the American Advertising Federation conducts the NSAC annually in cooperation with a major client sponsor.

This year, NISSAN Americas challenged over 3000 advertising students nationwide to develop a research based, $100 million communications campaign to increase NISSAN’s share of 18-29 year old Hispanic, Chinese and African American Millennials by changing the perception of NISSAN among Young Adults, leading to consideration of the brand and purchase. As a challenge to the competing university and college teams, NISSAN provided a case study outlining key campaign objectives. Student teams were tasked with developing effective integrated campaigns that rely on multiple components to increase total Multicultural share.

Schools competing for the AAF District 15 title included Art Institute San Diego; California State University, Fullerton; Chapman University, Orange; Mt. Saint Mary’s College, Los Angeles; University of California, Irvine; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Special judges’ recognition went to the presentation team of USC for outstanding achievement; Emily Able of UCLA for Strategy, Concept and Execution of CVT Handles; and Ali LaBelle, Katrina Alonso and Rachael Morello of Chapman University for Outstanding Art Direction of the Plans Book. All were awarded cash prizes made possible in part by donations from AAF District 15 NSAC event sponsors: The Ferraro Group, R&R Partners, SKG Advertising and Jim Gentleman. USC and Chapman University received 2^nd and 3^rd place respectively. Several recruiters representing Los Angeles, Orange County and Las Vegas based advertising agencies and media companies attended the district competition to recruit the industry’s brightest and most talented young candidates. The competition was hosted by University of Nevada Las Vegas and held in the UNLV Student Union Theatre and Greenspun Auditorium.

Industry judges for the district level of competition included Tim O’Bayley, Principal of O’Bayley Communications – Palm Springs; Andrea Repass, Sr. Manager Account Planning of The Designory, Inc. – Long Beach; and Bob Sacco, Executive VP Sales of Travora Media – New York.

The NSAC national finals will be held June 2-5 during AdMerica, the AAF National Conference in Austin, TX and will showcase district finalists culled from 150 participating teams which will have presented original campaigns to panels of industry judges across the county.

For more information on how to compete in NSAC or develop a college chapter on your campus, please email d15nsac@aol.com

Sandy King 
AAF D15 NSAC Coordinator
AAF Western Region Past Chair