News
From a hand-selected group chosen by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under the Department of Transportation (DOT), Portland State University’s (PSU) fall term Advertising Campaigns class emerged the clear winner in an ad competition aimed at reducing traffic deaths and injuries among “tweens." The target audience for the campaign is parents who, for a variety of reasons, are ill-informed and otherwise not prepared to deal with the challenges of keeping tweens properly secure in the vehicle.
The faculty advisor for the PSU team is Professor Don Dickinson, director of advertising management in the PSU School of Business. Five universities across the country, University of New Mexico, San Diego State, University of Massachusetts, University of Illinois Chicago, and Texas A&M were also chosen to compete.
The PSU creative strategy centered on a key consumer insight, that a properly used safety belt is a metaphor for a parental hug. The campaign battle cry; “Did you hug your tween today?” is the call to action that constantly reminds parents to make sure their tween is properly buckled up, regardless of who is at the wheel.
Testing and validation of the creative concepts was part of the judging criteria. PSU had special assistance in this regard. Dialsmith, a Portland company, has developed a research technology that has become very popular with cable news organizations and large ad agencies. The technology, called perception analyzer allows large groups of people using hand-held dials to give instant feed back on things such as political speeches and television commercials.
Dialsmith made this sophisticated technology available to Dickinson’s class. This is the first time the perception analyzer technology has been used at the collegiate ad competition level. Not only were the NHTSA personnel impressed with the caliber of the PSU creative work, they were delighted to see that parents of tweens also rated the work memorable and effective.
Two students present creative work to a focus group of 25 parents using the perceptional analyzer dials.
