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Undergraduate Advertising Students Win National Cadillac Competition
Author: Erin Malecha Arias (503-725-8794) Office of Marketing and Communications
Posted: June 5, 2006

For the second time in three years, advertising students from the School of Business Administration (SBA) at Portland State University have won the Cadillac National Advertising Case Competition. The final phase of the competition was held at General Motor's U.S. headquarters in Detroit on May 25, 2006.

The PSU campaign showed Cadillac how to court "Indie Women," an opinion-leading group of female professionals, business owners and high-level executives. The competition attracted undergraduate advertising classes from Dartmouth College, University of Southern California, Purdue, Colorado State, and 32 other colleges and universities.

Student advertising team with Jim Taylor of Cadillac

Jim Taylor, general manager of the Cadillac Division of General Motors, headed the seven member judging panel that also included three representatives from Leo Burnett, Cadillac's ad agency. After the judging, Taylor said the PSU campaign, "Pretty much nailed it." Leo Burnett Group Account Director, Michael Wright, confirmed that the agency was definitely going to incorporate some of the student's ideas into future ad planning for Cadillac.

PSU students Karah Defender, Amanda Lofton, Jeremy Lord, Summer Mattern and Jason Piper are all students in the SBA's Advertising Management program and were accompanied by Don Dickinson, director of the Advertising Management program.

"The students identified a key segment of the luxury car market that has gone uncultivated by the automotive industry," said Dickinson. "The students did national agency caliber work and we could see some of the PSU strategies in the marketplace as soon as September."

The Advertising Management (AM) program is part of the PSU School of Business Administration. The goal of the AM program is to prepare students for a meaningful career in marketing communications. Students regularly find their way to positions in advertising agencies, in marketing departments on the client side, in media sales management and promotion, or as providers of niche services to agencies, clients and the media.

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Source:
Don Dickinson (503-725-8533)
PSU School of Business Administration

For Immediate Release (#06-086)