Hopkins’s Global Blue Strategies, an advertising class that has transformed into a full-service marketing agency, was selected as one of 20 universities to partake in the Honda Civic Marketing Challenge. The class has been working to create an advertising campaign for the 2013 Honda Civic Sedan entitled Recreate a Classic.
Global Blue Strategies is promoting the Honda Civic through upcoming events on and off campus, a Facebook page called the Hopkins Honda Hound, and other forms of social media.
Within the classroom setting, students are taking on managing roles such as CEO and Public Relations Manager.
With all different positions, students are combining their skills to create a full-scale campaign.
“As part of the competition we are tasked with creating an integrated campaign for the 2013 Honda Civic Sedan that does three things: increase purchase consideration among Gen Y consumers on the JHU campus, create a viral buzz around the car and change the perception of Honda into a fun, youthful and hip brand,” Malena Silva, the PR and Social Media Manager of Global Blue Strategies, said.
Global Blue Strategies was given this opportunity through Edventure Partners.
“Edventure Partners is an organization that specializes in industry-education partnerships. In other words, they find real-world opportunities for students to gain hands on experience with clients. In turn, the client has access to a target demographic. In Honda's case, they were looking to target college-students and recent graduates, or Gen Y consumers,” Silva said.
The class is led by Center for Leadership Education Professor Leslie Kendrick.
“In the past, we have worked with 2 start-ups, the FBI (twice), The Navy (twice), and Nissan. EVP contacts me around November each year and lets me know if there is one or more clients interested in working with JHU and I can agree to the client, or express more of an interest in one if there is a choice,” Kendrick said.
Global Blue Strategies kicked off their Honda Civic Campaign this past Monday.
“Our implementation period for our campaign is 3 weeks and our agency goal is to reach 80% awareness on this campus. We have a budget of $3000 to work with to put on events, competitions, make advertisements, produce videos, and have giveaways,” Silva said.
Events will include the “Honda Hunt” this Friday at the Beach. This event, which is being promoted on Facebook, will include a scavenger hunt, giveaways, music and free food.
Global Blue Strategies gives students the opportunity to gain professional experience in the classroom setting.
“This class is valuable on so many levels. Students realize how challenging it is to develop a truly integrated campaign; they learn how important regular face-to-face communication is and they learn how to take critical client feedback and revise their work, all under very tight deadlines. In fact, the campaign is developed, approved by the client and then implemented within a 13-week semester, including pre- and post- campaign research to measure its impact. This experience really stands out on a students resume and often helps a student land future internships and jobs,” Kendrick said.
