When I was in college, one of the smartest things I ever did was join the National Advertising Student Competition (NSAC) team for Texas Tech University. It was 1986 and I had transferred from Stephen F. Austin State University to Texas Tech to pursue both an advertising degree and specifically to be on the team.

Not only was it a credited course, it solidified my decision to go into advertising because it was an opportunity to work on an advertising campaign for a real client. It was brutal, crazy heaven. We had to research our client (the Chevrolet Cavalier), create a media plan, execute creative and present to judges. We won our district beating out twelve other universities from the Texas-Arkansas-Oklahoma-Louisiana area. After the competition, professionals from companies and agencies all over our district handed business cards to members of our team helping several of us land jobs right out of college.

Fast forward 24 years

Last April I’m sitting in the audience at the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City watching 20 college teams complete for the NSAC District Ten crown working on a project for sponsor client JC Penney. The teams from Oklahoma State University and University of Texas won (we ended up hiring one young lady on the OSU team).

The winning NSAC Plans Book from the University of Texas team

For the other teams — and I hate to sound like a neighborhood everyone-gets-a-trophy-youth-soccer-league coach, but — everyone really is a winner. The project experience is the ultimate benefit of participating in the NSAC (or any other AAF student competition for that matter). Students get tangible work for their portfolio if they’re going into creative, media or interactive and real case study to talk about if they’re pursuing a career in account service, strategy or marketing. The competition is their best opportunity to show what he or she can do. And, yes, it can lead to a job.

Advertising outside the box

But it’s worth it to professionals too. Sitting in the audience, we get inspired with some really new thinking. All too often, we have solve problems in a box. Our box has four sides: 1) budget, 2) client fear, 3) agency fear, and 4) client industry paradigm. What if you ignored all that and just turned your energy loose? What kind of ideas would you come up with?

Take notes: students and their Big Ideas

It wasn’t until about half-way through the first NSAC presentation that I began taking notes. One team created an interactive bench based upon iPad technology. The bench would be set up all over JC Penney stores and shoppers could sit and rest, but then interact with the JC Penney catalog as they are sitting down. You could select clothes, electronics or a sofa style, select a pattern and actually sit on it. Granted, it wasn’t as comfortable, but it allowed you to experience a JC Penney product in a completely different way. That’s not traditional advertising; that’s extending a brand experience beyond just clever headlines. It’s just brilliant.

These young adults developed so many amazing and viable ideas, that I couldn’t tap on my iPhone Notes app fast enough. There were charitable efforts tied to store promotions. Guerrilla marketing and interactive videos and television commercials that were so well written and produced that they could be sent to the stations that day. But the most inspiring aspect was not just the great ideas, but how carefully thought-through they were. They understood how the ideas could spread into public relations, iPhone apps, events, viral videos—all the things that clients excited about their brands now. They were amazingly complete.

8 Hours. 1 Campaign.

Similar things happen during the AAF-Houston Student Competition. This is an ultra-condensed version of the

The AAF Houston Student Competition can bring the warrior out in students.

NSAC where about 250 students from around District 10 converge on Houston and work on a full-blown ad campaign. In the end the sponsor “client” gets to keep the ideas.

But there are a few hitches. First, the universities are broken up so that students work with students from other universities. Second, they have only eight hours to research, plan and execute their campaigns. They’re broken up into teams and given the assignment brief Saturday morning, then turned loose to meet in offices around town. During that time, they have to pick a leader, assign tasks, execute creative and put a video together to submit to the judges.

What students can teach us

These competitions prove that when you want to see real creativity, think young. We get so caught up in our own wisdom of “knowing” what will work or not, that we forget to just play and do something awesome. Yes, strategy is essential–it allows us to focus our entire energy in a narrower direction as opposed to scatter-shooting. But once strategy is set, it’s time to hit the throttle. There was a time long before we had hundreds of clients tell us “no” that we assumed “yes.” And that’s the world these students are living in when they compete. Yes, Virginia, there is an advertising Santa Clause.

We should all take notes.