Nissan, Innovation that matters
Hungry for first place this year, I came into my senior year knowing I was going to have to play a major leadership role. Especially since so much talent since I started (Joe Russomano, Folu Akinkuotu, Evan Dunn, Jonathan Vega, etc) had graduated. I assumed the roles of Art Director and Creative Director for our production and creative teams, and got busy on the case for the Nissan Motor Company.
The whole campaign came to fruition in about a month’s time. Above you can see some screenshots I had in a conversation with one of my friends on facebook, where we went from having no research insights into a complete campaign and plans book that encompassed our amazing “Innovation that matters” campaign. It was a lot of work, and I have a dedicated team to thank for getting it done.
Creative Executions
We created a bold campaign under the tagline “Innovation that matters”. The strategy was to take the ambiguity out of Nissan’s innovations and position them away from everyday clutter by translating them into relative pieces that multicultural millenials could relate to. My creative team came up with some absolutely mind blowing creative executions, in print, broadcast, social, and digital.
NSAC 2012 – Squirrels from rob@roberskine.com on Vimeo.
2012 Presentation
Our presentation team, Christie Pietila, Lauren Turner, Addy Oyedele, Joy Liu, and Ryan Healey did an amazing job presenting our campaign at the national stage in Austin, TX at the AAF Admerica conference on June 4th, 2012.
We presented in front of judges that directly worked with Nissan, like TBWA\Chiat\Day’s Brandon Kleinman, Michael Awdish, Senior Manager of Marketing Communications for Nissan North America, Fred DePerez, Chief Marketing Manager for Nissan North America, Aldo Quevedo, President of Dieste Dallas, and Danielle Austen, Managing partner and CEO at Team Ignition Pancultural Marketing.
Our Q&A session went amazing. It was a breath of satisfaction as we walked out of there, followed by many hugs and high fives — we felt really good about everything we had done.
Admerica! Luncheon and Awards Reception
One of our advisors, professor Chilabato, usually teases me over how frequently I eat (amp and pretzels!), but the Admerica! luncheon was a huge exception. I was too excited to eat. Even though I wasn’t a presenter, I was fortunate enough to sit at the presenter’s table with the advisors, which happened to be right next to the stage. I sat there in anticipation as superlative awards began to be called. There was a research award sponsored by ad-ology, and an images award sponsored by Getty Images.
The award I was really interested in though, was the Best Plans Book Award, sponsored by Craig Harper of Experian Marketing. As soon as “Johnson & Wales” university was announced, I started to tear up. I had invested literally 80 hours a week into this book for nearly two weeks straight, and at one point I sat in the production room for nearly 24 hours straight (the night before the book was due for the printer). It wasn’t just my plans book though, Christie Pietila had a huge impact on the book as well, as she worked as lead editor (she sat in the production room with me for the most productive all-nighter of our careers) on all the copy in the book. This award completely validated all of our hard work.
Back in Salt Lake City for the ICDC Web Design competition, I thought it was great standing on stage. Although I remember thinking back on that moment when I was up there, where I realized I’d much rather share the stage with my ad team. For the second year in a row, we got to do just that — we finished third in the National Student Advertising Competition— right above the University of Miami, the reigning champions. Out of everyone on the team, I was asked to hold the trophy for our team photo on stage. It’s an honor I’ll never forget.
Being involved with the ad team was my absolute favorite part of my collegiate career. I learned the most, created my best work, and made some of my best friends. It’s sad that it’s all over, but I’m excited for what’s ahead.
The thing I’m most looking forward to? The JWU Advertising Alumni night.