Teams were to deliver three components for the project:
- A written creative brief
- An ad campaign with three visuals
- An oral presentation to the client
Walton senior Ann “AC” Hansen was a member of the winning team, along with Davis Trice, Austin Allen, Grace Ann Lile and Esther Udouj. This group of students named their agency Boulder Branding.
“We thought of the name Boulder Branding because we liked the idea of having a brand that was strong (like a boulder) and daring,” Hansen said. “Thus, the name Boulder was born.”
Piltdown’s two main promises to its customers are that its backpacks are made to last
and are designed and assembled in the United States. The campaigns needed to reflect
the product’s rugged durability and its American roots.
“We tried to give the students as much freedom as possible,” said Ansen, founder and chief executive officer for Piltdown. “We told them the story of our company then asked them to put together a social media campaign that tells that same story to our customers.”
The Boulder Branding team listened to Ansen, brainstormed ideas, researched and then designed an ad campaign using American explorers.
“I knew that Trey wanted to get across that his product was all American,” Hansen said. “He wanted to show that his brand could be trusted until the end. With those thoughts in mind, we thought up famous American pioneers and pasted the packs on them. This delivered humor and showed the true American spirit of Piltdown.”
“The campaigns were unbelievable,” Ansen said. “The students were in our target market
and they knew exactly how they’d want to be talked to. They had the right voice and
attitude and came up with several ideas that none of our professionals had thought
of.”
“This project taught me a lot more about the importance of knowing your brand and not straying from it,” Hansen said. “It taught me that creativity is important and should be leveraged. I learned that taking risks is good and necessary.”
