Adwave for Indeed
Overview
Adwave is a student-run advertising agency that competes in the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). NSAC is a premier college advertising competition that provides students with the real-world experience of creating a strategic campaign for a corporate client. This year’s client was Indeed. Our campaign goal was to help Indeed increase unaided consideration. As part of the Production Team, my role was to design and produce visuals for the campaign.
My contribution
Graphic design
The team
1 × production director 4 × production designers
Timeline
January–March 2023
Process
Four teams
Adwave is composed of four teams: Strategy, Media, Creative, and Production. Strategy Team conducts primary market research and analyzes research data in order to develop campaign strategies. Media Team conducts secondary research on media-related aspects of the campaign and ensures all creative deliverables are backed by research. Creative Team conducts secondary research to identify and develop a creative approach to our campaign strategy, brainstorming creative deliverables. Production Team produces deliverables using briefs from Creative Team, bringing the campaign to life through compelling visuals.
My assignment
I was responsible for creating three deliverables: Indeed × Peet’s Coffee (Deliverable #1), Level Up Mini Golf (Deliverable #2), and Out-of-Home Advertisements (Deliverable #3).
Deliverable #1: Indeed × Peet’s Coffee
Concept: Indeed is partnering with Peet’s Coffee to provide necessary resources that consumers need to begin their job-searching journey. For this deliverable, I created designs for items within the coffee shop, including a menu, coffee sleeves, coasters, and a wifi pop-up screen.
Deliverable #2: Level Up Mini Golf
Concept: An experiential activation, Level Up Mini Golf is a traveling mini golf course that aims to increase knowledge of Indeed’s features while conveying information about nine different industries. Each hole includes informational signage. For this deliverable, I created a photoshoot backdrop, golf course map, and signage.
Deliverable #3: Out-of-Home Advertisements
Concept: Out-of-home displays that aim to capture smaller moments of users’ days and turn these moments into productive ones. For this deliverable, I created billboard and poster designs.
Challenges
Throughout the production process, I faced challenges involving creative execution and deadlines. Since the Production Team is the last step of the process, we received the finalized creative briefs about a month before the deliverables were due. We went through a lot of drafts in a short amount of time, and I learned how to speed up my turnaround time. I got better at efficient time management and communication to ensure that my work was completed by the deadline and aligned with the campaign goals.
Reflection
Our team competed in NSAC and ended up placing third at regionals! It was satisfying to see the culmination of our hard work throughout the year. We received valuable feedback from the competition judges, which will aid me as I go into my next year with Adwave as Director of Production & Design. In this role, I will lead a team of five designers through campaign production. I've grown immensely this past year as a designer, learning how to align my creative work with a client's marketing goals. Now, I will step into a new position as a leader. I'm excited to see where Adwave goes next.
Click here to view Adwave's campaign casebook for 2023 NSAC Client Indeed, designed by our talented production director, now Adwave president, Michelle Escudero.