24-hour marketing competition. ~45 minutes of sleep. 1 complete campaign.
Completing this challenge pushed me past what I thought I was capable of and made me grow both personally and professionally along the way.
I️ learned how to work under pressure, pay excruciating attention to detail (there’s no time to re-do if you mess up), be creative in both a realistic and efficient way, work with a diverse group of individuals I️ did not know 24-hours prior, and even have some fun – or at least an immense sense of satisfaction – after completing (AND WINNING!) this marathon that was somehow simultaneously a sprint.
Hour-by-hour this is Crash Campaign from the inside. Check out my Instagram, @eclairetravels, to see the full story under the highlight “Carroll Hall”.
Hour 1:
The event kicked off with some opening words from Susan King, the dean of UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. I was excited and hopeful. We didn’t know our clients. We didn’t know our team members. We just knew there was a long road ahead.
Hour 2:
We are assigned our client, Mina’s Studio, and get started researching in our assigned room. Big bay windows with a 270-degree view surrounded us – we realized we would be seeing both the sunset and sunrise.
Hour 3:
Client meetings! We were energized by the enthusiasm the Mina’s Studio team members brought to the briefing. A passionate client makes our work that much easier.
Hour 4:
What’s the why? We brainstormed how to articulate the passion of our client into their re-brand. Top words that floated around were self-love, passion, quality, empowerment, and education.
Hour 5:
Hard at work. Mission statement, value statement, vision statement, and brand style guide – including a color palette we will decide to completely scrap 7 hours later (thank God).
Hour 6:
Whoops. Too busy working to post.
Hour 7:
I️ am on my third cup of coffee. I️ decided to listen to some music to keep the creative juices flowing. We research specific social strategies we want to employ and start to create mockups.
Hour 8:
IT’S FREEZING. We realized the 270-degree windows were actually a curse when they let out ALL of the heat. We soldier on.
Hour 9:
Whoops. Too busy working with the brilliant Stella Shon to post.
Hour 10:
Lack of sleep and constant, unbroken focus is starting to wear on us. But we know we need to hit the deadlines we set in order to finish with the caliber of work we expect from ourselves. We push on to the end of our first mockups.
Hour 11:
Dance break!
Hour 12:
We completely scrap and recreate our color scheme about three more times. Totally worth it in the end. Our client mentioned the colors were a strong reason we won – no other group “got” their brand the same way.
Hour 13:
We finalized our color scheme and looked back at our strategic plan. It’s easy to get off on tangents. We make sure we’re still in line with the original brief, purpose, and goal.
Hour 14:
I️ have to lay down for a nap. My attempt at hitting the reset button.
Hour 15:
The sweet dimensions of rest.
Hour 16:
We have to admit the sunrise is beautiful. A new day is here and we are ready to meet with our client again to start working on the on-site photo/video portion of our campaign.
Hour 17:
But first, breakfast. Complete with Emergen-C shots. #NothingCanTakeUsDown
Hour 18:
We rent camera equipment and drive to Mina’s to shoot a mock promotional video. The studio is even more beautiful in person and we are re-energized by our client’s excitement and hospitality. In the end, we were the only group to go visit and create any form of on-site content. Showing up for the client and hearing them one-on-one spoke volumes.
Hour 19:
We are back at Carroll ready to put our video and final deliverables together.
Hour 20:
We move down to the computer labs with a full array of snacks and caffeinated beverages in hand.
Hour 21:
That deadline is getting very real. We don’t want to put forward work that doesn’t represent our best – which is tricky to do under such strict time constraints.
Hour 22:
We haven’t moved from our chairs in the computer lab. Our hands are cramping from detailed, intricate work in Adobe Illustrator.
Hour 23:
We put together the slide deck to use in our pitch to the client.
Hour 24:
We turn in the final campaign including pitch, slide deck, and deliverables. There is a sigh of relief in unison and soon after a race to go TAKE A NAP!
**Many hours of sleep later**
We pitch to our client and end up winning the campaign! What a shock as we went up against some amazing peers who I️ both respect and admire. It was a testament to our hard work and persistence in going one step further whenever we could.
A special thanks to the entire Crash Campaign leadership team who put this event together, Mina’s Studio, the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, and of course my fellow team members.
WE DID IT!
Emily Claire Smith 