Lemke Ledger

“Campaigns,” a senior-level advertising and public relations class taught by Ignatius Fosu, has been hired by the Athletic Department to create an advertising campaign to promote a new incentive program for the students and faculty.  The program, called “Razor Rewards,” allows students to attend games and earn points, which can then be redeemed for prizes.

Fosu moved to Fayetteville in 2005 and has taught the campaigns class ever since.  He said the idea behind the class is “to give students an opportunity to apply what they have learned in previous classes to a real-world campaign.”   The class does everything from research to suggesting a budget to designing advertisements and promotional items.

“The class is always rewarding to the students,” Fosu said.  “I’ve gotten messages from former students who have commented about how the class has been helpful to them.  They use it in their portfolios at job interviews and show it to prospective employers who have been really impressed. This is always rewarding to me as well.”

The class is structured each semester with a new client.  The class has about 15 students and is split up into three or four groups, and each group approaches the campaign from different directions, as if they were each a different agency, he said.

“Many clients in the past have made donations to use as a budget,” Fosu said.  For example, last semester, the client was High Density Electronics Center and they donated $1,000 to pay for printing and material costs for the campaign.  The semester before that, the client Grid-Connected Advanced Power Electronics Systems made a $750 contribution for printing and material costs as well.

At the end of the semester, each group will present its campaign to members of the Athletic Department, who will then choose one (or parts from each one) to use as its advertising promotions.

Story Credit: Jillian Oyler, Advertising/ PR ’11

Photo Credit: Andrea Waddell, Advertising/ PR