NEW YORK: West Virginia University is taking a unique approach to rebranding its journalism school. Instead of hiring a firm, it had students compete and develop multi-faceted strategies.

During a three-hour meeting at Omnicom Group's New York offices on Monday, students presented the top three of 44 campaigns developed in classes to executives from marketing agencies Siegel+Gale, Maslansky + Partners, and Hall & Partners.

Tom Harrison, chairman of the Diversified Agency Services unit at Omnicom, hosted the presentations. The DAS ...