Winner
Keyana Williams, Howard University
Each year, Student of the Year candidates pitch campaign ideas to a panel that includes real-life clients, other senior PR professionals, and PRWeek staff. It's a challenge that would be daunting to even experienced practitioners. This year's winner Keyana Williams of Howard University, impressed the panel with a campaign that demonstrated a real understanding of a target audience, great creativity, and a strong sense of the needs of the brand.
This year's case study was to work on a PR program for the “got milk?” campaign, encouraging teenagers to skip the soda and drink the nutritious and delicious option. The centerpiece of Williams' idea was a program with three key messages: “What's your flava?” to reinforce milk as appealing to individual tastes through a variety of flavors; “got facts,” to promote the nutritional value of milk; and “go milk,” to convey that the leaky milk carton of old has been replaced with cool grab-and-go containers that appeal to the target demographic.
Williams' plan was to launch a national competition in schools across the country. Each school would mount a campaign to promote milk awareness and consumption. A client panel would judge their efforts and creativity, and schools would be required to administer a nutrition quiz both before and after the contest, as a benchmark on how well they communicated the health benefits of milk. Ten winning schools would be chosen to host a free concert and receive a milk vending machine.
At the same time, curriculum packets targeting parents and other influencers would be distributed through the high schools. Principals and administrators would be targeted with direct mail promoting the benefits of milk vending machines. Williams also suggested making the connection between insurance and drinking milk as a way to engage the parents in this process – pointing out that drinking milk for kids is an investment in their future health.
Tackling the “cool” factor of milk, Williams proposed tapping Da Band's road manager, “Mr. Bentley,” and turning him into a modern-day milkman. Williams also proposed a “got milk?” ad featuring Da Band and a variety of flavored milk mustaches.
Judges were impressed with the way Williams successfully integrated each objective into a targeted and compelling program. Her response to the mock crisis situation – where each student had to explain how he or she would handle a situation involving a celebrity spokesperson – was also measured and thoughtful.
Honorable Mention
Michael Dorff, Southern Methodist University
A guerilla campaign targeting cynical teenagers was key to Dorff's creative pitch. He proposed an online animated milk character (inspired by the successful alternative site www.homestarrunner.com) that would have adventures with other milk flavors, but not directly “pitch” milk. Dorff suggested recruiting actor Jack Black as a spokesman for the renamed “slim” milk, aiming to reinforce the nutritious value of lower-fat milk. He noted that Black appeals to the target demographic because of his lack of Hollywood phoniness. Among Dorff's other ideas was getting college students to give away samples of flavored milk at high schools, and conducting a benchmark survey, followed by monthly surveys to determine attitude and consumption changes.
Finalists 2004
Jason Carlton, Weber State University
Michael Dorff, Southern Methodist University
Andrew Favreau, DePaul University
Sasha Hlozek, Boston College
Keyana Williams, Howard University
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