In ADV 4102: Advertising Campaigns, senior advertising students created competing crowdfunding campaigns for Project Insulin, a nonprofit drug company with the mission of making insulin more accessible. Students had 20 minutes to present their ideas to Project Insulin’s Eric Moyal, executive director, and Allison Ortigosa, chief scientific officer. 

Three groups of five students created and named their own agencies—Next Generation Pioneers, Fifth & Co. and Remedy Communications. Each group consisted of an account director, media planner, art director, copywriter and account planner, simulating the roles of a professional advertising agency. The students pitched their campaigns to the Project Insulin team one by one, simulating the competitive and exciting nature of a real client pitch. 

The campaigns’ goals—to drive donations by not only creating awareness about Project Insulin but also converting that awareness to financial support. 

Throughout the semester, Stacey Harpster, associate professor of instruction, conducts an internal review much like a professional advertising agency to allow the students to periodically optimize their work based on her feedback.  

“I modeled the pitch process from the agencies where I’ve worked,” Harpster said. “I create internal reviews on the timeline of the syllabus, and we have a discussion during each phase of the pitch process.” 

When pitch day came around, each group set the tone for their idea by demonstrating their research on their target audiences and market research on insulin accessibility. Each group presented a different, strategically-informed “Big Idea” that would drive their campaign. 

Fifth & Co.: PI It Forward 

Fifth & Co.’s key message demonstrated how small donations can make a big impact, specifically addressing the barrier that many younger potential donors have less discretionary income to donate. 

Pi It Forward, or #PiItForward, plays on the phrase “Pay it Forward” and uses pie visuals to show that every donor has a piece of the pie, highlighting their message of “Small donation, big impact.” PI plays on the acronym for Project Insulin, and the pie connects to Pi and the donation of $3.14 for the PI Day fundraising campaign goal. 

In Fifth & Co.’s campaign, they would ask participants to donate just $3.14 and post a video on social media getting pied in the face, then nominate three others to pie it forward and do the same, similar to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. This social media phenomenon would help create virality and widespread awareness about Project Insulin while garnering small donations from Gen-Z donors. 

Remedy Communications: Together, we are the solution 

Remedy Communications came with a simple yet effective key message—when you support Project Insulin, you’re directly helping people in your community. 

“When diabetes affects one, it connects two,” was a central idea in their campaign, as well as their tagline, “Together, we are the solution.” 

Visually, Remedy Communications used Polaroid and real candid photo imagery to demonstrate the real-life and connection aspects, as well as target Gen-Z's connection to documenting their experiences through photos. 

Their research demonstrated the widespread nature of diabetes, and they used statistics to create a foundation for their messaging by placing a strong emphasis on creating imagery and messaging that would remind donors of connections with those they know personally who may be impacted by diabetes.

Next Generation Pioneers: PI Math—Winner 

The winning group, Next Generation Pioneers, created a social media trend called “PI Math.” “PI Math,” based on the viral “girl math” trend, shows how making insulin affordable allows diabetics to focus on living, not just surviving.  

The students created a slate of example social media posts, both in still graphics and short-form social media video content, that illustrate this concept. A media plan, paid partnerships with influencers who have Type 1 diabetes, a campus pop-up tour with philanthropy partnerships with student organizations and search engine marketing drove home their winning idea. 

“This is a really cool and different way to think through our business model,” Ortigosa said to the students. “The focus on living rather than surviving fits very well into the message we’re trying to drive.” 

Although Next Generation Pioneers won the competition, the Project Insulin team shared that each group brought a unique idea to the table that Project Insulin could implement. 

“I was blown away by their thoroughness, and each of these ideas has legs to be a campaign,” Moyal said. “The visuals, the presentations, everyone did a great job. These are college students who are doing high-level work. They were all very creative in very different ways, and it just shows the breadth of the students’ skill and creativity.” 

Harpster shared the same sentiment. 

“During the semester, this class was really special,” Harpster said. “They cared about their work, and they committed to doing their absolute best quality work. They each have something valuable. As a class, it was a very competitive pitch. Every team had something great to share.”