Mktg 401 and 402
Course Overview
Syllabus – Mktg 401, 402 (pdf)
Each year, the Boise State University Department of Marketing and Finance offers a two-semester sequence of courses designed to give students intimate knowledge of advertising agency operation. Students in these two courses form an advertising agency. The National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) provides the client (past clients include Coca-Cola, Yahoo!, and Bank of America).
The corporate sponsor provides an assignment or case study outlining the history of its product and current advertising situation. The case study is always candid and reflects a real world situation. In the fall, Mktg 401 students gather and analyze information about the client, its industry, its customers, and its competitors to develop an overall marketing communications positioning strategy. In the spring, Mktg 402 students use the fall course’s information and positioning strategy to develop a complete integrated marketing communications (IMC) campaign that includes tactical decisions. The student team prepares a formal written IMC plan book and then “pitches” its campaign to a panel of judges at a regional competition that includes groups from other Idaho universities as well as from universities in Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
Our teams have taken several top honors at the district competitions over the last several years. They placed first in2003 and second in 2009, 2004, and 2002. The 2010 team won the “People’s Choice” award for Best Presentation and took third place overall. For more information, see Department News.
Students must make formal application to the Department of Marketing and Finance to be considered to take Mktg 401 and Mktg 402. A committee of marketing professors reviews the applications and selects up to 12 students to participate in the courses.
National Student Advertising Competition
Sponsored by the American Advertising Federation, the National Student Advertising Competition is the premier college advertising competition.
Regional NSAC competitions take place each spring in 15 districts throughout the U.S. (Boise will host the District 11 competition on April 23, 2010, at the Boise Centre on the Grove.) The winning team in each district and one wild card team then advances to compete on the national level at the American Advertising Federation National Conference in June.