Advertising and Media students at Macleay College worked with ChildFund to create an original commercial to promote their “Run for Kids” program, encouraging everyday runners to take on a fundraising challenge for children living in extreme poverty. The live-project gave students insight into the real-world processes of working with a client to develop an advertising campaign, providing the hands on experience and industry focused learning that’s an integral part of the Advertising and Media courses at Macleay College.
The project allowed students to apply their skills and knowledge outside the classroom, tackling challenges from interpreting the client briefing, to developing concepts, writing and storyboarding the ideas, planning the pre-production and then actually producing and post-producing the commercial. Cassandra Sabin recently finished her Diploma of Advertising at Macleay College and worked on the ChildFund project: “Having our idea chosen was amazing and gave me the chance to be involved in every step of the process. Helping produce this ad from the artwork and shot framing to storyboards and costume styling, was such an enriching experience. I really appreciate this opportunity to see how this part of the industry works and to produce something amazing for an organisation as great as ChildFund.”
Rachel Murphy, Community Fundraising Manager at ChildFund, said: “Working with the students at Macleay College was a fantastic experience and an extremely cost-effective way for us to promote our Run for Kids program. The whole team was blown away by the professionalism and creativity of the students and we are delighted with the final product.”
After pitching two concepts, ChildFund chose the ‘#findmeaning” idea from advertising students Bryan Sainsbury-Hore and Cassandra Sabin. The concept presents an everyday runner, with tweets and thought messages constantly appearing on the screen, reminding her of the many, but often superficial things that fill up our lives. As the runner rethinks her motivation, she is joined by a number of other runners, all running for a good reason – to support some of the world’s most vulnerable children through ChildFund. The hashtag #findmeaning emphasises that you can combine your winter fitness training program with helping children in need.
The project offered students the opportunity to develop creative problem solving skills and production experience, while working on a live client brief. “The advertising industry is going through a dynamic and exciting period of change, where there are fantastic opportunities for young people with a broad and innovative approach to solving problems that are coupled with well developed digital production skills” says Head of Advertising & Media, Ian Thomson.
The success of this recent campaign for ChildFund is one of many recent projects Macleay College students have completed for commercial and non-profit clients, including work with MyDish.com.au, The National Indigenous Culinary Institute (NICI), The Line project from Our Watch and The Pacific Artisan Project. Collaboration with industry is invaluable for our students, noted Ian Thomson: “We’re so grateful to have partners like ChildFund who work with and mentor our students, and in turn our students can create valuable advertising and promotional material for them to help achieve their business and communications goals. The experience is invaluable to helping prepare our students for industry. At Macleay College, we look forward to creating positive and collaborative relationships with industry now and into the future”.
Watch the final commercial here:
Macleay College offer a 1 year Diploma or 2 year Bachelor of Advertising & Media at their campuses in Sydney and Melbourne.
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