MEDIA BISTRO

by Kiran Aditham

John Adams

RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

by Randy Hallman

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RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

by Jacob Geiger, Work It Richmond

IHAVEANIDEA

by Brendan Watson

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WORK IT RICHMOND - RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

WTVR

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) — Twenty years ago, Richmond was one of the murder capitals in the nation. Downtown was all but a ghost town.

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Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter had its hands all over the Super Bowl’s commercials.

Add a graduate of VCU’s School of Mass Communications and you’ve got an even dozen, enough to put a starting offense on the field and have a kicker standing by.

Four Brandcenter grads contributed to three ads that landed in the Top Ten of USA Today’s Ad Meter rankings, which drew responses from 7,619 viewers.

Here’s VCU’s Super Bowl roster and the ads (airing nationally unless otherwise indicated) on which they worked:

• Luke Behrends: Tide “miracle stain” (2nd in the USA Today rankings);

• Steve Yee: Kia “space babies” (6th);

• Kendall Beveridge and Raunak Munot: Audi “prom night” (10th);

• Devin Kennedy: Best Buy “ask Amy Poehler”;

• Mark Peters: Volkswagen “get-happy office guy”;

• Patrick Maravilla: Samsung “Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan, upstaged by Lebron James”;

• Richard Perusi: Blackberry “my new Blackberry”;

• Patrick Simkins (School of Mass Communications): Toyota “wish granted”;

• Britton Taylor: Old Spice “irresistible” (aired in Alaska and on YouTube); and

• Laura Fallon and James Wood: BMO Harris Bank “dream home” (aired in the Midwest).

USA Today’s top vote-getter was a commercial featuring Budweiser’s perennial-favorite Clydesdales. The horses barely edged the Tide commercial, written by Behrends, who is a copywriter for the Saatchi & Saatchi agency in New York.

The ad shows a San Francisco fan spilling salsa on his 49ers jersey, resulting in a stain that looks like legendary San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana. The stain leads to fame and fortune, until the fan’s wife throws the jersey in the laundry and gets the stain out — with Tide, of course.

At the end of the commercial, she turns to the camera, smiles slyly and says softly, “Go Ravens.”

The ad was featured Monday on NBC’s “Today” show, giving guest Matt Miller, Brandcenter board member and president of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, the opportunity to say the Brandcenter is the nation’s top advertising grad school.

 Including Brandcenter Alum Katherine Wintsch (CS, 2001)

ADVERTISING AGE

Ad Age honors the innovative, young marketing leaders who have made their mark in the client, agency and media realms -- all before their 40th birthdays.

Including Brandcenter alumni Kelly Diaz, Creative/Writer at Mother (CW, 2009) and Holly Hessler, Associate Creative Director at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA (CW, 2009)

BUSINESS INSIDER

Madison Avenue isn't just made up of Mad Men.

Women have had a hand in creating some of the most iconic ads in America, from the Alfac Duck to Old Spice's "man your man could smell like" to Allstate's Mayhem. And yet they only make up 3 percent of creative directors industry-wide.

These paltry numbers inspired us to showcase the most creative women in advertising in the U.S.

We asked agency folks to nominate the women that make their shops shine, as well as the women they admire from afar. Using those nominations combined with our own research, we selected the 33 female creatives that wow us the most. Our rankings are based on a combination of creative work, seniority in the industry, size of the shops (and clients) they work for, and ability to keep making interesting pieces.

While it's encouraging to see this many truly talented women, there was a lack of nominees who were not Caucasian. The ad world still has a ways to go.

27. Kelly Diaz, creative and writer at Mother

Diaz will be forever grateful for the day when her father brought home a used video camera instead of a Barbie doll.

Two decades later, she is making ads for brands including Google, JCPenney, eBay, Slim Jim, and Almay.

She even had a moment in the limelight when she starred and wrote a spot for U by Kotex. The spot, which now has more than one million views on YouTube, called out how absolutely ridiculous most tampon ads are: from the puppies to the dancing to the blue liquid.

 

 

 

 

18 & 19. Holly Hessler and Helena Skonieczny, associate creative directors at TBWA/Chiat/Day

TBWA/Chiat/Day

If you watched any television at all during the holiday season, then you probably noticed Crate&Barrel's simplistic but moving new ad campaign.

The spots were created by Holly Hessler and Helena Skocienczny, who go by H&H around TBWA. Although Hessler was born in Virginia (and previously worked at 72andSunny) and Skonieczny was born in Brazil (previously at Motion Theory) they came together in 2011. 

Their first joint project was pitching Crate&Barrel, which they won. The two have also pitched and won Southwest Airlines and have created Diet Pepsi's soon-to-be-released 2013 campaign.

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Google+ ad written by VCU Brandcenter Alum Natalie Hammel (CW, 2010) wins the 2012 USA Today Print Advertising Competition.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

The winner of a contest to encourage creativity in print advertising, with a grand prize of $1 million worth of full-page ad space in USA Today, is a company that, it can be said, is a reason there are contests to encourage creativity in print advertising with prizes like $1 million worth of full-page newspaper ad space.

The winning ad by Natalie Hammel (CW, 2010):

The contest, the 2012 USA Today Print Advertising Competition, was announced on Oct. 1, in conjunction with a redesign of USA Today timed to coincide with the newspaper’s 30th anniversary. The winner of the contest is the Google Creative Lab unit of Google, which is known for, among other online innovations, Google News, a free aggregator of the content of newspapers like USA Today.

Executives of USA Today, which is owned by Gannett, are to discuss the results of the contest on Wednesday at a breakfast at the newspaper’s New York office.

The Google Creative Lab entry was one of three finalists in the contest, which attracted about 100 entries that were judged by six advertising and media executives. The winning ad promoted the Google Plus Hangout service as an alternative to meetings in person.

One runner-up was the Advertising Council in New York, for an ad from a campaign for Save the Children, which carried the theme “Every beat matters.” The campaign was created by BBDO New York, part of the BBDO Worldwide division of the Omnicom Group.

The other runner-up was Team Detroit, a WPP agency, for an ad for a new toy, Nanoblock, sold by the Ohio Art Company.

There are those who will applaud the outcome of the contest, which asked the entrants to submit print ads — existing or new — that they deemed their most creative. A company like Google, according to such people, ought to hear an “attaboy” or two when creating ads in print rather than online.

“I love the idea of using print to talk about a technology,” one judge, Tiffany Rolfe, said of the winning ad.

“To me, print is still an interesting medium,” said Ms. Rolfe, who is a partner and chief content officer at Co Collective in New York, an agency that works for USA Today. “We have to work harder now to use it effectively.”

(VCU Brandcenter Professor Kelly O'Keefe is quoted)

FORBES

Powerful brands easily stagnate, playing it too safe with a strong product and failing to innovate or keep up with the times. These former icons either fade into relative obscurity or dust themselves off. We’ve seen several flashy comebacks in the last few years: a heritage deodorant line’s revitalized “Old Spice Guy,” the revival of GM’s Chevrolet, and the renewed celebrity of former President Bill Clinton, star of the 2012 campaign trail.

Which elapsed products, struggling companies or forgotten personalities will revive their brands in 2013? Marketing and branding experts cast their votes for the next big comeback stories.

Myspace

The original social network may be poised for a rebound, after being purchased from News Corp. by performer Justin Timberlake and a group of investors last year. A two-minute teaser video released in September prominently features Timberlake and reveals the new design as photo and entertainment focused. Users are asked to request an invitation to the reimagined site. With Google+’s struggle to get off the ground and Facebook’s flubbed IPO this year, TalkPoint Marketing VP Dan Roche believes Myspace has a real shot at comeback success in 2013. “They have the advantage of an established name brand, infrastructure and experience,” he says. “With the influx of new blood, they can make inroads into the Facebook dominance.”

Tiger Woods

“Woods’ brand hit the fan in 2009, when we saw his personal life blow up in front of us,” says Kelly O’Keefe, chief creative officer at media agency CRT/tanaka and a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter. “Then, even worse, his [golf] game blew up in 2010 and 2011.” However, this year he started performing better on the green and saw his earnings bounce back to $4.4 million in winnings and $55 million in endorsements, making him the world’s third highest-paid athlete. With the return of his game and his confidence, O’Keefe believes consumers are ready to forgive his personal failings and support his career redemption. Plus, “in light of drunk-driving manslaughters, murder/suicides, doping and lying by other athletes, Tiger’s marital infidelities are starting to look tame by comparison,” he says.

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BestOnlineUniversities.com

The power of the Internet to transform educational experiences and increase the availability of world-class education is unparalleled. Online universities have taken advantage of the great scalability of online classes to provide higher education to people from all backgrounds and all budgets. Even the Ivy League schools have started offering online courses in advanced subjects like artificial intelligence and database management.

Social media and blogging platforms that allow anyone to publish their work online have created a new venue for interaction between students and professors, and many profs have taken it upon themselves to provide more educational value, career advice, marketing services, and more via personal websites, Twitter feeds, and Facebook pages. The professors on this list are all respected in their fields, successful in business and research, and highly active in the online community. They are working to make web-based communication technology an integral part ofthe lifelong learning experience for their students and anyone else who wants to tune in.

30. Kelly O'Keefe

Kelly O’Keefe is a professor at the VCU Brandcenter. In addition to his teachings at the VCU Brandcenter, O’Keefe is a pioneer in digital marketing and branding with over two decades of experience in these areas.

• University: Virginia Commonwealth University
• Specialty: Digital Marketing and Branding
• Blog/Website: VCU Brandcenter
  
• Twitter: @kellyokeefe

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 (#18 Katherine Wintsch graduated from the VCU Adcenter in 1999)

BUSINESS INSIDER

By Laura Sampler

The Mad Men era of advertising might be over, but sexual parity in the advertising industry has yet to be reached.

Women make up only three percent of creative directors, and they don't match their male peers in the management ranks either.

For that reason, Business Insider Advertising decided to highlight the female movers and shakers in advertising. These are the CEOs, the chief creative officers, the creatives and the financial strategists that rule the global business known as Madison Avenue.

We selected these powerhouses based on nominations from our sources and readers, and our own extensive research. We weighted more heavily in favor of those women nominated by people who compete against them. The overall ranking is based on position, tenure, agency size, revenue growth, client access, and cultural impact on the ad world.

—With reporting by Christina Austin

18. Katherine Wintsch, senior vice president and group planning director at The Martin Agency, founder of The Mom Complex

In 2005, after only three years at The Martin Agency, Wintsch become the youngest person in the history of the shop to be named an officer at the company, and it has only been an upward climb since.

Wintsch has worked on brands including Walmart, Hanes, Vanilla Coke, NASCAR, and Miller beer. But she's also talented in acquiring new business. Upon being appointed to the pitch team, she assisted in the securing of multiple major accounts that gave an additional $63 million in annual revenue.

But motherhood also plays a prominent role in Wintsch's life. After having her second child in 2010, Wintsch launched a new division of the agency called The Mom Complex.

Famous work includes rebranding Walmart in 2008 and assisting with the tagline: "Save money. Live better." 

According to Walmart International Chief Marketing Officer Rick Bendel, "Katherine's ability to bring a mother's life to life is unmatched ... In addition to delivering compelling content, Katherine's passion and positive energy is contagious. Katherine has a remarkable way of gathering a team around a mission and ensuring everyone is engaged."

These are the people who make the machinery of media, marketing and technology hum.

(Stuart Jennings graduated from VCU Adcenter in art direction in 2003.)

ADWEEK

By Tony Case

There are many (some might say too many) lists of power players in business, often studded with names from the worlds on which we report: media, advertising, entertainment, technology and consumer brands.

But here, Murdoch, Moonves and Martha need not apply. The Adweek 50 is not merely a tally of the highest ranking, highest profile, highest paid execs (hasn’t Mark Zuckerberg topped enough lists already?). Rather, here we give props to the muscle men and women, those who won’t necessarily make the cover of Forbes—and many of whom you may have never even heard of—but individuals who are, without question, indispensable to their organizations and key to keeping the wheels of the business spinning.

Here you’ll find buyers and sellers, publishers and editors, programmers and showrunners, account people, recruiters, designers and digirati—even a VP of cookies (Kraft Foods’ Lisa Mann, at No. 12). Some are creators, some are curators, others are moneymakers—but to be sure, they’re all innovators.

5. Brandon Henderson & Stuart Jennings

Company: Wieden + Kennedy
Title: Creative Directors
Age: Henderson, 34; Jennings, 38
Location: New York
In 1998, Portland’s W+K gave its three-year-old media-buying outpost its first creative account: ESPN. Since then, solid output for its signature client has helped it carve out an identity separate from the Stumptown mothership. Jennings, who has worked on ESPN since joining W+K as an art director straight out of school nine years ago, and Henderson, who came on board in 2010, run some 15 to 20 campaigns on behalf of the brand each year. That includes making sure marquee program SportsCenter stays consistently fresh after some 17 years with the same tagline—and it does. —Gabriel Beltrone

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Two Brandcenter alumni are featured in Fast Company for Driving Innovation: Hank Leber (CS, 2009), founder and CEO of GonnaBe, and Mike Karnjanaprakorn (CMP, 2006), founder & CEO of Skillshare.

See the videos:

ADWEEK

By Tim Nudd

CANNES, France—One student already won a Grand Prix at the 2012 Cannes Lions festival here. Today, 10 more students were honored through the more traditional route of the Future Lions competition, presented by AKQA.

Future Lions recognizes student work with an emphasis on forward-looking ideas for brands without media, technology or audience constraints. Check out the case studies from the five winning teams below.

Miami Ad School Europe in Hamburg, Gemany, was named school of the year after fielding the most shortlisted finalists in the competition, which drew more than 1,100 entries.

AKQA co-founder and chairman Ajaz Ahmed and chief creative officer Rei Inamoto presented the awards at a ceremony inside the Palais des Festivals on Friday afternoon.

By: Louis Llovio

RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

Saatchi Wellness Chief Creative to Helm School as It Integrates With VCU Business School This Fall

ADVERTISING AGE

By: Shareen Pathak

Helayne Spivak

After almost a year since VCU Brandcenter began its search for a new managing director, the school has found one, and like her predecessor, Rick Boyko, she comes from the agency world.

Helayne Spivak, the chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness in New York, will be the new managing director at the school, starting Aug. 15.

"I've known Helayne for a long time and thought she'd be the perfect candidate," said Mr. Boyko. "She knows how to manage people, but also how to move things in a direction that is going to be current and contemporary. She also has a great wit about her."

Ms. Spivak said that working with the pharmaceutical and health-care businesses for six years has taught her patience, and how to work within bureaucratic structures -- which can be much more nuanced in academia. "Health-care gives you a very definite box to work in, and that should help," she said. "But I'm really looking forward to working in an environment with increased freedom of thought."

Ms. Spivak began her career in 1976 as a copywriter at the now-defunct Ally & Gargano, leaving the agency in 1986 as an associate creative director. She was also an executive creative director at Hal Riney & Partners and chief creative officer at Y&R New York, Ammirati & Puris and JWT, New York.

She even had a stint doing stand-up comedy in Chicago, and bought a 274-seat fine-dining Italian restaurant in Chicago's Northbrook to "learn what hard work was really like." She closed that in 2003 and went to freelance for Energy BBDO, where she ended up leading creative for Bayer's Aleve and One-a-Day Vitamins.

"It really seemed like everything I had done in my life until now and led up to this," said Ms. Spivak. "Everything I've done has led to a certain skill set that could be used in teaching."

The selection comes at a time of change for the Brandcenter, which come fall will be integrating with the Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Business. That integration will lead to more shared faculty, and students graduating from the Brandcenter will now earn a masters of business in their chosen concentration, instead of a masters in mass communication.

The school began its search in May last year, kicking things off with a website, TheWhoSearch.com, which used social media to virtually search for potential candidates, and allowed users to vote for who they thought would be a good pick.

That site didn't play a part in actually finding Ms. Spivak, but Mr. Boyko said it helped in getting the word out about the hunt for a new managing director.

The search committee, led by Mike Hughes, the chairman and president of The Martin Agency, as well as Ed Grier, the dean of the business school, combed through nominations as well as their personal networks. Thirty people made the first cut and that number was whittled down to six, who were brought in to a conference room at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Va., and interviewed over the course of what Jerry Shereshewsky, who is also on the board, called a "very long Saturday."

"The goal was really to give each candidate one last opportunity to tell their story, and to blow our socks off," said Mr. Shereshewky. "Helayne won hands down."

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The former seat of the Confederacy has been quietly transforming into a more creative place. Now it has the visual identity to match.  

FAST COMPANY

By Emily Badger

In early 2010, students at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter were charged with devising a new brand for the entire city--a task all the more daunting given that Richmond, Virginia, has long had a strong, deeply embedded identity. This is the former seat of the Confederacy, the heart of Colonial America, the place where you go to learn about battlefields and founding fathers and early U.S. history. That sepia-toned legacy, though, in many ways sits at odds with the portrait of a cutting-edge community that Richmond’s innovation champions now want to project.

Venture Richmond, a downtown booster group, wanted something that would instead convey creativity, dynamism, and innovation. The city had quietly been transforming into a more creative place, a hub of eclectic interests from indie music to mountain biking to biotechnology. But hardly anyone outside of Richmond, it seemed, knew anything about this. And then it turned out that plenty of locals in Richmond weren’t convinced the city needed a new identity anyway. “There are some people, very significant leaders in the Richmond area, who felt like, ‘No it’s not about creativity, it’s about history,’” says Kelly O’Keefe, professor and former managing director of the Brandcenter, the university’s top-tier advertising school.

His students eventually decided it was better to co-opt Richmond’s historic narrative rather than try to ignore it. They came up with what the Chamber of Commerce’s Chrystal Neal calls an “anti-campaign,” an idea so malleable and unobtrusively grassroots that it sounds as if it couldn’t possibly have been dictated by the mayor’s office. The campaign, “RVA Creates,” is built around a familiar acronym that serves as both a tech-forward hashtag and a blank canvas--one on which Civil War re-enactors and startup entrepreneurs alike are invited to project their own ideas about the city’s creativity. The Brandcenter created an online generator that allows anyone to upload into the “RVA” logo images from the local music scene, or the river-rafting community, or the downtown streetscape--or a nearby battlefield. Running throughout all of these scenes is the idea that creativity takes many forms and that, in fact, Richmond’s history has been defined by examples of it.

“In fact, every place in America is the same age, it isn’t about how old we are,” O’Keefe says. “History is about stuff that happens. And stuff that happens that we know of in history is generally either tragic or pretty darn innovative. We have our share of both in Richmond.”

How To Transform Education Online

#18  Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Founder, Skillshare

FAST COMPANY

By Christina Chaey

Timeline

• 2006

  Graduates from VCU Brandcenter

• 2007

  Moves to New Orleans; works at ad agency Trumpet and volunteers at Idea Village

• 2008

  Moves to NYC; helps Scott Belsky launch Behance think-tank, 99%

• 2008

  Launches The Feast Conference with fellow MCP Jerri Chou because he couldn't afford tickets to TED

• 2010

  Plays in the World Series of Poker and raises over $125,000 for charity

• 2010

  Facebook acquires social app Hot Potato, where he led the product team

• 2010

  Starts Skillshare in November

• 2011

  Skillshare goes live in April

• 2012

  Selected as TED Fellow

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Krystal Plomatos, VCU Brandcenter Class of 2010, is featured.

BY ABBY SCHRIEBER

PAPER MAGAZINE

Krystal Plomatos, 26, Strategist, Mother

Notable campaigns you've worked on?
Sour Patch Kids & Method Man's 'World Gone Sour' rap video. Bengay 'Bodies in Movement' and Xbox Kinect Sports 2 partnership.

Favorite drink?
Tullamore, neat.

Favorite power lunch spot?
Lali's Dominican restaurant, tucked away on 10th & 45th. Because the coffee is as strong & sweet as the ladies who run it.

Do you watch Mad Men?
Yep.

If you were one of the characters on Mad Men, which one would you be? 
Peggy. I like that she's evolved further and faster while everyone around her has lost their shit. She's resilient.

What do you think is the most significant difference between the industry then (1960s) compared to now? 
Since I wasn't around then, I can only offer a half-baked interpretation of the industry during the '60s, which is based on (or biased by) shows like Mad Men and ads I've seen in archives. I associate the '60s with evocative, long-copy ads, and that was the standard by which people knew and judged brands -- by what they said. I think the industry is better now because its shifted to where both marketers and the general population are highly attuned to a brand's behavior. So the first thing I do is check out a brand's 'about us' tab or mission statement, and if I'm jealous of it or inspired by it, then it gets my full attention. And I'm not alone in using this as a means of assessing a brand or ad.



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ADWEEK

In the domains of media, marketing and technology, to be merely young and successful isn’t so remarkable. But to be influential—seriously influential—is something else altogether: to imagine the truly new and different, to impel real change in the way business has been done before, to lead the way and to inspire others to follow. Those are a few attributes that define and set apart these individuals, the Young Influentials, as determined by Adweek’s editors: individuals who have achieved not only a standing in the industry—in most cases, a standing far beyond their years—but who also constitute the very vanguard of innovation in media, technology, brand leadership and creative work. If you haven’t heard of them already, you will.

Britton Taylor
Group Planning Director
Wieden + Kennedy

Taylor, 36, the strategist behind the wildly popular “Smell Like a Man, Man” campaign for Old Spice, is now taking the brand’s North American success global. The native Tennessean, who joined Wieden in 2006 to head strategic planning for Starbucks, got into advertising after a disastrous stint as a seventh-grade teacher. He would go on to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners before helping make the Old Spice campaign an instant classic.

[Britton Taylor is a graduate of the VCU Adcenter (now Brandcenter) class of 2001.]

See Full List >

Read Full Article >

Brianna Graves

Operations Manager, Editor

IHAVEANIDEA

There are many reasons why IHAVEANIDEA is proud to partner with the VCU Brandcenter. But why are we beaming with extra pride these days?

Since 2006, the Brandcenter competed in the Innovation Challenge four times. The first time the VCU team went into battle, they came in 20th, the second time 15th, the third time they jumped up to second place and this year?

Well, this year they were deemed “the most innovative business school in the world.”

That’s right. The Brandcenter’s “Team Brandslam,” comprising Team Leader Jennifer Clinehens, Art Director Cody Pate, Copywriter Katlyn Williams and Creative Technologist Ryan Dowling won the 9th Annual Innovation Challenge, besting 185 other teams. They were up against the world’s most prestigious business schools, including UVA, London School of Business, Harvard, Wharton, Notre Dame and more.

The Innovation Challenge is a well-established international business innovation competition that matches graduate and Masters students with leading brands, charging each team to find solutions to current business and social challenges. For the first time this year, the competition was held entirely online.

All first-year VCU Brandcenter students participate in the Innovation Challenge as part of Professor Don Just’s Business of Branding class. “Team Brandslam” brought varying levels of expertise to the competition; Pate and Williams came straight to the Brandcenter from undergraduate students, while Dowling worked as a graphic designer before beginning grad school.

“Team Brandslam “worked with AT&T in the “Strategy/Business Model” category, helping the brand develop a product that used cloud computing, specifically for small and medium-sized businesses.

The method to their brilliance?

“We stayed true to our unique voice, and abided by Lee Clow’s saying, ‘If you wish to outsmart, out simplify,’” Clinehens said, “With every image, message, and word we chose, we did so knowing that our point of view was different from the MBA programs. We positioned ourselves as different from the typical MBA presentation in every way, and it was a gamble that thankfully paid off.”

The effort involved intensive quantitative and qualitative research, talking to potential consumers and developing strategies based on key consumer and marketplace insights.

“This win serves to validate the Brandcenter’s focus on developing unexpected consumer insights and then using those insights to craft imaginative strategies that enhance the market power of brands. Here a great deal of energy is expended searching for big, business-building ideas, innovative ideas that resonate with today’s consumers, building brand equity. There is no better example of this approach at work than the winning effort of our Innovation Challenge teams,” Just said.

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Liz Butterfield
Contributing Writer

Commonwealth Times

Last Friday at 3:59 p.m., four VCU Brandcenter students poised themselves to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

The team of graduate advertising  students won the title of “The World’s Most Innovative MBAs” and $20,000 at last week’s ninth annual Innovation Challenge.

The four-person team was first-year Brandcenter graduate students Jennifer Clinehens, Ryan Dowling, Katlyn Williams and Cody Pate. None of the team members are actually MBA students.

The team was awarded the lump sum to split evenly between them. In addition to reducing student loans and credit-card debt with their winnings, the team said they plan on throwing a small celebration at the Brandcenter in honor of all students who competed at the challenge. Two other VCU teams placed in their category at the challenge.

The win comes as a pleasant surprise to team leader Clinehens, who said she attributes the win to hard work and a good program.

“I think that’s just a testament to Brandcenter and VCU and this whole unique interdisciplinary program, and … the value of hard work,” she said.

The team designed a solution that would increase efficiency and reduce costs for small businesses using cloud platforms for sponsor AT&T Inc.

No major details of the project are released, as AT&T Inc. can use their idea commercially.

The team, called “Brandslam,” beat out 185 teams in the challenge, including teams from Yale, Standford, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

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 RVA NEWS

A team of VCU students have won the 9th Annual Innovation Challenge, a competition among graduate students from universities all over the world to find solutions to pressing business and social innovation challenges. They competed against teams from graduate schools such as Harvard, Dartmouth, and UC Berkeley in the final round of AT&T division competition.

Students at the VCU Brandcenter, one of the top advertising programs in the country, developed a successful cloud-based platform solution for small businesses. “After interviewing a handful of small business owners, we quickly learned that many didn’t understand the full value that cloud services could provide,” said the VCU team spokesperson Jennifer Clinehens in a press release, a creative brand management student at VCU Brandcenter.

The VCU team came up with a tool that small business owners could use to simplify cloud and mobile applications to increase productivity and efficiency, all the while providing these small businesses with the “analytical firepower” typically harnessed by larger companies, all for a fraction of the typical costs.

The VCU team, which consists of an art director, copywriter, creative technologist, and creative brand manager, will share in a $20,000 grand prize. They will also ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange later this afternoon.

“We’re always looking for opportunities to encourage new, innovative technology solutions and thrive on the creativity provided by graduate students,” said Sam Zellner, AT&T’s Executive Director of Innovation. “The VCU team’s innovative approach to simplifying adoption of cloud computing for small businesses has a lot of potential and we’re thrilled to have been a collaborator in their winning submission.”

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Rick Boyko Shares Insights in Letter to Next Director of the VCU Brandcenter

Over the past eight years it is has been my privilege and pleasure to have taught and learned from the over 700 VCU Brandcenter students who have graduated and gone on to work at just about every agency in the world including, Wieden & Kennedy, TBWA/Chiat/Day, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, CP&B, Martin Agency and Droga 5, as well as with marketers like Target, Audi, Nike, Anthropologie, Lego, Google and Microsoft.

During my tenure, each class of students has demonstrated they expect and want to be challenged by someone who will instill in them a passion and caring for our craft. I've also witnessed a movement by them as they have transitioned from doing ads to having a distinct interest in solving marketing problems by bringing a brand story to life in new ways, which adds meaning and value to a greater good. One good example of this is our recent Still4Japan web, PR and social-media campaign, which will urge people to remember the tsunami victims.

This is why our curriculum has changed six times over the past eight years and why it has to continue to change and evolve to meet with their desire to do things differently. As we begin our search for the next director of the VCU Brandcenter, here are a few thoughts on what he or she can expect and look forward to in helping fuel the industry with the next generation of talent.

• First and foremost, the students are constantly curious so you can expect them to demand the same of you.

   

• You can expect them to challenge and question everything. They will not do things the way they've always been done.

   

• They are digital natives. You can expect them to infuse digital thinking and strategy into any problem they are given, making it necessary for those above them to better understand the digital landscape as well.

   

• Expect them to want to affect change and therefore try to solve social issues around sustainability and creating a better life by asking the brands they work for to do the same.

   

• Expect their interests to include all aspects of branding from product design, package design, in-store display and content development, making companies like Ideo, Redscout and What If? places of interest to them.

   

• You can expect them to have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to create their own intellectual property, challenging the school and the companies that hire them to infuse engineering into their thinking and understanding.

   

• Finally, being around the students, you can expect to be inspired and reinvigorated about the possibilities that this business offers, ensuring that whoever takes on this position will find it the most rewarding job they will ever have.