After 24 hours of nearly nonstop work, about 50 advertising students sat quietly in a common area yesterday dozing off at times as they waited for their turn to present the campaigns they'd created to their nonprofit clients.
The students had spent the time -- from Thursday morning, through the evening and into the early hours of yesterday morning -- working on creating advertising and marketing campaigns for 10 area nonprofits.
The marathon of creativity was part of the third annual CreateAthon at Virginia Commonwealth University.
"The creative juices were flowing all day, and it was great, but at about 6:30 [in the morning] I just crashed," said Ashley Pearsall, a Virginia State University senior. This was her second year to be part of the CreateAthon.
The students donated time on their spring break.
Most were Virginia Commonwealth University art and mass communication students. They were joined by 14 graphics and Web design students from Virginia State University.
"These guys did a really good job. I mean it's great stuff," said Peyton Rowe, an associate professor of advertising at VCU and the organizer for the school's CreateAthon who spent the 24 hours with the students.
"I'm floored," said L. Robert Bolling, executive director of the William Byrd Community House -- one of the recipients of the students' efforts.
The team created a single brand aimed at attracting people to Byrd's functions, events and programs. Doing so will help the organization raise money.
"The problem we found was that there were a lot of different looks," Tara Hendelman, a VCU advertising student and team leader for the Byrd Campaign, said about Byrd's current marketing materials.
"We wanted to give everything one look to create a consistent theme."
"This is $20,000 to $25,000 worth of work," Bolling said. "We couldn't afford that. We just don't have the resources."
Angela A. Lawrence, executive director of the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation, was equally impressed.
"What we saw was terrific," she said.
The students working with her group came up with several concepts to help the foundation reach a wider audience.
They created a visual campaign to go on billboards, buses and other public places which features pictures of women forming a parenthesis around their breasts. It includes messages promoting awareness and directing people to a Web site the students created.
The students also created a social media presence for the foundation by building a Facebook fan page and a Twitter page, along with information on best practices.
To help raise money, the five students on that team came up with a slogan to spur merchandise sales.
The slogan, "Virginia is for Boob Lovers," would go on T-shirts, tote bags, stickers and other merchandise that the foundation can sell through its Web site or at fundraisers.
It's a slogan that gets attention, starts conversations and ultimately helps raise money for breast-cancer research, said Melissa Calabro, a VCU advertising student who worked on the campaign.
"We're trying to create a message of empowerment," she said.
The nonprofits have several days to request any changes to text and approve the work, before returning the materials to the 10 student leaders who oversaw the teams.
CreateAthon organizers then begin trying to persuade vendors to produce all or some of the work. The nonprofits will be given all the files and creative templates to use anytime.
Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or LLLovio@timesdispatch.com.
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