I am on KU's National Student Advertising Competition team. Each September, we are given a client and an objective. For the next eight months, we work to craft a year-long, integrated marketing campaign. Then, we present it to a panel of judges and compete against other universities. For the 2024-2025 season, our client was AT&T.
The Ask: How can we leverage ‘connecting changes everything’
to build brand love and increase the relevancy of a 150-year old brand amongst Gen Z?
The Objective: Make Gen Z crave AT&T.
KPIs: Brand consideration and brand favorability.
My Role: As Research and Media Lead, I oversaw the campaign's primary and secondary research and media strategy. From September to January, I collaborated with other campaign leads to create and execute our research plan. In the spring, I oversaw the selection of campaign activations and channels, created our campaign's Gantt chart, determined the spend for each activation, and calculated overall impressions. Other responsibilities included choosing DMAs and calculating KPIs.
Guiding Campaign Insight
Gen Z is afraid to commit to themselves. Gen Z's timelines feel controlled by self-imposed pressures and societal expectations, haunted by missed milestones and those yet to come. They need to find contentment in the now, embracing the mindset: “I am where I am. There's nowhere else I should be.” Craving control and freedom, they want to connect on their own terms rather than out of obligation, seeking experiences driven by enjoyment, exploration, and self-discovery.
Strategy
Show that AT&T understands Gen Z’s unconventional originality by celebrating playing with the rhythm of life. In a world where Gen Z is caught in a state of FONKU, AT&T has the opportunity to be the brand that helps them break free. Instead of keeping up, they can set their own pace. Through this campaign, AT&T can inspire Gen Z to embrace spontaneity, originality, and a life that is led by their own rhythm rather than dictated by the digital landscape.
Campaign
Plansbook
Our plansbook lays out our campaign's research journey, insight, strategy, platform, creative deliverables, and media strategy. We won Best Plansbook at our district NSAC competition in April 2025.
Media Strategy
Given a $75 million budget, the Offbeat campaign was planned to run throughout 2026, spanning 20 DMAs. We utilized a strategic two-phase approach designed to meet our audience where they are and achieve our KPIs. Phase 1 focused on raising awareness and driving consideration, while Phase 2 worked to build brand favorability and enhance engagement. With the integration of unique offbeat creative across broadcast, digital, OOH, and experiential channels, we captured only capture attention but also created a strong craving for AT&T among our audience.
