A partnership between UF and Fox Sports culminated Monday afternoon in a competition that put UF advertising students’ creative prowess on display.
In the fifth year of a program called Creative University, Fox Sports Florida and Fox’s Sun Sports tasked a group of six UF College of Journalism and Communications students with producing a campaign for the Miami Marlins that will be presented to the public.
“The Miami Marlins is definitely one of the more interesting and challenging topics that we’ve ever given to a group of students,” said Eric Esteban, media relations manager for Fox Sports Florida and Sun Sports. “We will be deciding which campaign works best, and from there it’s on us to implement it.”
Overcoming impressions that the Marlins engaged in too much player trading, one idea the group created was the playful theme “Don’t Be a Trader.” In an attempt to garner a broader audience, another idea was “Show Your Scales.”
“A big problem with the Marlins was the current brand image,” said Matt Delisle, a 22-year-old advertising graduate student. “You don’t want to focus too much on the negative.”
The students viewed this as an opportunity to create something for the real world.
“With this campaign, we had the opportunity to actually go into production and see something that may actually get made,” said Jonathan Muench, a 21-year-old advertising junior.
The groups presented a storyboard of example television spots, social media campaigns, billboard ideas, print advertisements and radio scripts. Fox Sports officials will discuss which ideas they wish to produce and invite the students on set to view the production.
Echoing the consensus of the group, Muench said, “This is real.”
