CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - UNI students won a prestigious Gold ADDY award at the AAF-Cedar Valley American Advertising Awards dinner on Friday, Feb. 24, adding an additional accolade earned by their “Quest With Me” creative campaign, developed last spring for Meta as part of the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC).

The award was in the student category of Cross Platform Integrated Consumer Campaigns and included samples of the video ads, TikTok ads, programmatic display ads, experiential activations and campus brand ambassador swag that the students produced. 

The campaign’s creative strategy was based on primary research findings on purchase behaviors and attitudes toward virtual reality (VR) and the Meta Quest 2 VR headset. Students also developed a media plan and schedule, strategically allocating Meta’s campaign budget to appropriate channels to reach and engage with their target audience.

“The cohesion of the campaign and all the intricate ideas played a big part in winning the ADDY,” said marketing major Madison TenHulzen, who served as Director of Accounts and Strategy for the team. “Everything in the campaign had meaning and purpose that was all backed up by in-depth research. Winning again with this campaign was very validating in how well the campaign was actually executed.”

The award brought together UNI alumni who graduated last spring with current students still involved with AAF at UNI to celebrate the hard work they put into their award-winning NSAC campaign — which placed 14th in the nation after winning the district competition last April. 

Members of the UNI NSAC team responsible for developing this campaign include TenHulzen, Cayla Fulcher, Tara Linden, Allyson Davis, Owen Gach, Madison Naeve, Emma Hergenreter, Olivia Johnson, Brady Bock, Jimmie Steffens, CJ Pedelty, Yanghuan Tan, Tate Hookham, Lynn Schweer, Brook Vry, Will Polansky, Claire Schettler, Lauren McClatchey, Megan Rausch, Mitchell Neuzil, Sadie Hilton, Kaleb Haner, Madi Anderson, Katelyn DeKoster, Yijing Chen, Beini Jin, Leah Little, Megan Kramer and Rayanna Schaefer.

Also winning awards, University of Northern Iowa student Megan Duvick won a Silver ADDY for her website The Living Room. 

In addition to these students, professionals at the University of Northern Iowa also took home the following awards:

• The College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences won Silver ADDYs for a direct mail piece and special event material as well as a Bronze ADDY for a direct mail piece
• The College of Business won the Silver ADDY for an internet commercial 
• The Alumni Magazine won bronze for publication design

The American Advertising Awards is the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, attracting more than 25,000 entries every year in local AAF Ad Club competitions. 

The AAF has more than 150 local clubs across the U.S. representing nearly 35,000 advertising professionals and helps more than 4,000 student members kickstart their careers within a 140+ college chapter network with an array of student programs. 

“AAF has been the single most helpful tool in preparing me for my professional life,” said UNI marketing major Will Polansky. “I have pointed out experiences I have had on the competition team in all of my job interviews.”