Established in 2017, the GCU Ad Agency prepares students for careers in advertising and marketing by providing opportunities for hands-on learning experiences while working with real clients and projects. Students receive mentorship, collaborate with peers and industry professionals, build their portfolios and develop essential workplace skills. From 2017-2021, I led the full-time graphic design mentorship team that collaborated with and guided the graphic design students. Each year, we developed portfolio-building passion projects and coined the term Creative Campaign. Working alongside project management and copywriting, we developed creative briefs for Grand Canyon University enterprise clients such as GCBC, Lope Shops, Canyon Pizza Co., and the Center for Worship Arts. Creative Campaigns provide project development opportunities for the students, increase collaboration across departments and allow our highly talented creative team to innovate strategic development for our clients' needs. 2020 was a year unlike any other in history! Challenges included continually fluctuating dynamics with COVID-19, social distancing protocols and the health, wellness and safety of students and staff at GCU as the academic year approached. The Fun Box campaign for Canyon Pizza Co., a GCU enterprise, was developed to increase student awareness, promote their new delivery service, provide an opportunity for students to stay connected and maintain high spirits during the pandemic. The innovative concept to print games onto the white pizza boxes to encourage play was launched prior to the Thanksgiving season to encourage students to stay on campus for individual game play or small group interaction maintaining University social distancing protocols. The campaign was a slice of life on campus, boosted sales and earned Student Best of Show Up and Comer of the Year from the prestigious ADDY awards. Designers: Holly Emerson, Tori Whitcomb, Emily Lane Copywriter: Arianna Bell
