A senior Telstra marketing director recently briefed Charles Sturt University (CSU) final year advertising students to develop a campaign to increase young people’s use of the telecommunication company’s mobile phone services.

 

Ms Anne Llewellynn, advertising lecturer at the CSU School of Communication and Creative Industries in Bathurst, welcomed Telstra’s engagement with Kajulu Communications, the University’s award-winning on campus student advertising agency.

 

“We are delighted that Telstra’s Director of Brands, Advertising and Digital, Ms Chantal Walker*, came to Bathurst to brief students at Kajulu Communications to develop recommendations aimed at increasing brand consideration and purchase in the youth market for Telstra mobile phones,” Ms Llewellyn said.

 

“It is a great opportunity for the students to work with a client of the calibre of Telstra in the capstone subject, Professional Advertising Practice, in the final semester of their advertising degrees.”

 

Ms Walker said, “Telstra is pleased to have a fresh set of talented young minds developing a campaign for their peers. We look forward to seeing what the students come up with.”

 

Ms Llewellyn added, “Because we aim to produce industry-ready advertising executives with sufficient hands-on experience to take their places in the industry, and because these students are one step away from working in the professional advertising and marketing world, we try to engage with high profile clients in order to replicate real industry experience,”

 

Final year CSU advertising and advertising/marketing students work in the professional learning environment of Kajulu Communications on actual briefs from real, paying clients. The client prepares a comprehensive communications brief, as they would for a professional advertising agency, and then briefs the students directly. 

 

Three teams of five or six students then work as ‘mini agencies’ on each project, treating it as a competitive new business pitch. They develop integrated marketing communication strategies based on the client’s brief and primary and secondary research. The students are allowed around six to seven weeks during the semester for campaign strategy development. The teams then present to the client complete campaign strategies and recommendations, including creative and media, to an industry standard. These presentations are delivered in the client’s boardroom, or similar, to enhance the real-world experience and add the necessary and beneficial element of healthy stress that usually results in a first-class presentation.

 

“In another development this year, three final year students in the Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design) from Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga will work with each advertising team in the development of the final creative work and will be involved in the client presentation,” Ms Llewellynn said.