NSAC 2023 - Indeed
What is NSAC?
The National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) is an annual student marketing and design competition held by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). Each year, a new client provides a brief that summarizes a problem. Each team creates a marketing campaign they think would solve that problem. Then the teams compete for the best marketing campaign. In 2023, the client was Indeed.
My Role on the Team
As the Creative Director, I led a team of 20 students through this competition. I planned the classes and delegated work to the Leadership Team, a team of eight, not including myself, to complete project components on time. I oversaw the project from every aspect, answered questions, and gave feedback on creative deliverables.
This semester provided a great learning opportunity for me. I learned how to delegate tasks, grew my communication skills, and learned how to navigate difficult situations professionally. The biggest lesson I learned is how important it is to be flexible. I liked planning what the weeks would look like so I would feel prepared, have an agenda, and create some structure for the class. The struggle was that I didn’t have the right timing, so I often scrapped my class plan. It taught me how to be flexible and that the creative process is often a messy but fun one.
The Problem
After the pandemic calmed down, Indeed saw the 18 to 24-year-old age range return to using Indeed much slower than other age groups. They asked us to create a campaign that would bring Indeed to the top of Gen Z’s mind and bring them ahead of their competition.
Research
We familiarized ourselves with Indeed and learned as much as we could about their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, competitors, unique selling proposition, brand history, and brand tools. We also researched the 18 to 24-year-old market and learned about their lifestyles, preferences, habits, and preferred social media usage.
We conducted a survey, content analysis, and one-on-one interviews to get feedback on Indeed. We received 1,016 qualified respondents and received a great number of insights. Our biggest insight is that Gen Z doesn’t dream of labor; rather they dream of passion. They want to work in a place that values and respects them and is in an industry they love. It is from this key insight that we gathered our campaign concept.
Concept
“Dream It. Indeed It.” is the name of our campaign. Whatever your dreams are, Indeed can help you achieve them. This campaign’s goal is to connect Gen Z to Indeed and build brand trust. The creative identity of “Dream It. Indeed It.” campaign takes the colors and shapes from Indeed’s brand identity and puts a spin on them. The different use of textures, grids, gradients, and shapes abstractly reflects how everyone’s dream is different and unique to them.
Strategy
We decided to host four main events in our campaign: Indeed IRL, “What’s Your Dream?” Social Media Campaign, Work It Webinars, and Dunkin’ For Jobs. We determined 15 key market areas (KMAs) where Indeed IRL would be most exposed to our target audience. We have a handful of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure our campaign. To track these KPIs, we created a custom dashboard called the Track It Dashboard. It will provide real-time updates throughout the campaign.
Campaign Messaging
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The messaging in Phase 1 emphasizes dream lifestyles and inspires the audience to think about what they want in life. This phase focuses on developing the skills and using the tools necessary for the target audience to find the right jobs for themselves.
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The messaging in Phase 2 focuses on advocating Indeed as the bridge to get users where they want to go. This focuses on promoting Indeed’s resources to help the audience find their perfect job. In this case, the perfect job is one that fits into the audience’s dream lifestyle.
Design Execution
With the strategy built, we handed the plan over to the creative team to create it visually. Below is a collection of the creative deliverables the team made. For an in-depth explanation of our “Dream It. Indeed It.” campaign, read our team's case study!
