Initially, when myself and fellow Morochians’ – Austin Yoder, Nikki Cloer, Kala Brock and Ben Rucker – were asked to participate in the
4A’s Institute of Advanced Advertising Studies (IAAS), we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Some of us thought,
“Sure! I’ll take a class after work, learn more about my industry, meet some interesting people and impress my boss!” Little did we know that IAAS would be a whirlwind of an experience.
During IAAS, we partnered with
La Quinta to evolve their current regional
Travel Advisor Videos that promote regional attractions and hotel properties. It was our role to recommend a strategy on how to evolve the videos while building brand perception and guest loyalty through increasing engagement. At the end of the 14 weeks, we presented a new business pitch to La Quinta, and our success was measured by tracking return on ad spend and booking revenue.
Each week throughout the program, we would break up into our “agencies” that were compiled of five people from different Dallas-based agencies with 1-4 years of industry experience in various disciplines, such as creative or media or account.
My group in particular decided to evolve the Trip Advisor Videos into a platform and created a mobile app to support it. Users within the app completed a sentence about the region they were in, what they wanted to do and the LQToDo app (our new name for the platform) would spit out suggestions that were catered to the consumer’s locale. We also came up with two taglines: “
Find your sunshine” and “
See more. Search less.” Finally, we created a media plan that would support this platform in different mediums.
Throughout the journey there were highs and lows. We were pushed out of our comfort zone and we realized that no matter what discipline we worked in, we all contribute and have a say in the final result. Ultimately, we all have the same goal—success in the eyes of our client. Going through the IAAS class has ultimately challenged the way we think when at work. Furthermore, it has allowed us to see how other disciplines view the task at hand and has given us the tools to work successfully in a collaborative environment.