A Day of Firsts

Ad students are always bitching about changing their world and doing something to better their fellow man.

Yesterday was their big chance.

It was the first ever Create-a-Thon on Campus, a 24-hour non-stop advertising free-for-all in which team members come up with campaigns and creative for non profits in exactly 1 day. For the past 6 years the task has been taken on by agencies looking to boost their portfolios and get their creatives' hands dirty (or clean) with humanity-based work rather than corporate shilling.

Along with the Brandcenter and a great undergrad mass comm program, VCU had the honor of being the first and only university invited to participate.

Sweet.

It was sort of like one of those classic elementary school sleepovers, except this time there were girls, computers, no prank phone calls, no sleep, lots of thinking, designing and hard work, and a 3AM dance party.

Also, we drove ourselves to the building instead of having our moms drop us off.

I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful 2nd year Brandcenter strategy student and two extremely talented undergrad creatives, all of whom I didn't mind looking at for 24 long hours, and all of whom taught me the value of good collaboration, team chemistry, and how much you can get done when you really like who you're working with.

I also had the pleasure of working for and pitching to my first "real" client, connectrichmond.org, an online hub where "community leaders, volunteers and citizens converge" for various causes. They asked us to drive young, idealistic Richmonders to the site, and who better to do that than young, idealistic Richmonders?


When pitching at 9AM after sleeping 4 of the last 48 hours (I had a rough Wednesday night), it is exceedingly difficult to present passionately even when you have passion for what you're presenting.

But somehow, we managed to pull it off. To our shock and delight, they bought what we sold. Even the notion that they should revamp their brand new, horrible, newly-revamped website.

Even when you can hardly keep your eyes open, it's possible to feel a rush of satisfaction and accomplishment that, for even just an hour, opens them right up.

The experience taught me that it's possible to pull off some pretty amazing shit when your back's against a wall. It was among the most rewarding of my life, and depending on my job situaton next year, I'll happilly forgo another Spring Break for the chance to do it all again.

dubs. out.