Mr Hart, sent me an email the other day about an upcoming event that you may be in interested. The 2008-2009 Yellow Pages Association (YPA) Advertising Challenge. Advertising Challenge winners and their faculty sponsors will share in nearly $10,000 in total prize awards. Beyond providing valuable experience and monetary prizes, the advertising challenge is designed to reward and showcase excellence in student-created advertising. Winners will have their work displayed on the YPA Academic web site and their work will be honored at the YPA Annual Convention.

This Year's Client
U-Store-It, a leader in self-storage, has agreed to serve as this year's client.

The Assignment
Students entering the 2008-2009 advertising challenge will create two Yellow Pages print ads and one Internet Yellow Pages ad for U-Store-It, who will also play a significant role in the competition judging. Students can work alone or in teams of up to three, under the supervision of a faculty advisor. Multiple teams can enter from the same class or school and the entry can be the result of an in-class assignment, if desired. All entries are due by April 24, 2009.
You can download the case study by clicking on this link: Download case study. You can obtain all of the competition materials after they complete the free registration at the Advertising Challenge Registration section of the advertising challenge web site.

Prize awards will be distributed as follows:

• 1st Place:$2,500 to winning team; $750 to faculty sponsor
• 2nd Place:$1,500 to winning team; $500 to faculty sponsor
• 3rd Place:$750 to winning team; $350 to faculty sponsor
• Honorable Mentions (up to 3): $300 to winning team; $200 to faculty sponsor

Beyond monetary prizes, entry and success in the advertising challenge can help students beef-up their resumes. All winners will receive a personal letter of commendation from Neg Norton, President, YPA.

Easy to participate
All support materials available online from Yellow Pages. They have developed a detailed case study, which in addition to the client and competition briefing, contains examples of U-Store-It's and competitor's ads as well as other materials to minimize your work while at the same time improving your chances of developing a winning entry. Visit the website for more info. If you are in interested let me know.