HIGH POINT, N.C., May 30, 2014 – Strategic communication students from High Point University created fresh, new marketing campaigns for High Point Community Against Violence (HPCAV). The students spent the past semester creating campaigns to inform the public about HPCAV’s efforts to reduce crime and make High Point a safer community.
Part of a campaigns management course in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication at HPU, the capstone class offered students an opportunity to work with a client to solve a real-world communication challenge, and gave local nonprofits a chance to receive marketing and public relations advice free of charge.
The team that developed the winning campaign for HPCAV was made up of HPU graduating seniors, who combined the skills they learned in prior coursework to develop a public awareness campaign.
“The main thing we wanted to do for HPCAV was create better awareness in the community,” says Melissa Cattai, a member of the winning team and May graduate of HPU. “We wanted to make sure we were investing our client’s money in strategies that were going to get the client noticed around the community.”
The team, which also included members Allyson Hill, Emily Koehler, Alexander Oberlander and Ana Rallis, redesigned some of HPCAV’s existing graphic design aspects, including the logo, a brochure, billboard and newspaper ad, giving the campaign a unified look and feel.
“Being able to deal with a real client and knowing that we were working toward winning an actual campaign that was going to be used in the real world made the class extremely exciting,” Cattai says.
The campaign project was a great collaboration between HPU and non-profits in the High Point community, says Dr. Sojung Kim, assistant professor of strategic communication. “Thanks to the hard work and creative ideas completed by students, HPCAV is now left with specific campaign plans to help them reach their goals. They are eager to start using the students’ innovative campaign ideas.”
Jim Summey, executive director of HPCAV, says he was inspired by the ideas the communications students shared with his organization and impressed by their knowledge and professionalism.
“These students – every one of them – were so very much connected with the course, were intelligent, hard-working, seeking, competitive, driven and purpose-filled to give our organization the best that they could give,” Summey said. “High Point Community Against Violence is so fortunate to have met Dr. Kim and her students, and to have received so much help toward our needs for marketing.”