AU advertising students face the future

A Protex work group looking toward brighter days once the workshop is done.

If there's a transition in life that will change a person forever it's the time between the school years and the real world. The last year of college is one of the most valuable years a person could have, as it prepares them for the future and for that part of life when they are no longer students but active contributors to society.

One of the many purposes of college is to prepare people for their chosen vocations and teach them how to become independent. This is particularly helpful when your parents' purse strings are no longer available.

This transitional stage should very tough and should come very close to simulating real life, especially in the area that reflect what students will be expected to face after they graduate. This way, when students graduate they won't be as startled by any sudden impacts life has to offer.

In some colleges, this transition is used to in just getting students to read stacks of books, writing many documents, and spending many hours on research, and more research. Too much academia can, of course, throw someone off the track of (real) life.

But in Assumption University's (AU) Arts Advertising programme, students not only use their time as a natural transition into life after graduation, they also are given a rare opportunity to display what they have learned in the last four years, which is in many cases is advertising.

The fourth year advertising students at AU get the chills when they hear the word "workshop" - a year long practical thesis wherein students have to come up with their own campaign for an assigned product. This not only includes the advertising aspects, but the whole strategic marketing, planning and problems-resolution aspect of what they will have to solve in order to make an advertising campaign successful. It's a microcosm of the real advertising world.

If you think advertising is a no-brainer and guts-dependent major, you are making a wrong assumption. Students here get to experience their advertising life beginning with a blank page. Starting from scratch, students extensively research the market. Next, they get to know their product and its potential consumers.

This Advertising Workshop not only covers the art and creativity aspects of it, but all the components necessary to communicate the marketing and retail message. The Marketing aspects of Workshop consumes an entire semester, and challenge students on to compile and interpret coded statistics and stacks of questionnaires. Working through such massive amounts of paperwork only portends the intimidating challenge ahead - the marketing campaign. By the time students enter the second semester, the workshop has become your life, both figuratively and conceptually. You sleep, eat, and breathe the workshop so much that you heart jumps every time your product is mentioned.

This year brands assigned to students are Nite, Panasonic, Honda and Protex. One Protex group member said she never visited the soap aisle at supermarkets just to get avoid seeing the logo. But like the old saying goes, you can run but you can't hide.

The second half prompts you to work harder than you have ever worked in your life. It is the worst time to throw in your towel, and yet some have. Careful planning through agonizing hours and lack of sleep can sometimes block the flow of creativity that you need to come up with an exciting ad campaign. At times it can be very hard to get your rhythm back. But always thing positively because you know success is just around the corner. If you don't keep working towards that success, you'll just be stuck. And if you allow a mere workshop to defeat you, then what will real life do?

Not surprisingly, tears and sweat have been shed throughout the course of the workshop. Pressures of completing a perfect task have weighed heavily on both the work and personal lives of the students. They not only practice on their arts but they also have to learn how to work within a team and compete work with others, just like in real life.

But if we endure and don't lose consciousness, the final outcome will be at once rewarding and exasperating, punctuated by an acute feeling of success.

At the end of the course, the students get a chance to present their year-long work to the companies that own the products the students have worked on. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing the clients' faces light up when they hear about the ideas that came from the us, the students. What could be more rewarding than getting our hard work accepted - both academically and professionally? Take the previous year's plan by a group within the workshop for a drive-thru banking window for the Bank of Ayudhaya. That marketing plan is now a reality, and is available for the public to enjoy. Hard work really does pay off at the end!

It can be said for some that throughout the four years at AU, it was during the workshop that student agree they have grown the most. You have to start working towards a goal and you have to be able to live and coordinate with others to achieve that goal. If college is a transition to the real world one has to go through, then a workshop may be the best path to achieve that goal.

Students' year-long work will be on display with guests and speakers from various media and advertising agencies. You can witness ideas that have been put into action and thoughts that have been crafted into reality. It's an opportunity to students to realise their potential for the last time before they step into the working world.

You can witness the end product and experience the personal and academic growth of some of the workshop students at Assumption University's Communication Arts Advertising Department - Journey of Common Senses. Fourth-year Students Workshop Grand Exhibition XI, on July 20, at Pridi Banomyong Institute, Thonglor.