How do you sell Millennials (i.e. children of Baby Boomers) on a soda they view as a beverage of their parents’ generation?

This was the problem a team of 30 advertising students from the U’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications tackled when they created a Coca-Cola campaign that won first place in the 2007 National Student Advertising Competition. The U’s “Together” campaign featured an essential characteristic of the Coca-Cola brand: the role it plays in social connections.

“We had motivated, resourceful, and committed students who worked 10 to 20 hours per week from fall to spring,” explains faculty adviser Howard Liszt.

Contributions from the advertising industry helped cover research and travel expenses, and scholarships also played a role. “Thanks to scholarships, many team members, myself included, could devote time to it,” says Brandon Miller, ’07. “The experience was invaluable and instrumental in landing my first job at Carmichael Lynch—a top Minneapolis agency with a national reputation.”

Though this was the first time the U took top honors at the National Student Advertising Competition, U of M teams have made it to the national finals five of the past six years, including third-place finishes in 2006 and 2002. No other school can claim such a track record of success.

Find out what makes the U an advertising powerhouse in a short video.

This story originally appeared in the winter 2008 issue of Legacy, a quarterly magazine for U of M donors and friends published by the University of Minnesota Foundation.