Some very talented students from Miami Ad School will be going to the Super Bowl! Well, not going, exactly. But a regional commercial they're creating for Vapor Zone will be aired during the third quarter of the Super Bowl XLVIII. Also, in addition to the primetime commercial, another team from Miami Ad School will create a television ad that will run regularly after the Super Bowl.
Vapor Zone, an electronic cigarette and custom blend company, chose the students from Miami Ad School's millennial ad agency, SWAT TEAM. The students completed in a set of presentations to Vapor Zone, which allowed them to exhibit their understanding of the brand and the full scope of their commercial ideas. The commercials, according to the school, had to be able to entice the 18-44-year-old male crowd.
The company chose Susana Gonzalez Müller, Nael Shureih, and Tomas Acuña as the winning team, whose ad will air during the game. Stefani Grigio, Ariel Gagnon, Cara Johnson, and Pancho Vial will create the post-Super Bowl ad.
"It feels awesome [to be chosen for the project], especially when you are 19 years old," the students wrote collectively in an email interview. "Also it was really cool to see what had begun as a funny, cool idea from our brainstorming session become seriously thought of and produced...It was a great feeling to watch our idea become a reality."
The president of Miami Ad School, Pippa Seichrist, talked about how the students came by this exciting opportunity. "We are thrilled our students have this opportunity and it is all because of the amazing Miami Ad School network," she said in a statement. "Sean Drake, a graduate and partner/creative at SuperMarket Creative, brought us the project." The production company behind the commercial also has ties to Miami Ad School. "Carlos Gutierrez of No Parachute Films...has taught at the school," she said.
To get into the mindset of the client, the students got creative. "We thought about how we would want our own product shown, in a non-conventional way," they wrote. "We didn't wanted to use the usual paths to show a product, like metaphors or linear and expected visuals." Their approach, as previewed in the video below, impressed Vapor Zone, leading to their win.
The prize might be having a widely-recognized commercial, but the real score is the validation received from hard work and ingenuity paying off on a grand scale, especially for the diverse team of students.
"It is incredible, especially if you're not a North American," wrote the students. "Every member of our team is from different countries. It's nice to see other creative insights, styles, and ideas [from] different cultures come together for such an important American sports event like the Super Bowl. A lot of people will be watching. This means our hard work and creative style will reach a lot of minds and we can make people laugh for 30 seconds. What is so awesome about large scale projects like this is the amount of people who will be appreciating your work."
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