J-School students excel in Direct Marketing's ECHO competition

USC journalism school students again have proved they can take on the best in the nation and come out on top.

The latest triumph was at the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation's Collegiate ECHO competition, where teams from the 2004-2005 advertising campaigns classes won one category and took second and third in another. Teams also won four honorable mention citations, and five other teams were named semifinalists.

More than 150 entries were submitted for the competition's 20th year. ING Direct sponsored this year's competition, which was split into two challenges. The first was to solicit applications for Orange Mortgage; the other was to seek new customers for Orange savings accounts.

The USC team of Cara Kistler, Brooke Talbert and Mike Thomas won the gold medal in the Orange Mortgage challenge with their “Less is More” campaign.

The judges recognized the work for its “in-depth analysis and spot-on competitive review” as well as its extensive knowledge of the industry and identification of the target market.

The team received its trophy Oct. 18 at the Direct Marketing Association’s International ECHO Awards ceremony at Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center. USC won the undergraduate competition over Creighton University, which took second, and a team from the University of Georgia, which was third. A City University of New York team took graduate school honors.

In the Orange savings challenge, the Silver ECHO went to the team of Catie Fratter, Burke Lauderdale Jr., Andrea Overstreet and Amy Gibbs for the “You Can. With Us.” campaign. The “Green grass. Blue sky. Orange savings.” campaign by Alison Shuman, Meg LeHeup, Kyra Williams and Zach Roach won third place.

edited by Doug Fisher