As part of an event titled “AT&T Reconnect UA,” UA advertising students brought a new perspective on smartphones and media to the UA Mall on Tuesday.
The event featured an interactive display including a bounce house, a tetherball court and oversized cup phones as part of a marketing campaign promoting AT&T.
The project comes from a partnership between AT&T and EdVenture Partners, a national organization for marketing education that offers learning opportunities for students at the university level.
Students in the Marketing 425: Advertising Management course also get to compete to create the most effective campaigns at the national level. Projects are judged by platforms such as social media presence, promotion efficiency and impressions. In order meet the criteria, students were given $3,000 to fund their ideas.
Corey Malley, an accounting senior and project director of the AT&T Reconnect UA campaign, said having students participating in these activities allows them to experience what their future careers might be like.
“This is living and working in the advertising world,” Maller said. “This shows you what you would be doing in a marketing career … We wanted to create something that was fun and gets talked about.”
Students in the course have gotten similar marketing experience through event planning, website development and social media interaction, all of which are components Malley and his partners implemented in their project.
Joe Gotkin, a senior studying business and graphic design, said the experience he has gained in advertising and marketing has helped him prepare for a future career.
“The combination of the two areas is awesome; you get good references and it looks great on your resume,” Gotkin said. “Employers love the idea of that, making it very likely that you’ll land a job.”
The “Reconnecting With Your Past” theme aims to look at the way technology has changed social interactions and how smartphones and tablets like those promoted by AT&T can help people reconnect.
With the growing popularity of apps like Facebook and Instagram and the continuing evolution of phones, the manner in which we use our phones has evolved.
Joe Carrillo, an undeclared freshman, said that he no longer sees his phone as just a form of communication, but as a gadget.
“I usually text instead of call … It just seems less intrusive and more convenient,” Carillo said. “Looking back, we didn’t invent phones to use the internet, but that’s what it’s come to. I don’t see it as a bad thing.”
Malley said he sees this theme as a reflection of the advancements in technology, adding that the playground displays portrayed the message of getting back to simple, person-to-person communication.
“You’re never too old to be a kid, so this theme was meant for everyone to reconnect with their childhood,” Malley said. “We forget the idea that a phone was meant for you to sit down to talk to someone and say, ‘Hi.’”
