AAF team places first in district competition

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
April 21, 2010

The American Advertising Federation (AAF) team at Texas State University-San Marcos won first place in district competition held April 15 in Amarillo.

District 10 consists of universities from the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. The team of 20 students advances to national competition in Orlando, Fla., June 10-12 where it will compete against 17 other district winners from across the country, including a second team from District 10, the University of Houston.

Teams that Texas State competed against included: Oklahoma State University (2nd), Texas A&M Kingsville (3rd) and Angelo State University (4th). Others included SMU, Baylor, Lamar University, West Texas A&M and University of Texas at Arlington. Teams in the second group included University of Houston (1st), Stephen F. Austin (2nd), Texas Tech University (3rd), Texas A&M University (4th), University of Tulsa, Hardin Simmons, Huston Tillotson and Sam Houston State.

Judges commented that Texas State truly understood the client/brand, had done the research to prove they did and executed a strong strategy based on that research. The presenters were Dan Wehmeier, Marissa Deslatte, Julie Korzekwa, Gabe Carrillo and Ben Wirtz.

This marks the 12th time Texas State has advanced to nationals since 1990, winning two national championships and placing in the top four an additional seven times. The AAF team is a multi-disciplinary team with marketing majors, advertising majors, public relations majors and communication design majors. Faculty advisors are Mary Ann Stutts, professor of marketing in the McCoy College of Business Administration and Alexander Muk, assistant professor of advertising in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.