The 2019 ETSU team won Third-Place at the District 7 level of the National Student Advertising Competition. The competition was held in conjunction with the Spring Conference of the American Advertising Federation, in Mobile, Alabama. The ETSU students competed against other student teams from schools from around the south east such as the University of Alabama, LSU and MTSU. With all districts combined, there were nearly 150 schools working on the same advertising challenge for the client Wienerschnitzel, “The World’s Largest Hot Dog Chain.” The ETSU team was comprised of students from the Department of Digital Media and the Department of Media and Communications. Faculty advisors included Jonathan Hounshell (Digital Media) and Megan Fannon (Media and Communications) and David Roche (Media and Communications).

As part of the challenge teams create an entire advertising campaign. All creative and campaign strategy is then crafted into a professional 20-page book and a 20-minute presentation. On competition day, four presenters from each team deliver the presentation in a high-pressure live setting in front of the judges and all the other student teams.