TUSCALOOSA, AL — Ads of the World (AOTW), an international creative advertising community, is showcasing nine advertising campaigns from University of Alabama students in Minerva, the two-year portfolio in advertising program.
Local students featured include: Sydney Smith of Prattville.
The showcase, which was added to the site on January 26, highlights the organization’s student projects from the last year.
“This is a pretty big accomplishment for the students whose work gets selected,” said Mark Barry, director of Minerva. “Now that a few teams have made it, I suspect more of them will be motivated to submit their work.”
Minerva is a two-year portfolio program for creative advertising at UA. The program offers students experience in advertisement creation and the development of their own professional portfolio. Learn more about Minerva at its webpage here.
Among the featured Minerva advertisements from this year are campaigns for Jack Daniel’s, Moleskine, OLIPOP, the Birmingham Zoo, Swimply, Skullcandy, Squarespace, RedBull, and Ring. Some of the ads are located in the Student Section of the site, while others were highlighted on the site’s main webpage. Other student submissions from previous years are also housed on the site.
AOTW is an organization owned and operated by the Clio Network, which hosts The Clio Awards in advertising, design and communication. AOTW boasts 700,000 user visits and four million page loads per month on its website, 200,000 followers on Twitter/X, 900,000 followers on Facebook, and over 200,000 followers between Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Being selected for the AOTW site can boost student portfolios. For this reason, Barry has encouraged student teams to submit their campaigns.
Though the AOTW’s Frequently Asked Questions webpage mentions that the organization publishes almost all submitted advertisements, Barry said in his experience the choice is rather selective.
According to AOTW, submitted campaigns need to be creatively inspiring, informative about the advertised brand, demonstrate original thinking to solve a problem in communication, or highlight a culturally interesting subject.
As more Minerva students submit their campaigns to AOTW, Barry said, “I expect even more good news soon.”
Mark Barry is the director of Minerva and an assistant professor in Advertising and Public Relations (A&PR) at The University of Alabama.
The University of Alabama, part of The University of Alabama System, is the state’s flagship university. UA shapes a better world through its teaching, research and service. With a global reputation for excellence, UA provides an inclusive, forward-thinking environment and nearly 200-degree programs on a beautiful, student-centered campus. A leader in cutting-edge research, UA advances discovery, creative inquiry and knowledge through more than 30 research centers. As the state’s largest higher education institution, UA drives economic growth in Alabama and beyond.
