Black Hills State University students from Buzz Marketing, Swarm Advertising Solutions, and the mass communications department will compete in the 2015 National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) in Minneapolis April 10 — 11.

This is the first time BHSU will be represented in this event. The students banded together specifically for this competition. They had to become an American Advertising Federation (AAF) official chapter in order to compete.

The chapter’s 11 participating members will contend against nine other schools in the region. They used a real-world case study for Pizza Hut to develop an integrated marketing campaign proposal and a 20-minute pitch.

None of the participating clubs has ever participated in a competition of this size, but they are looking forward to the challenge, according to AAF Chapter President Danielle Doney.

“Ourteam is extremely proud to represent BHSU atsuch a high level competition. It’salso really great to have mass communication and business students working together.Working on this projectfurther developedour ability to constructin-depth marketing strategiesand execute them in a creative,pleasing manner. We hope that this competition is something that becomes a tradition for our club,” said Doney.

The winning team in each district will move on to the semi-finals, and the top eight teams from the semi-finals will advance to the national finals in Las Vegas. Finalists will pitch their campaign to judges during the AAF’s national conference, ADMERICA!, June 10 — 13, 2015.