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AdZou Team Travels to LA After Winning Inaugural Fox Sports University Competition

Student Team’s Proposal Assists Fox Sports Production and Marketing Efforts

By Patrick LeBeau

Columbia, Mo. (Oct. 12, 2015) — A team of AdZou students from the Missouri School of Journalism traveled to Los Angeles on Aug. 7-8 after winning the Fox Sports University strategic campaign competition. The team beat out 15 other teams from three other universities. AdZou is a strategic communication capstone course taught at the Missouri School of Journalism.

AdZou Team in LA with Fox Sports University
Members of the winning AdZou team stand behind the Fox UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) logo while visiting the network’s LA set.

At the end of the 2015 spring semester, the AdZou team pitched Fox Sports executives their campaign suggestions, which consisted of a filmed news broadcast that covered their research methods and insights, creative suggestions and communication strategies, all presented in an original and engaging manner.

“The experience with Fox Sports Live was so unique because of how much they trusted us, as students, to create something for them,” said Colleen Barry, a member of the winning AdZou team. “Fox Sports wanted us to be creative, and they gave us total control. It was a real confidence boost to have that trust and freedom.”

Barry and her AdZou team were selected as the winner of the competition and rewarded with a trip, paid for by Fox Sports, to their studios in Los Angeles in August. The team sat in on production and marketing meetings to offer their contributions and ideas to the rest of the Fox Sports management team.

AdZou Team in LA with Fox Sports University
Members of the AdZou team that won the national  2015 Fox Sports University competition pose on the network’s set in LA.

Four members from the six-person team – Barry, Michelle Hantak, Bryndon Minter and Sarah Morris – were also featured in an on-air segment of the show Fox Sports Live. The show is a sports news television program that features notable sports highlights, breaking sports news and in-depth team and player analysis, all with a take of the lighter side of sports news. Adjunct professor and AdZou capstone instructor Scott Fuenfhausen accompanied the students on the trip as well. Team members Luke Wiersma and Jordan Santo were unable to make the trip.

“I was blown away by how welcoming everyone at Fox Sports was,” Fuenfhausen said. “They constantly asked the team’s opinion about the production and their communication plan.”

This year’s efforts marked the fifth year that AdZou students have worked on projects for Fox Sports University, a nationwide program consisting of 28 universities that work to solve real-world challenges that face Fox Sports and its programming and marketing divisions.

Updated: September 10, 2020

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