Strategic Communication Capstone Courses Set New Enrollment Record
AdZou and MOJO Ad Offer Extended Range of Services to Wide Range of Clients
By Patrick LeBeau
Columbia, Mo. (Feb. 18, 2016) — With 250 students enrolled, spring 2016 is a record breaker for the strategic communication capstone courses.
MOJO Ad is working on a campaign for Bengay, the muscle and joint pain relief product from Johnson & Johnson. The 30 students in MOJO Ad are focused on a campaign targeting the youth and young adult (YAYA) market, consisting of adults between the ages of 18 and 24.
AdZou‘s 220 students are in 31 teams working on campaigns for 21 nonprofit, government, university and for-profit clients. These include Fox Sports, True/False Film Festival and Central Bank of Missouri.
“The high number of students really make this an unprecedented year in strategic communication for the capstone programs,” said Jon Stemmle, director of AdZou and co-director of MOJO Ad.
Both MOJO Ad and AdZou are fee-based agencies, giving students the opportunity to work for clients in a real-world setting. Each capstone team follows the same process throughout the semester. Students start with primary and secondary research before working their way through the strategy, tactics and creative executions for their campaign. The semester will end with each team formally presenting its entire plan to their client.
Capstone instructors have extensive professional background in advertising or public relations. One is AdZou instructor Scott Fuenfhausen, who already has his students hard at work developing a new campaign that Fox Sports may air during Super Bowl 51 in early 2017.
“I think any time students get a chance to work one of the largest sporting events in the year, they get very excited,” Fuenfhausen said. “Fox Sports has given them the opportunity to work on a campaign that many of them would not have even imagined possible. They are certainly up for the task and ready to take on this fantastic challenge.”
Fuenfhausen’s spring 2015 AdZou team won the inaugural Fox Sports University competition.
Margaret Duffy, chair of the strategic communication faculty and executive director of MOJO Ad and AdZou, said that client testimonials and surveys reveal the success of these agencies.
“Our outstanding faculty guiding the work of smart, talented and well-prepared students leads to great results for clients,” Duffy said. “Our students are ready for work on day one and that’s among the reasons they are getting great jobs all over the world.”
Updated: September 15, 2020