ISIB Sophomores Scoop National Advertising Awards
The National Advertising Art Design Competition for College Students (NAADCFCS) is a competition hotly contested by students from all over China.
In fact, it is the country's largest state-level competition, covering the widest range of schools and the largest number of participants.
In 2018, among the winners were two of our ISIB students. Majoring in Brand Strategy and Management, both are still in Year 2.
Shuyu Tan won a Second Prize outright, and Saint Xiong won the Excellence prize for the Shanghai Area.
This page showcases their prize-winning work, revealing the true meanings underpinning its creation.
Shuyu's advertising is concerned with public welfare, and was inspired by moments of sympathy she regularly experienced while riding the subway. Her poster reflects the plight of migrant workers – Shanghai's construction workforce - who toil so hard but receive such low pay and security. She wants them at least to be offered a seat on the train.
The man depicted in her poster is Wu Dashan, who arrived in Shanghai from Western China five years ago. The photograph captures him having remained on his feet for a whole day, his body visibly exhuasted. At this moment, he is waiting for the subway train, preparing to pick up his son from kindergarten. As the poster's words convey, he still doesn't know how much longer he has to stay standing. Shuyu hopes this public information message will encourage passengers to offer their seats and show more care to such workers.
Saint chose the brand Durex, his concise advertising concept drawing clear inspiration from a line in the movie <
The condom is the glass slipper of our generation.
You slip one on when you meet a stranger.
You... dance all night.
Then you throw it away.
The condom, I mean.
Not the stranger.
In Saint's series of posters, a girl is brought up wearing a pair glass slippers, hoping one day to meet her fairy-tale lover and marry him. The glass slipper that appears in Saint's poster clearly resembles a condom, and fulfils a comparable function. In being depicted thus, the condom takes on an aspect of ceremony and respectability - even purity. Simultaneously, Saint is eager to exude the spirit of living in the moment. He acknowledges that life after these early fairy-tale encounters cannot always remain as breathtakingly romantic. Shared memories are therefore precious and valuable, and these glass slippers invite couples to remember a special moment.
"Hey buddy, don't forget to wear your glass slippers!"
"When she wears crystal shoes, you have to wear yours too."
As you can see from these two competition entries, our two students have excelled in the production of innovative ideas. Both concepts are the fruits of combining accumulated professional knowledge with close observations of the daily life. In both, there's an amplification of details most of us fail to notice or regard as trivial. Such insights are not imposed on students during their normal class study, but they are encouraged and nurtured here.
At ISIB, we are frequently reminded how real life qualities help define what a brand is. We are motivated to discern both consumers' and brand-owners’ thoughts. In this way, we are able to translate moods, hopes and ideas into prosperous consumer relationships.
Author: ISIB Sophomore Catherine
