ADV 284: Consumer Insight

Veronica Potyrala

When I first entered into advertising freshman year, I was still figuring out which path I wanted to take. In ADV 150, I learned about the different roles in the advertising industry, but I wasn’t really certain on the details of them. Outside of class, I was trying out creative experiences, but I wasn’t sure if it was really for me. During the spring semester of my sophomore year, I took ADV 284: Consumer Insight and finally felt like I found what I had been looking for. 

ADV 284 is a closer look at strategy in advertising, which can also be referred to as account planning. Strategy can often be a harder role to define, and this class goes more in depth on what it actually is. This course is all about everything that goes into an ad before the creative execution. It focuses on consumer behavior and why people have certain reactions to brands as well as concepts, like analyzing trends and what makes advertisements successful. It also goes into detail about what skills are necessary to be a good strategist and what their responsibilities are in an industry setting. 

The main assignment of the course was a semester-long group project that consisted of creating a campaign strategy for a real brand that is currently struggling with issues, like lack of brand awareness or no unique selling proposition. The project started off with a lot of research about the brand, industry, and consumers and finished with a complete plans book. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the traditional version of the class due to the pandemic happening in the middle of the semester, but it was still a really valuable experience. This class was really interesting and useful, especially given the direction the industry is moving in now. If you are interested in becoming a strategist or just learning more about the role, you will want to take this class.