Cars Wars Strikes Back at USF

Zimmerman Advertising Presents 2006 Hyundai to Best Student in Vertical Marketing Class Dubbed 'Car Wars'

TAMPA, Fla., May 3 -- One very talented University of South Florida mass communications student from a class of 14 studying cutting-edge marketing received the keys to a brand new 2006 Hyundai on Friday, April 28. The car was presented by the advertising agency Zimmerman Advertising (formally Zimmerman and Partners) and Scot Fink, owner of Hyundai of New Port Richey, in recognition of superior performance this past semester in an advertising class dubbed "Car Wars: Lessons from the Biggest Marketing Battlefield in the World." This "real world" style class challenged students in the Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP) to produce the results to be named best student in the vertical marketing communications class, one of four advertising electives offered by the USF School of Mass Communications.

Jordan Zimmerman, who was in attendance, is a USF graduate and founder and chairman of the largest advertising agency in the southeastern United States, Zimmerman Advertising, an Omnicom Group Company, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Some of Zimmerman's clients include Nissan, Papa John's Pizza, the Miami Dolphins, S & K Menswear and Office Depot. Zimmerman Advertising currently ranks as the 17th largest advertising agency in the United States, with just under $2 billion in billings, more than 860 full-time associates and 22 offices throughout the country.

Zimmerman created ZAP with a large monetary gift last fall, creating an innovative model for new ways to teach undergraduates the business of marketing and advertising. This semester's class featured presentations from Cliff Courtney, Zimmerman's chief strategic officer, and other members of the dynamic Zimmerman executive team. The course centered on the car industry covering every aspect of the process from category history, consumer research, original equipment manufacture, branding, local store marketing and the sales process through customer loyalty. As part of the program, Zimmerman and members of his executive team from Zimmerman Advertising fly in from Ft. Lauderdale every Friday to teach students and share their real-life experiences in the world of advertising

Students were put through a series of demanding exercises. "We gave them tough assignments with real world crisis solving and grueling deadlines," said Courtney. "We chose the car industry because it is the largest consumer industry in the world, one that affects the global economy and involves thinking about the entire process from drawing board to factory to driveway. The car itself is a product that people have strong emotions and tremendous passion about. Everyone could get excited about this."

"Zimmerman handles Nissan and the AutoWay franchises," noted Coby O'Brien, ZAP coordinator. "Zimmerman's team are in a unique position to teach our students valuable lessons they would not usually learn until four or five years into the business. Our students are being exposed to privileged insights from the experts."

The top student was evaluated through class performance, homework and a final examination. Courtney said he was looking for the "X" factor described in the syllabus as "enigmatic, seemingly hard-to-measure sparks of energy, imagination, presentation or even simply cut-through-the-noise common sense." Scott Fink, of New Port Richey Hyundai, was a guest speaker in one of the classes. "When I heard they wanted to give the top student a car, I suggested a new car," Fink said. "Because of my long-standing relationship with Jordan and the agency, which handles our advertising, we decided to make it a brand new Hyundai Accent." Zimmerman paid all taxes, title and handling costs for the car.

The ZAP class follows Brandtailing(TM), a corporate philosophy at Zimmerman. "Overall, students are learning how to build a brand for tomorrow that will produce sales today," said Jordan Zimmerman. "That theme is woven through all the courses we are offering and informs all the skills we impart." Last semester, Papa John's Pizza provided the real-life advertising case study for the course. The top team members were flown to Ft. Lauderdale to spend several days at Zimmerman Advertising and two students from that class have since been hired by the agency.

"USF advertising students are getting access to the real world of top-tier advertising through the new elective courses made possible by the Zimmerman team and the USF mass communications faculty," said Jay Friedlander, director, School of Mass Communications. "There's no question these courses are preparing students for key positions in the advertising profession."

The University of South Florida is one of the nation's top 63 public research universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. USF received more than $287 million in research contracts and grants last year, and it is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the nation's fastest growing universities in terms of federal research and development expenditures. The university has a $1.3 billion annual budget and serves nearly 43,250 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota/Manatee and Lakeland. In 2005, USF entered the Big East athletic conference.