Tugboat poster wins $1800 - AUT

A poster featuring a tugboat in a bathtub designed for the Royal New Zealand Navy won its creators $1800 towards their tuition.

Three AUT University business students Sanela Dzubar, Manju Seth and Meike Steinmueller designed the winning lay-out, which will form the basis of a new Navy recruitment print advertising campaign.

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The group, studying Consumer Behaviour, had to apply their classroom learning to a real life brief to recruit the elite Navy Seaman Officers who operate and command the Navy’s fleet.

Sanela Dzubar from Howick is in her second year of her Bachelor of Business degree majoring in marketing and human resource management at AUT. She says while class work provides a solid theoretical foundation, working on a real client project presented exciting challenges.

“A career as a Seaman Officer involves travel, discipline and leadership, and candidates need high physical and mental capabilities,” she says. “Our challenge was to find common ground between the Navy and potential candidates and bridge the two groups.”

“We found in our research that potential Naval candidates love boats and closely associate the Navy with boats. As a result, we chose a tugboat as our centrepiece to attract attention.”

Senior representatives from the Navy Recruiting Directorate selected the winning team. Naval Recruiting Officer Lieutenant Commander Mike Hester says the Navy became involved with AUT for two reasons.

“We wanted to get a sense of this role through the eyes of the target market and we were keen to get the Navy brand into the graduate market.”

He adds that the students didn’t have the luxury of client feedback throughout the creative process and then had to present their ideas to a hostile audience.

“Given these disadvantages, we were presented with some fresh ideas and the winning team achieved our aims in bucket loads.”

Winning team member and Mt Roskill resident Manju Seth is completing a Graduate Diploma in Business majoring in advertising, media & brand management. She adds the brief forced them to push themselves.

“The Navy’s expectations were contagious and we started to expect more from ourselves,” she says. “This process has taught us how to conduct ourselves in the real world.”

She says she was enriched by the experience.

“We had a lot of fun working on the Navy’s project and we’re looking forward to seeing the concept coming alive. I must say the moment felt quite magical".

AUT senior lecturer of marketing Dr Dale Russell, himself a former US military officer arranged the project for students with the Navy. He says the result is a win-win for everybody.

“Our students are mentored through on-the-job training and get instant client feedback,” he says.

“They learn to understand the world through changing it and vice-versa, which transcends the notion that the university is a detached, self-contained unit by discovering and creating vibrant relations with the local community.”

Dr Russell says this project is notable because the Navy has provided extra motivation with tuition money awarded to the winning student team.

For more information about the AUT Business School and its programmes, please visit: www.autuni.ac.nz

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