TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — Ads of the World (AOTW), an international creative advertising community, is showcasing nine advertising campaigns from UA students in Minerva.  

The showcase, which was added to the site on January 26, highlights the organization’s student projects from the last year. 

“This is a pretty big accomplishment for the students whose work gets selected,” said Mark Barry, director of Minerva. “Now that a few teams have made it, I suspect more of them will be motivated to submit their work.” 

The creative advertising specialization at UA, also known as Minerva, offers students experience in advertisement creation and the development of their own professional portfolio. Learn more about Minerva at its webpage here

"You're Home, Away from Home" for Ring by The University of Alabama. Art Director: Izzy Hernandez; copywriter: Rachel Narbo
“You’re Home, Away from Home” for Ring by The University of Alabama. Art Director: Izzy Hernandez; copywriter: Rachel Narbo

Among the featured Minerva advertisements from this year are campaigns for Jack Daniel’s, Moleskine, OLIPOP, the Birmingham Zoo, Swimply, Skullcandy, Squarespace, RedBull, and Ring. Some of the ads are located in the Student Section of the site, while others were highlighted on the site’s main webpage. Other student submissions from previous years are also housed on the site. 

AOTW is an organization owned and operated by the Clio Network, which hosts The Clio Awards in advertising, design and communication. AOTW boasts 700,000 user visits and four million page loads per month on its website, 200,000 followers on Twitter/X, 900,000 followers on Facebook, and over 200,000 followers between Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. 

Being selected for the AOTW site can boost student portfolios. For this reason, Barry has encouraged student teams to submit their campaigns. 

"Open to Ideas" for MoleSkine by The University of Alabama. Art director/copywriter: Meagan Riordan; art director/copywriter: Rachel Fields
“Open to Ideas” for MoleSkine by The University of Alabama. Art director/copywriter: Meagan Riordan; art director/copywriter: Rachel Fields

Though the AOTW’s Frequently Asked Questions webpage mentions that the organization publishes almost all submitted advertisements, Barry said in his experience the choice is rather selective. 

According to AOTW, submitted campaigns need to be creatively inspiring, informative about the advertised brand, demonstrate original thinking to solve a problem in communication, or highlight a culturally interesting subject. 

As more Minerva students submit their campaigns to AOTW, Barry said, “I expect even more good news soon.” 

Mark Barry is the director of Minerva and an assistant professor in Advertising and Public Relations (A&PR) at The University of Alabama.