With gas prices expected to reach $4 a gallon this summer students from the UNM Anderson School of Management are developing an advertising campaign aimed at tackling the ever‐present “pain at the pump.”

UNM is one of 11 universities participating in a program sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association designed to give marketing students the opportunity to develop national and local marketing campaigns for public transportation.

The partnership is an industry‐education program, known as “Green Means Go: The American Public Transportation Association Campus Challenge.” The focus is for students to inform their 18 – 25 year old peers about mass transit and encourage them to use it. “What makes this program so exceptional is that it is run entirely by students, for students” says John Benavidez, marketing professor at UNM.
The 37 students enrolled in Benavidez’s class formed an advertising agency: Anderson Advertising Marketing Promotions (AAMP). The students will receive a $1,000 budget to create, validate, and deliver a comprehensive integrated marketing communications campaign. The program culminates in a formal marketing and public relations agency‐style presentation that will be presented to APTA and Albuquerque’s local mass transit providers, including ABQ Ride and New Mexico Rail Runner Express. The strategies developed must also be capable of influencing the target market across the nation.

All 11 universities participating in the program will be competing in the Scholastic Achievement Awards. The top three universities will be invited to Washington, DC, where they will present their campaign to APTA representatives at the national level. Teams from UNM have placed either first or second in similar marketing challenges with companies such as Cadillac and Subaru over the past four years.

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