Advertising students working on a campaign for software company Balsamiq received top honors this spring at the Adlabbies, BU’s semi-annual ceremony honoring students working in AdLab, the student-run advertising agency within the College of Communication. 

Teams working with Under Armour and WHOOP also took home awards in Best in Show and Rising to the Occasion, respectively.

Team Balsamiq—Susan Chen, Esther Llanos Llorca, Talha Muhammad, Sahit Pawar, Florence Wang, Sophia Xu, Zhian Yang and Johnny Yu—were awarded the GrandLabbie over 15 client projects on which AdLab worked during the semester.

“In delivering fun, demonstrative, omnichannel content for Balsamiq and its ‘effortless wireframing tool,’ this student team exemplified what collaboration is all about for a client who puts seamless user experience and teamwork at the core of what they do,” said Chris Lee, senior lecturer and AdLab co-faculty adviser with Professor of the Practice Shawn Zupp. 

Zupp added, “For success in B2B marketing, especially in technology, a well-functioning cross-functional team is critical. From research and strategy to efficient, creative execution, Team Balsamiq nailed it across the board.”

In addition to honoring students, the Adlabbies celebrated its multi-year partnership with cruise line Celebrity Cruises. Alexandra Whitesell, Strategic Marketing Manager, accepted the Outstanding Client Partnership award on behalf of the company and spoke during the ceremony, sharing her thoughts on their Adlab partnership and her Adlab team this spring.

WINNERS:

BRAND

• BEST MARKETING APPROACH – Anushka Vaidya
• MOST PROGRESSIVE INITIATIVE  – Samantha Aisiku

ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

• BEST PROBLEM SOLVER – Kirsten Tinico (Gender Davis Institute)
• BEST CLIENT RELATIONSHIP – Reeya Mathur (Nina Gilin Jewelry)

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

• MOST EFFICIENT – Will Chapman (Under Armour)
• BEST TEAM BUILDING – Nikita Agrawal (Remedy Exchange)

STRATEGY

• BEST CAMPAIGN STRATEGY – Sydney Marx and Rachel Dionisio (Celebrity Cruises)
• BEST RESEARCH LEARNING – Winston Tsui and Audrey Hu (COM Media Ventures)

CREATIVE

• BEST ART DIRECTION – Sophia Groen and Carly Intraversato (Geena Davis Institute)
• BEST COPYWRITING – Mia Pollack and Sophia Dorion (Saxby’s)
• BEST OF SHOW – Elisabeth McCarron, Gracie Davenport, Sophie Wang, Ahalya Bahuguna (Underarmour)

OVERALL

• RISING TO THE OCCASION: (Whoop Team)  Joanna Zhang, Stephanie Tsou, Milo DeBartlo, Lisa Sun, Lexi Balduzzi, Alli Schneider, Min Kookitwatana, Yufan Bian
• GRANDLABBIE: (Balsamiq team) Sophia Xu, Susan Chen, Talha Muhammad, Zhian Yang, Esther Llanos Llorca, Sahit Pawar, Johnny Yu, Florence Wang

OUTSTANDING CLIENT PARTNERSHIP

• Celebrity Cruises – Alexandra Whitesell