Unsung Heroes - AT&T Advertising Campaign

Together with the other seven SJSU students, we entered the 2024-25 National Student Advertising Competition, run by the American Advertising Federation, to create an advertising campaign for AT&T. 

As a Digital Art and Visual Designer, I was involved in conducting creative research, interviewing people in hallway sessions, brainstorming concepts and storyboards, and collaborating with the team to develop ideas, concepts, and graphic visuals. Our team members are: Tais Washington - Project Manager, Giuliana Samonte - Account Planner, Monica Shannon - Researcher, Vinson Suarez-Thai - Researcher and Script Writer, Simon Haupt - Creative Director, Chaman Xiao - Video Lead, and Charles Merrill-Daniels - Print Design Lead. We developed the campaign in 3 phases: research, strategy, and creative. 

The Unsung Heroes Campaign

As one of the leading phone service providers for 145 years (since 1876), AT&T aimed to reconnect with the new generation and shift their perception from “AT&T is just a bill to pay” to “AT&T connects me to greater possibilities.” The campaign targets Gen Z students aged 18–24 who are currently on AT&T family plans but don’t yet pay for their own phone service. The goal is to ensure that these prospective customers remain with AT&T when they begin paying for their own plans instead of switching to competitors.

To maintain AT&T’s brand voice of “reality, but with a twist,” our concept draws a parallel to Gen Z’s journey toward independence. The campaign, Unsung Heroes, highlights the people who make a major impact in our lives yet often go unrecognized. Each phase of the campaign aligns with Gen Z’s values of ambition, connection, and appreciation for friends and family.

Videos

Codirected by Simon and Chaman. Edited by Chaman and some segments created by Charles. Actors and actresses are team members.

Behind the scenes

This file is a record of my solo work, organized with the latest versions and concepts first, followed by unused concepts from the ideation phase. The stories were developed collaboratively by Vincent, Chaman, Simon, Charles, and me, with the final scripts written by Vincent.

Stills

These stills were created by me, transforming verbal ideas into thumbnail sketches, rough drafts, concept variations, and final designs. Each stage of the process was presented to the team for feedback and approved by the Creative Director. The final submission was a collaborative effort — I handled the layout, image editing, and doodle elements, while Simon contributed typography and background color adjustments.

Behind the scenes 

This is a record of my solo work, showing each step of my creative process — from sketching ideas and finding quick stock images to visualize them, to experimenting with typography and displacement, and matching the colors of all selected images closely with AT&T’s brand and photography guidelines.