River City Consulting Battle of the Ads

River City Consulting is committed to giving back with true impact, challenging the next generation.

At River City Consulting we are passionate about giving back to our community. We help hundreds of RVA businesses achieve success by providing professional agency advertising, but we also take time to teach young people how it is done.

“Battle of the Ads” is aimed at educating the next generation of creative geniuses for the advertising world. Our goal is to provide students interested in marketing and advertising a real-world experience to better prepare them for higher education and a possible career in advertising.

Students participating in our competition finish with valuable portfolio work and a better understanding of the real advertising world. They also learn about their community in the process. Partnering with local public high schools, students form into small “agencies” and take on roles of project manager, media planner, copywriter, creative director, graphic designer, and social media manager. They then have several weeks to create a campaign for the nonprofit organization of their choice.

The students are given free creative control to make the best ad possible aimed at reaching the target audience. The Grand Prize Winner’s gain real world experience as well as awards, to celebrate their achievements.

A person is holding a gold trophy on a red background.

Why participate?

Winners of the BOTA awards receive more than just recognition, they also get real-world experience, a feature on CBS to showcasing your project and achievements, and a certificate of accomplishment that adds significant value to your résumé. Join us in celebrating your journey and take the next step in your professional growth!

Learn More

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS

Groups

Each school splits marketing students into groups of no more than 5.

Present

Groups present campaigns to River City Consulting and a panel of local advertising professionals.

Roles

Each group assigns agency roles: creative director, project manager, media planner, copy writer, PR/social media manager.

Finalists

Finalists will be featured on multiple River City Consulting social media platforms as well as We Are River City.

Produce

Groups have 4-6 weeks to create an advertising campaign for the nonprofit organization of their choice.

Winner

Winners are determined by public voting, impact, originality, presentation, and other factors.

Create

Groups can use whatever means possible to create campaigns: smart-phones, video editing apps, Canva.com, Prezi.com, etc.

Awards

We have multiple category awards, in addition to the grand prize winner.

Our Last Winner

Express Agency

Mills E. Godwin High School

CBS 6 Virginia This Morning

RICHMOND, Va (WTVR) - River City Consulting has been a part of the community since 2001, and their primary focus is in helping small businesses create a visual identity for themselves. They recently worked with several marketing students from Mills E. Godwin High School to help provide them with real world experience in creating an advertising campaign. Justin Ellett from River City Consulting shares some insight.

View the Interview