Twenty-seven marketing students at Florida Atlantic University have partnered with Chevrolet and EdVenture Partners to implement a marketing campaign that will increase awareness and interest in Chevrolet’s 2007 premium compact car, the Cobalt, and the all new 2007 subcompact Aveo. The students have formed a marketing firm, ImaginAuto, in order to plan, market and execute an event for these cars. They have broken up into several teams, including research, public relations, advertising, and campaign implementation, to carry out the responsibilities that a professional marketing firm would have in planning an event.

The members of ImaginAuto began by collecting research on their target market, Generation Y, other Florida Atlantic University students and recent graduates working in their first jobs. After analysis of the needs and wants of this market, the students started planning how to publicize and advertise the event and began planning the actual event itself. They were given an operating budget of $2,500 to complete the campaign, supplied by Maroone Chevrolet of Delray Beach.

The event, “Discover Your Road,” will be held on April 3, 2007 beginning at 10:00 A.M. and ending around 4:00 P.M. It will be held at the barbeque pits in the residential area of Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus. “Discover Your Road” will be focused around activities with the Chevrolet Cobalt and Aveo that showcase the individualism of college students today. There will also be food, fun and prizes for the attendants of the event, with the underlying goal of increasing awareness of the Chevrolet and Maroone brands. After the event the students will conduct research again to see if there is any shift in the awareness and knowledge of Maroone, Chevrolet and the Cobalt and Aveo.

The partnership provided with Florida Atlantic University by Chevrolet and EdVenture Partners gives the twenty-seven students participating in the program an invaluable opportunity to experience the realities of working in a “real” marketing firm to plan and coordinate an entire event on their own. The knowledge that the students will take with them from this experience will follow them for the rest of their careers.