[December 10, 2012]

Park Bench Marketing Group Ad Competition for Ezulwini Game Reserve in South Africa Results in Spectacular Advertising

Baruch College (http://www.baruch.cuny.edu) students, who constitute the staff of Park Bench Marketing Group, created spectacular print ads for Ezulwini Game Reserve (http://www.ezulwini.com/Game_Lodges.html) as part of a advertising competition.

Their assignment was to create a print ad, web ad, social media campaign or converged media program to encourage American tourists to book a trip to South Africa for a safari experience of a lifetime at Ezulwini Game Reserve.

"Park Bench students do extraordinary work because they are extremely bright, highly creative and think outside the box," said Michael Lissauer, adjunct professor at Baruch and director of Park Bench. "They are also not inhibited by any preconceived notions of what makes a winning ad." Lissauer, who was executive vice president of marketing and strategic planning at Business Wire prior to his retirement, explained that the Park Bench students have ben tutored by such industry leaders as Stan Becker, former creative head at Saatchi & Saatchi, Jerry Pickholz, former president of Ogilvy (News - Alert) & Mather Direct and Don Middleberg, founder and chairman of Middleberg Communications.

The students focused on the intimacy of the game drive at Ezulwini, where guests are virtually within a few feet of such wildlife as lion, leopard, elephant buffalo and rhinoceros.

The winning ads by Baruch senior Gabriela Ramirez featured two brilliant headlines; "Count the spots on a leopard's face" and "Black with white stripes or white with black stripes See for yourself." Both ads featured close-ups of the animals.

Runner-up ads by Yi Li (Adam) Ho and Sooin Chung featured a family of hippos with the headline "Not your typical family trip" and by Anna Leung with a leopard heading into the bush with the headline "Follow me."

The winner of the ad competition won a four-night stay for two at Ezulwini and the runner-ups won the same trip at a 90% discount thanks to the support of Laurence Saad, founder and owner of Ezulwini.

Ezulwini is located in the Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa and consists of two very unique and distinctly different luxury private lodges - Billy's Lodge and River Lodge - that feature outstanding quality at reasonable rates. Guests are assured of seeing Africa's Big 5. Billy's Lodge is perched on the banks of a seasonal river, deep in lion country and River Lodge is situated on the banks of the majestic Olfants River, largest of the lowland rivers, and is the habitat of hippos, elephants and crocodiles.

Park Bench was created by Lissauer in the fall of 2008 as a fully integrated and multidisciplinary in-house marketing communications company. The company's capabilities include advertising, branding, graphic and web design, social media and public relations. Park Bench does pro bono projects for Baruch College departments (Athletic Department, Computer & Technology Center, Blogs @ Baruch), as well as such companies as Business Wire, Apple (News - Alert) Metro (Applebee's), HowMat Integrated Systems, Majesco Entertainment, Raich Ende Malter and the American Cancer Society.

Baruch College traces its origins to the founding of the City University in 1847 as The Free Academy, which was located on the current site of the College in lower Manhattan. Established in 1919 as City College's School of Business and Civic Administration, the school was renamed in 1953 in honor of Bernard M. Baruch. Baruch College ranks among the nation's best colleges and offers undergraduate and graduate programs through three acclaimed schools: the Zicklin School of Business, the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Public Affairs.

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