State Farm Insurance is the 2010 sponsor of the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition. NSAC is the industry’s premier student competition, and over its nearly 40-year history, the program has launched the careers of more than 150,000 young professionals. “The AAF is honored to collaborate with State Farm,” said James Edmund Datri, AAF president and CEO. “State Farm will offer students the opportunity to develop a marketing plan for an industry leader, and I am sure State Farm,like our previous sponsors, will be impressed with the students’ creativity and research.” The sponsorship was announced today during the AAF National Conference in Washington, D.C. State Farm insures more cars and homes than any other insurer in the U.S. State Farm's 17,700 agents and 68,000 employees serve more than 81 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and more than 1.9 million bank accounts. “State Farm is proud to sponsor this educational opportunity for future advertising professionals and is eager to see the results generated from the students’ work on our case study. Our goal is to encourage creativity among students working on the case and also assist AAF students with career building advice and guidance at their student conference in St. Louis in October. We hope this real-life application of their studies helps all of the students learn more about business and advertising strategies,” said Mark Gibson, State Farm assistant vice president – advertising. AAF college chapter members will receive the State Farm case study this fall. From this, they will develop a 32-page marketing campaign, and they will also create a 20-minute pitch for judges. The district competitions will take place in AAF’s 15 districts in the spring of 2010, and the winners of these district competitions will advance to the NSAC finals, which will be held in conjunction with the AAF National Conference in Orlando, Fla., June 10-12, 2010. Over 150 AAF college chapters are expected to participate in the 2010 competition. In addition to sponsoring the student competition, State Farm will also host the 2009 AAF Student Conference in St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 15-16. The Student Conference offers students a variety of professional development workshops and encourages them to meet and network with industry leaders and program alumni. To learn how to start an AAF college chapter or learn more about the National Student Advertising Competition and AAF Student Conference, please go to the AAF Web site at www.aaf.org/college