On Wednesday, June 4th 2025, we were back with one of our favorite events of the year - the annual FATE Student Showcase! Our 9th graders developed marketing and advertising campaigns for Merit and our 10th graders designed a Merit product collection.
Videography By: Alex Buksdorf
INTRODUCTION
Each year our 9th and 10th grade FATE cohorts participate in an end-of-year capstone project where they put their skills in business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and design-thinking to practice! Five 9th grade teams were asked to create a Marketing and Advertising Campaign for Merit (our cause-based fashion brand) which included a 60-second commercial, a print advertisement, and a pitch presentation. A panel of expert judges in the PR and marketing field was tasked with declaring the winner - securing them a $200 cash prize and the use of their campaign for Merit’s promotions! Our 10th graders were split into four teams to develop a Merit Product Collection. These collections were on display trade show booth style and available for presale at the Student Showcase and virtually for the two weeks following. The team with the most pre-sales was declared the winner, awarding them a $300 cash prize and the production and sale of their full collection by Merit!
Grade 9: Marketing & Advertising Campaign for Merit
Just a few months ago, our 9th graders were put into five teams to work on their Grade 9 Capstone Project: Creating a Marketing and Advertising Campaign for Merit. Each team was responsible for creating a 60-second commercial and a print advertisement.
Let’s meet this year’s Grade 9 Project Teams:
Team J.A.M.E.S. (Justice Advertising Merit Educational Success)
Team Members: Jonathyn, Aisha, Jayden, and Ja’Anna
Theme: “Motor City Spirit”
What They Learned: “We learned how long it takes to make a commercial and the process behind the scenes. We also learned how to be confident, have respect for each other, and never be shy or scared to ask for help or speak out in front of other people.”
Los Amigos
Team Members: Maalik, Italy, Kaleigh, and Karon (not pictured)
Theme: “Creating Opportunities For Our Community"
What They Learned: "We learned that by ourselves we’re capable of a limited amount of things but together we are unstoppable."
Team SLDRZ
Team Members: Zay’veon, Raven, Lyric, and Darrin
Theme: “Be inspired. Own your future”
What They Learned: “We learned that having a patient mindset and coming up with ideas with other people will create many different perspectives which creates a bigger idea.”
The Starting 5
Team Members: Jacob, Matthew, Myles, Nicole, and Angelica
Theme: “Together we stand, Connected we stay”
What They Learned: “We learned that you can only achieve a pretty limited amount of things by yourself. But, when we all come together, the possibilities are pretty much endless.”
No Names
Team Members: Imani, Simya, Tyron, Jeremiah, and Mariah
Theme: “Point of View”
What They Learned: “We learned that everyone has a different opinion and stories to tell. Even if we have different points of view, we can still work as a team. It was fun to get to know each other and step out of our comfort zones. Even if it’s your first time making a commercial and you may be nervous, we learned how to just be ourselves and have fun. Lastly, if we are feeling down this program keeps our head up!"
ABOUT THE GRADE 9 CAPSTONE PROJECT
Creative Concepting
To begin developing a marketing and advertising campaign, each team needed to go through the “creative concepting” phase. With professional support from a variety of industry leaders within our Creative Team provided by Creative Circle, students applied what they learned about the Merit brand to their brainstorming sessions. Each team first thought of words that came to mind when thinking about Merit, which were then narrowed down into a few campaign theme ideas. For example, a word that really connected with Team J.A.M.E.S. during their brainstorm was “Detroit” as Merit’s origin and a point of connection for many Merit customers. They wanted to focus on how Merit shares the spirit of Detroit through its clothing, eventually leading to their theme of “Motor City Spirit”. With a campaign theme established, teams began to storyboard their commercial, develop a script, and decide the locations, props, costumes, and cast for their commercials and print ads.
The Creative Team
Before production begins, each team has to pitch their marketing and advertising campaign idea to our Creative Team that is made up of professionals from Creative Circle who are tasked with bringing each team’s vision to life. This year’s creative team included:
Adam Luger, Videographer
Shelby Dubin, Photographer
Jeff Martin, Graphic Designer
Stephen Timblin, Copywriter
Production
One of the most exciting days is each team’s film day! Each team has the opportunity to travel throughout Detroit to a variety of locations to shoot their commercial scenes. This year’s locations included: Roosevelt Park, Northwestern High School’s Football Field, Straight Gate International Church, Bennet Park, Campus Martius, Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Hart Plaza, and the FATE Space on Cass Ave.
During filming, students have the chance to bring their commercial to life! They were encouraged to watch the monitor as scenes were filmed, offer suggestions, and make real time edits based on their visions. Students from each team really showed out and made their filming experience special!
Pitch Preparation
With their commercials and print ads complete, each team is tasked with creating a pitch presentation that describes their project goals, creative process, campaign theme, why they picked their theme, target customer, details about their commercial, details about their print ad, where they will advertise their campaign, and what was learned. These pitches were shared during our annual FATE Student Showcase event!
2025 STUDENT SHOWCASE - GRADE 9
On Wednesday, June 4th 2025, we held our 7th annual FATE Student Showcase at Newlab Detroit! All five teams pitched their marketing and advertising campaigns for Merit and premiered their commercials and print ads for the first time. In order to pick a winner, each team was evaluated by a panel of judges who are experts in the PR/Marketing field. Our expert panel of judges included:
Dr. D’Wayne Edwards: Founder, Pensole Lewis College of Business & Design
Keenan Covington: Chair of the Next-Gen Board of Advisors, First Independence Bank & Digital Content Marketing Officer, Kellogg Foundation
Brinn Phillips: Brand Strategist and Director of Inclusion, McCann
A’naya Jones: FATE Class of 2021 Alumni
David Merritt: Co-Founder, Merit
The judges were asked to score the overall presentation (criteria included: participation, content, innovation, planting feet, focusing on the audience, projecting voice, and finishing each sentence strong) as well as the commercial and print ad (criteria included: quality and visual appeal, relevance and usability, and innovation).
We were so impressed with our 9th graders and their presentations this year! Each team brought their A-Game and found innovative ways to creatively share their work and connect with the audience, like call-and-response questions, team handshakes, and walk-on songs. Strengthened by their bold presentations, every student tackled their lines with the confidence and certainty that they were ready. We heard from staff, mentors, parents, and families alike that some students were nearly unrecognizable on stage with the way they handled themselves and supported their teammates with pride. From first learning about Merit and creating their themes all the way back in January, to filming their commercials and building their presentations just weeks ago, we are unbelievably proud of the Class of 2028 and the work each and every one of them put into their 9th grade capstone projects!
Check out their incredible campaigns below!
COMMERCIALS & PRINT ADS
Team J.A.M.E.S. - “Motor City Spirit”
Commercial
Print Ad
Los Amigos - “Creating Opportunities For Our Community”
Commercial
Print Ad
Team SLDRZ - “Be Inspired. Own Your Future”
Commercial
Print Ad
The Starting 5 - “Together We Stand, Connected We Stay”
Commercial
Print Ad
Team No Names - “Point of View”
Commercial
Print Ad
Videographer: Adam Luger | Graphic Designer: Jeff Martin | Photographer: Shelby Dubin
The Winning Team!!!
Once the judges were done deliberating, the scores were calculated and the winning 9th grade team was chosen! Additionally, we asked the audience to help us determine a “People’s Choice Award” for who they thought had the best presentation and campaign!
For the first time in FATE HISTORY, both the “People’s Choice” and Official Winner were the SAME TEAM! Who was crowned the ONE WINNER of the Grade 9 Capstone, securing a $200 cash prize and Merit utilizing their campaign??? The WINNER OF THE 2025 STUDENT SHOWCASE COMPETITION was…
THE STARTING 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Starting 5 took home the big win with their “Together We Stand, Connected We Stay” campaign and incredibly professional, creative, and compelling presentation skills! We are so incredibly proud of all five teams and the hard work they put into these campaigns the past few months. We are always awed by their creativity, perseverance, humor, leadership, and teamwork! We hope you enjoyed them and their campaigns as much as we did!
We want to give a special thanks to our Creative Team from Creative Circle who helped bring these visions to life:
Jeff Martin, Graphic Designer
Shelby Dubin, Photographer
Adam Luger, Videographer
Stephen Timblin, Copywriter
As well as a special thank you to our event sponsors:
And of course our FATE Mentors & the Give Merit Board, our panel of judges, and all of our incredible volunteers for the day!
Photography: Shelby Dubin
Videography: Adam Luger & Alex Buksdorf