How do you describe a legend?

From the left: Sir Edmund Hillary, Sajjad Ali, Patrick Bridgman & myself

From reading my last blog post you would have thought that conquering one's procrastination habit was a challenge worthy of the greatest of adventurers. Maybe it is.. but in my book Mount Everest is pretty much up there with procrastination as one of those vast unconquerable landscapes. Sir Edmund Hillary's achievements have become the stuff of legends (and many a patriotic TV commercial). A man hailing from a land more reknowned for its sheep than its heroes, managed to climb the highest peak in the world and in doing so cause many a wealthy european mountaineer's jaw to drop.

That's where Weetbix commercials leave the legend, but for me that's where the legend begins. The legend of Sir Edmund Hillary is that he didn't stop, indeed he seems never to have stopped...ever ...As a high school student reading books filled to the brim with his achievements I often wondered if he even knew that there was such a phrase as 'resting on ones laurels'. Not only did he climb Everest but he was the first to reach the North & South Poles, and then went on to transform entire communities in Nepal through sheer hardwork and charisma.

This is where we come in, I am lucky enough to be part of SIFE Waikato, The University of Waikato's SIFE team. SIFE is a worldwide organisation that spans more countries than you have fingers on your hands (40 to be exact). It is in fact the largest student organisation in the world. SIFE teams at Universities around the world create and carry out community projects that teach enterprise skills to different groups in the community. A list of SIFE Waikato's projects can be found on our website; they range from helping the Pacific Island community sell Niuean bread to working on the production of a management resource for the disability support sector. SIFE teams then present their results at a National Competition where one team is chosen to represent the country at the SIFE World Cup. SIFE Waikato has won the national competition two times in a row this year and will be going on to compete at the World Cup in Barcelona in two weeks.

It just so happened that Sir Edmund was coming to town as part of the University's awesome new brand campaign and was nice enough (after some much appreciated 'persuasion' from Prof. Clive Gilson ) to lend his name, and backing, to the SIFE Waikato team on videotape. However, as much I was glad to get this extra bit of support I would be lying if I said that the real highlight wasn't actually meeting, talking and listening to this great man face to face. That is truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Not only that.. But I also got to witness the launch of a very special advertising campaign. Sir Edmund Hillary's backing has allowed the creation of something that is quite remarkable and an advertisement that will (hopefully) redefine the tertiary marketing landscape. An achievement that, quite honestly, makes the PR departments of other Universities look like complete crap!

I mean, lets face it, For institutions that charge us $10,000 a year they don't exactly market themselves very well. Consider the fact that Uni students, at the very least, spend 3 years at University. That's $30,000 a year, the price of a Hyundai. Now, I'm sure I've seen Hyundai ads with better slogans than 'Get Over It' and 'It Makes You Think' (which ironically.. Victoria's ad actually don't do, unless they mean 'it makes you think of changing the channel and not coming to Victoria').

So let's just say that Waikato's ad campaign is refreshing and treats those who are aspiring to a University education like the idealistic, energetic, enthusiastic, and mature people they are.. in other words, the campaign is spot on. For those who are interested in seeing it, I'm told it'll be screening nationwide this Sunday evening during the 6PM news on channel one. Break tradition and watch the news for once; Trust me, it'll be worth it