North Texas Daily

Mollie Jamison / Staff Writer

The UNT Mayborn School of Journalism’s student-run advertising agency and public relations firm,  SWOOP Agency, landed the 35 Denton Music Festival as a new client this semester.

In September, the 5-year-old festival announced it would take a year off to better develop its fundraising strategies.

“We’re hoping that a couple years from now we can look back on this new relationship as one of the critical parts of the story regarding how 35 Denton was finally able to sustain itself,” the festival’s creative director Chris Flemmons said.

SWOOP Agency will work for 35 Denton Music Festival by recruiting sponsors. SWOOP president and journalism senior Cali Thompson said she can’t determine how long the firm will be working with the festival, but it will at least be through the event in 2015.

Flemmons said it was a great partnership because not only will 35 Denton raise money for the event, but SWOOP will also benefit from the commission going to scholarship funding.

SWOOP faculty director Bill Ford said each semester one member of the agency gets a scholarship. He and some SWOOP students also raise money for scholarships by selling bags and t-shirts that read, “Denton, always a few degrees cooler than Dallas.”

35 Denton will give 25 percent of sales transactions from SWOOP-negotiated sponsorships to the agency.

SWOOP faculty director Bill Ford and the 22 current members of SWOOP Agency. SWOOP is a student-managed advertising and public relations agency. Photo courtesy of SWOOP Agency Facebook page

“We’re selling sponsorships,” Ford said. “We’ve never done anything like that in SWOOP. Any selling experience is going to add to somebody who wants to be an account executive.”

In addition to 35 Denton Music Festival, SWOOP Agency has represented a number of clients including a candy company called Mary of Puddin Hill, TJ’s Pizza and UNT-Dallas. SWOOP has also done work for the UNT Office of Admissions.

“Working with 35 Denton will give SWOOP the opportunity to help build on an already well-established event,” Thompson said. “We can see how they operated in the past and gain insight on how we can help for the festival’s future. We plan on building a relationship not only with those already working with 35 Denton, but with the audience as well.”

A.Dd+ performs to a rowdy crowd during last years 35Denton music festival. Feature photo by Fey Sandoval / Staff Photographer