A student team from Northumbria University scooped a gold medal and first class degrees after designing a publicity campaign attracting youths to the British Army.
Newcastle Business School undergraduates Caroline Holmes, Ruth Carberry, and Michelle Hardy won £1,500 when they came first in the IDM National Student Competition, run by the Institute of Direct Marketing.
And an all-male team, also from Northumbria, took silver and an £800 prize in the same competition that saw around 1,000 students from campuses across the country pitch customer relationship management campaign proposals to the British Army.
IDM winners 2008
The three graduates were awarded first class BA Marketing Management degrees at Northumbria's graduation ceremony in Newcastle's City Hall.
The British Army competition brief, devised by the military client and marketing agency Tequila\London, called for entrants to develop a programme aimed at 16 to 18–year–olds entering higher education.
The students had to present their project findings to a panel of industry experts from the Institute, the Army, the Army's ´direct agency’ Tequila and the deputy editor from one of the industry's leading publications ´Marketing Direct ’at IDM's Annual Patrons Dinner, held at The Four Seasons Hotel in London.
The winning team’s proposal centred on introducing a ´buddy scheme’, where army members were assigned to people who expressed an interest in career areas, including medicine and combat. It featured the slogan– “Take on a world of opportunities. Take on a career in the British Army.”
Caroline, 22, from Morpeth, is now working with Great Run, the company that organises the Great North Run.
She said “We couldn’t believe we got down to the top three, so to win the whole thing was amazing.”
Ruth, 22, from Belfast, said “We wanted to change the traditional view of the army and thought one way would be through signing people up to somebody who would be able to provide them with information about their preferred career.”
Michelle, 25, from Newcastle, added “To find out we were in the top 20 teams was unbelievable and then to win was incredible.”
As part of the IDM National Student Competition prize, Newcastle Business School principal lecturer Richard Gay will attend a US Direct Marketing Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas in October. He said “The students tackled the brief with great passion and creativity in their original submission and they followed this up with two very professional presentations in front of some leading players in the direct marketing industry.”
“It’s a great accolade for the NBS teaching team to get two teams into the final of a national competition and raise our profile further as a leading provider in direct and interactive marketing teaching.”
Amanda Forwood, account director at Tequila\London, said: “the winner stood out in particular, as they demonstrated a thorough understanding of the brief and application of their studies.”
The competition is part of the IDM’s education programme, which aims to attract new young talent to the marketing industry.
Janice Pickard, the IDM’s director of student services, said. “To put their win into context, some of the entries we received this year were of the highest standards the competition has ever seen–so the opposition was fierce! We do hope that Ruth, Michelle and Caroline will stay with marketing as a career choice and wish them all the very best for the future.”
Date posted: 23/07/2008