Pitch perfect
Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:04:00 GMT
University’s team of ace marketing students scores another contest success
Winners Rebecca Hall (left), Jack Taylor and Collette Allen (right) with tutor Glynis Jones
WHEN a team of University of Huddersfield marketing students made their pitch to a panel of experts, they came back to the campus with a prestigious prize.
The students are Rebecca Hall, Collette Allen and Jack Taylor. Together they make up Team Envision and they entered an annual contest called The Pitch, organised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing. This year, the brief issued to the 45 teams of students that entered was to devise a campaign for the Diabetes Awareness Group, a UK-wide organisation.
Team Envision won its regional heat in November. This propelled the trio into the final, held at Diabetes UK’s annual Professional Conference, at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow.
The Huddersfield contingent were up against teams from the universities of Central Lancashire, Brighton and Leeds and made a presentation, accompanied by illustrations, to a panel of leading experts in the diabetes field.
They had to show how they would increase awareness of the major symptoms of diabetes and Team Envision scored by devising an affordable, to-the-point strategy – for example, placing stickers on water coolers (extreme thirst can be a sign of diabetes).
Other teams devised more elaborate marketing campaigns, but judges praised the Team Envision approach and its ideas for spreading diabetes awareness are now likely to be taken up.
Glynis Jones, who lectures in marketing at the University of Huddersfield’s Business School, accompanied Team Envision to Glasgow and was delighted by their success.
“What the judges liked about their ideas is that they were very practical and not hugely expensive. They went for a small budget campaign – so there was bit of Yorkshire common sense attached to it!” said Glynis.
Team Envision’s Rebecca Hall said that she and her colleagues were delighted with victory.
“But was nerve wracking because there were some important people from both the CIM and Diabetes UK who were present when we did our pitch.
“Taking part in these types of competitions is really good experience,” she added. “It will give us something real to talk about in job interviews and also helps prepare us for the sort of competition we can expect once we are working in marketing roles.”
Triumph in The Pitch 2012 was not Team Envision’s first taste of success. Collette, Rebecca and Jack are one of FOUR teams from the University of Huddersfield’s Department of Strategy and Marketing to have made the London final of the long-established L’Oréal Brandstorm student competition. If they win this in May, they go on to the international final, held in Paris.
