Two students from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) have reached the finals of a national marketing competition to find the future stars of the industry.
Alicia Dorey Garcia-Verona and Emily Finlayson were awarded a Highly Commended by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) after going head to head with eight other teams from universities around the UK in The Pitch, run by the CIM.
It is the first time the CIM has given a highly commended. All the teams have been given a live client brief by technology giant Samsung and asked to find creative ways to market its new foldable mobile phones to Generation Z.
Alicia and Emily formed Find Agency and spent weeks researching Gen Z, analysing trends and coming up with ways to engage the notoriously fickle buyers. They presented online at the CIM Marketing Excellence awards.
They both said taking part in the competition has been a great experience. “I’m very proud of what we have done,” said Alicia.
“Doing The Pitch has been really good because it’s given the extra experience working with a real-world company and putting my marketing theory into action. It will be good for my CV,” said Emily.
Alicia and Emily were one of two teams from DMU to enter The Pitch, which they did on top of their degree studies. Alannah Shearer (International Marketing and Business), Andrei Sfirschi (Business and Marketing) and Richard Groza-Seres, (Advertising and Marketing Communications), formed Horizon RA.
Each team recorded 10-minute presentations explaining how Samsung could harness digital and new marketing techniques to connect and build a relationship with younger customers.
All five students will now become CIM Student Ambassadors, helping to provide a link between the university and industry partner CIM.
The overall winning student team will be presented with the ‘Marketers of the Future’ award.
They will also receive a one-year complimentary CIM membership and one of the latest products from the Samsung mobile device range.
Senior lecturer in Marketing Rachael Mabe said: “I am so proud of our famous five students from DMU who threw themselves into this competition and dedicated their time, in what we all know is a really challenging year.
“The work they all produced was absolutely excellent and highly professional, showing real flair and creativity. All of these students will now represent DMU as ambassadors for CIM, who are a hugely important professional partner for us as a Graduate Gateway University. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed for Emily and Alicia (Find Agency) and am delighted to see them progress to the finals of the prestigious competition.
"This is a great opportunity from CIM for our students to gain practical, real life experience and I know all five students have benefited hugely from working on this brief.”
Gemma Butler, marketing director at CIM, said: “The calibre of applications for The Pitch remains high and with this year’s competition having to take place virtually for the first time, all the students will be required to even more so draw upon their communication and presentation skills."
Posted on Friday 5 March 2021