The St. Clair Advertising students have won the Digital Marketing Competition (DMC) hosted by Purdue Univ. Northwest’s College of Business!
This is a long post! We have so much to share and wanted to make sure we included everything. We don’t feel guilty about including so much in one post as if anything deserves us going a little overboard with our content, it is this!
There have been a few previous news articles about the student success so this post will be a little different. It will be from our perspective. We want to share the story of a group of amazing students and their goal of winning the DMC!
This is an amazing accomplishment as the team competed against 271 Universities across the globe. Past winners in this competition include University of San Diego, Rutgers University, University of Hawaii at Manoa, IAE Angers (France), University of Missouri, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) & Western Michigan University.
Entering the competition, our team was confident that they knew and understood the material but going up against over 250 Universities, you never know! This was a chance for the group to apply all of their knowledge, their skills and show to the world that they have what it takes to compete at this level – they did not disappoint!
The dedication and commitment they brought to the table was inspiring. As a group, they spent over 150 hours working, planning and refining their presentation. In fact, there were a few instances where they worked so late that the college closed!
In this post, we wanted to share with you a little bit about the process, the experience and the avalanche of press coverage that followed with this achievement. We would also like to thank a huge group of people that helped turn this dream into a reality for the students.
The Competition Process
For those of you reading this that are unaware of what this competition is, here is a little background. This is a University competition with two categories; undergraduate and graduate programs. Each school can enter a team of 2-4 members and enter multiple teams if they choose. Many schools enter multiple teams with Texas Tech University (Texas, U.S.) entering over 30 teams!
The teams are presented with a case study outlining a unique business case. Here is what the competition had to say about this year’s case – “Unlike past contests, this time students were tasked to create a campaign for a concept idea called Sole Search who didn’t have a website, social profiles, or any digital footprint at all. As an added element, students had to also incorporate A.I. into their campaign, whether it was through research, creativity, or campaign measurement.“
Once the teams have evaluated the case, they have a few weeks to finalize a digital marketing strategy for the client. Once complete, the teams have to produce an 8-minute video summary of the campaign that is judged by industry professionals. Then comes the waiting game! After weeks of hard work, the teams have to wait to hear if they will be one of ONLY 4 TEAMS to make it to the finals to present live to a panel of industry professional judges – and a live online audience watching and listening to their every word.
The email the students received informing them that they have advanced to the finals was one of the best emails they have ever received! The students and faculty were excited, proud and even more committed to finish strong. The students had a group chat with the mantra “The Job Isn’t Done”!
Each team competing in the finals had to turn their 8-minute video summary into a 15-minute presentation including in-depth reasons and justifications, a complete overview of all elements and sit for the judges for a question & answer period after. The submissions are judged on a variety of topics to ensure the teams had a well-rounded understanding of all topics.
The finals day is a stressful yet wonderful experience. The teams all connected online and had the opportunity of watching other amazing Universities present their work. After every team has presented, there was a 60-minute break for the judges to determine the winners. The teams all joined the live awards ceremony to hear that the St. Clair Advertising team announced as the WINNER in the undergraduate division!
The Team & The Work
As faculty members, we were amazed at the dedication of this group of students. This competition was by far the largest and most arduous undertaking we have even been involved in. As a program, we take pride in our curriculum, our dedication to the preparation of the students and the overall “preparedness” our students have when they graduate. We know we are biased professors but we think our students are fantastic – we just wanted the global advertising world to see this as well.
This group of students worked tirelessly for over two months. They carried a full workload in one of the “heaviest” semesters in the program, many worked part-time, yet they still managed to spend over 150 hours working on their digital strategy. It was nostalgic to picture this same group of students as freshmen and then watching them present the way they did.
The competition this year was a little different. As mentioned above, the company in the case study was a blank slate. They didn’t have the digital assets in place but the core of the company was set. Another important element was the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) this year. The teams must incorporate AI elements into their strategy. Our team was ready for this, as they have been using AI in class, in their assignments and projects for over two years now. They were prepared and ready.
Another key takeaway from their submission was their eagerness to take a chance. The team suggested a name change, a business model change and even introduced AI generated Intellectual property for the company to use. They took it a step further and even created a fully functional website showing off their creative assets!
Our Thank You!
We would first like to thank Matt Hanson, the DMC competition director for affording us with this amazing opportunity. As faculty members, we have been involved with various competitions over the years and this competition was well run and organized from start to finish.
We would like to thank Jimmy Parsons, the Chair of the School of Media, Art & Design. You supported the students every step of the way and were with them on “Finals Day” to show your support and celebrate with them.
In addition, we would like to extend a HUGE thank you to Glen Evans from the Graphic Design program. His knowledge and assistance in putting together the initial video submission was incredible. We would like to thank Larry Forsyth and Veronique Mandel from The Mediaplex/ Journalism program for putting in the time on your day off to provide the students with a crash course on on-camera presentation and for ensuring that the livestream channels for audio and video were flawless. Finally, a thank you to Shawn and Tim from the SCCA Team for your assistance in setting up the “watch party” for us. Tim and his team had a room ready for the viewing party on incredibly short notice. Everybody stepped up. Thank you all so much.
A Big Accomplishment
Now that the competition is over, the team eagerly awaits the arrival of their trophies. Beyond the hardware, this group will graduate knowing they are the first team from Canada to win this prestigious competition. In addition, as a team from a College in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, it shows that our students, the program and the school can compete at this level against some of the biggest Universities in the world. The students deserve all of the accolades they received and a hard-earned rest now with the Holiday break! They will need it as their final semester begins in January 2024!
Press Coverage
It was great to see the student success covered in the local media. From news articles, radio interviews and television highlights, the press was there to share the story with the local community. Listed below are links to the various media spots.
- CTV News Windsor – St. Clair College students win international digital marketing competition
- St. Clair College – St. Clair College Students Shine in Global Digital Marketing Competition
- Windsor Star – St. Clair College students head to final round of global digital marketing competition
- Vancouver Sun – St. Clair Team Shines
- Ground News – St. Clair College students beat hundreds of teams to win international marketing competition
- AM 800 CKLW – St. Clair College TOP 4 finalists in the Fall 2023 Digital Marketing Competition Finalists Announced
- CTV News – St. Clair College students contest finalists
- Windsor Star – St. Clair College students beat hundreds of teams to win international marketing competition
The Presentation
You can view the announcement on the Digital Marketing Competition here. It lists the details as well as the final presentation. We have also included it below for you to view.