 The grand-prize team focused on a strategy that encouraged charitable and socially responsible roles for Advanta and its customers. |
At least eight students from IU South Bend may have bright futures in marketing. One of the four-person teams received the grand prize Gold ECHO from the Direct Marketing Education Foundation (DMEF). The competition was sponsored by DMEF and the Advanta Corp., a provider of services for small businesses.
The winning team of Lisitha Madiwake, Scott Hope, Lauren Wilstein and Susan Hampton submitted “Women Helping Women: Success with Finesse.” The IU South Bend campaign was one of 150 to be entered in the 2004 Leonard J. Raymond Collegiate ECHO Competition.
The winners received a trip to the Direct Marketing Association Conference in New Orleans.
The second team of Sean O’Brien, Riccardo D’Angelo, Mary Voder and Kanako Yoshida received an honorable mention for marketing strategy. Four campaigns were submitted from marketing professor Monle Lee’s M418 Advertising Strategies class.
Hope said the award is called the “Oscar for marketing. It was amazing…surreal. We spent spring break working on it 8 to 10 hours per day. We would change the campaign, and then we rewrote the entire presentation three to four times.”
The grand-prize team focused on a strategy that encouraged charitable and socially responsible roles for Advanta and its customers through cash-back credit cards and other features.
At one point, the presentation was 40 pages, single spaced. In its final form, it was 15 pages, single spaced. They wrote parts together and then separately. Then they rewrote.
Team member Wilstein saluted Lee for her guidance through the project. “She pushed us to do a lot better. We were committed to do a good job, and we put a lot into it.”
The school’s names are not submitted with the project so that all the projects are on equal footing. Other projects were submitted from University of Texas, Loyola and Temple University. Direct and interactive marketing professionals judged the entries on research, objectives, strategy, creativity and theme.
|
