Ad Me wins IDM Student Marketing Competition 2018
13 Jul 2018
The team from University of Greenwich was presented with the Gold Award
at a gala reception last night
Last night the winner of this year’s IDM Student Marketing Competition was announced at London’s Award-winning Aviator at Hush. The ‘Ad Me’ included Guadalupe Contartese, Imane Erriade, Imogen Thompson, Nadia El Hadji and Radoslava Radkova, all students from the University of Greenwich and were presented with the Gold Award for their outstanding response to the brief set by Royal Mail.
Team Ad Me was up against over 40 other entries for the 2018 crown, all putting forward their own marketing plan to Royal Mail. They were tasked with creating a campaign to increase direct mail revenue by encouraging the top 150 UK brands and agencies to use the channel when targeting young people.
The team clinched victory after a live pitch against the other 3 finalists in front of a panel of marketing experts, including Debbie Moffat (Business Development Consultant at Royal Mail MarketReach), Jane Cave (MD of the IDM), Kate Burnett (MD of DMA Talent) and Phil Rickets (Head of Business Development at Royal Mail MarketReach). As well as the top prize, this year’s winners also received a £1,500 team cash prize. The runners up were ‘Royal Direct’ from Northumbria University and ‘The You Experience’ from Sheffield Hallam University.
Phil Rickets, Head of Business Development at Royal Mail MarketReach, this year’s sponsor, said: “I have been blown away by the standard of entries and confidence of the students during the live pitches. The array of creative ideas underpinned by sound strategic thinking from those that made the shortlist in particular is a credit to them and the University’s they’ve come from. At the end of the day, we had to choose a single winner and Ad Me came up with a campaign that understood the B2Band B2C nature of Royal Mail’s business. They brought in a strong creative idea and a holistic approach that came together for a consistent narrative culminating in compelling campaign deliverables.”
Kate Burnett, MD of DMA Talent, said: “This year’s brief was one of the first with a B2B focus for a number of years, which meant a different challenge for this year’s entrants. Despite that, the quality of the entries has continued to improve every year that I’ve been involved with the competition, making this one of the toughest years to judge. Every year, the Student Marketing Competition gives us a window into the future of our industry and judging by the marketing talent I’ve seen, the future for our sector will be in creative, data-aware and strategic hands.”
The IDM Student Marketing Competition is now in its 22nd year and is organised by DMA Talent, part of the DMA Group. The DMA Talent team works with Higher Education organisations to give university students the chance to work on a challenging and real-life marketing brief, provided by the sponsoring client. The process offers students priceless, practical experience and, for the finalists, the opportunity to meet leading marketers and to win the top prize. The brief is also used by lecturers across the country as a valuable teaching aid on marketing and business courses.