Inffour win DMA Talent's Marketing Challenge 2022

Inffour, a team formed of four students from Northumbria University, were crowned winners of this year’s DMA Talent Marketing Challenge last week, claiming the £1,000 grand prize for their efforts.

Scottish whisky company Whyte & Mackay set the brief for 2022’s challenge, which asked students to come up with a 12-month integrated marketing campaign to acquire 10,000 new mailing subscribers, who have a desire to discover whisky flavours.

Twenty one teams submitted a response, and after a rigorous judging process, three teams were selected to pitch their campaigns to a panel of judges, formed of Kieran Healey-Ryder, Global Head of Communications and Corporate Brand, Whyte & Mackay, Simon Crunden, Managing Director, Republic of Media, Laura Charlton, Content Strategist, Sage and Kate Burnett, General Manager, DMA Talent. It was fantastic to welcome back Laura to judge the Marketing Challenge after winning it in 2020.

We held the pitches in person at Northumbria University in Newcastle and all the finalists delivered sleek, professional pitches, all coming up with brilliant campaign ideas.

The judges discussed each campaign at length, deliberated, and it was Inffour who secured victory, a team formed of four MSc Digital Marketing students from Northumbria University in Newcastle.

The team comprised of Hedy Jye Ruey Pang, Yamini Yamini, Nongnaphat Bousai and Alpo Usno. They will share the prize money and Whyte & Mackay will give them a branding day at their Dalmore Distillery near Inverness, Scotland in the autumn.

Breeka from Northumbria University (London) campus secured runner up with each team member receiving a £20 Amazon voucher. TEAM AGPTV from Sheffield Hallam University claimed third place.

Dr David Hart, Associate Professor and Director of Learning and Teaching at Northumbria commented “Each year the Marketing Challenge case study gives students an entirely different context in which to creatively respond to a client brief, and provides them with opportunity to hone a host of skills that are critical for their career readiness: from market insights through to idea creation, channel integration, metrics and of course pitching to a high profile judging panel. This is a central component of our work with industry to ensure our marketing degrees are distinctive and set up our students for the job market.”

Kate Burnett, General Manager of DMA Talent said: “We have run this challenge for many years and it is always great to see what students create as a result of the brief we set. The three groups all had very different ideas which is great for the client to review, and it is always tough to choose the strongest entry . The brief provides a great opportunity for students to work on a real business problem. Initiatives like this have become more important over the last couple of years where internships and placements have been so hard to find, this enables to students to be able to talk about a brand they have worked on.”

We’ll be launching 2023’s challenge in September. If you want to know when the brief is live, and be kept up to date with everything going on at DMA Talent, click here to get all our latest news and upcoming opportunities delivered directly to your inbox.

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