Marketing EDGE Announces Boxed Collegiate ECHO Challenge Winners

NEW YORK - March 19, 2019 - PRLog -- Marketing EDGE, the only nonprofit in this field with a proven track record of preparing college students for a career in marketing, today announced the winners of its 2018 Fall Semester Collegiate ECHO Marketing Challenge. The content of this competition for college students worldwide was provided by BOXED, an online and mobile wholesale retailer.  Altogether, six student teams – three from undergraduate programs and three from graduate programs – were honored for proposing a marketing campaign, targeting affluent families (primarily focusing on moms) in one of four markets: San Diego, Washington DC/Virginia/Maryland suburbs, Charlotte, or Raleigh.

Among the undergraduate teams, Marketing EDGE awarded a total of $3,500 to students of Rowan University, California State University, Fresno and Salve Regina University. The following graduate teams received recognition for their outstanding work, University of Georgia, East Carolina University and Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi.

Conducted since 1986, the Marketing EDGE Collegiate ECHO Challenge provides college students with a real-world marketing project and challenges them to create and pitch a marketing campaign to a leading brand.  For this challenge, teams worked with a theoretical budget of $250,000.  Entries were judged by industry professionals with final judging conducted by the BOXED marketing team.

"We are particularly honored to work with BOXED as we demonstrate yet again how facilitating academic-industry partnerships provide a unique and effective way to fulfill our mission of preparing students to launch successful marketing careers," said Marketing EDGE President Terri L. Bartlett. "Since its inception in 1986, our Collegiate ECHO program has offered over 30,000 students the opportunity to apply their classroom learning to the current marketing challenges of recognized national and global brands.  As this challenge demonstrates, powerful partnerships between academics, corporations and students are the magic elixir that enables Marketing EDGE to support committed students as they launch their careers in the evolving world of marketing."

"BOXED was thrilled to partner with Marketing EDGE and participate in the Collegiate ECHO Challenge, said Elyse Burack, Head of Integrated Marketing & Brand at BOXED.  "The presentations were thoughtful, creative and well organized. There were many ideas that we will consider integrating into our playbook. We hope the students gained as much from it as we did."

The winners of the BOXED Collegiate ECHO Marketing Challenge are (http://www.marketingedge.org/academics/teaching-resources...):

Undergraduate:
Gold:  Rowan University
Team Members: Kailey Bertelson, Brittany Eng, Megan Jean, Timothy Stanford, Hannah Vendetta
Faculty Advisor: Charles McLeester

Silver:  California State University, Fresno
Team Members: Jessica Gilbert, Olivia Pape, Alex Romanowski, Angie Saladino
Faculty Advisor: Monique Bell

Bronze: Salve Regina University
Team Members: Jacqueline Chevannes, Colin Clapton, Lydia Foster, Brandon O'Neill, Allison Notarangelo
Faculty Advisor: Traci Brady

Graduate:
Gold: University of Georgia
Team Members: Ian Webb, Aubree Hanks-Witaszek
Faculty Advisor: Jooyoung Kim

Silver:  East Carolina University
Team Members: Lucas Biggers, Erin Brown, Austin Faulkner, Keith Moore, Vanessa Pippen

Bronze:  Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi
Team Members: Elizabeth Charles, Andrew Gamboa, Michael McPhillips, Michael Skrobarczyk, Jennifer Taylor
Faculty Advisor:  Tracy Tuten

"The team embraced the idea that a winning strategy had to be about the consumer – the busy Mom – not the brand", said Professor Charles McLeester faculty advisor to the Rowan University gold-inning team. "They set out to learn everything they could about the target audience and from there, the creative strategy evolved."

"I am so excited to see the team's work rewarded," said Professor Jooyoung Kim, faculty advisor to the University of Georgia's graduate gold-winning team. "The graduate team worked so hard to make every element of their marketing plan research-based, integrated, and professionally presented. I am so proud of them!"

Over its 33-year history, Collegiate ECHO sponsors have included such prestigious companies as Collette Travel, Facebook, Fossil Group, Domino's Pizza, and Microsoft Advertising.

Companies wishing to serve as challenge sponsors may contact Marie Adolphe at madolphe@marketingEDGE.org.

About Marketing EDGE
Marketing EDGE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to help shape the future of marketing by connecting students, academics and professionals to the resources and relationships they need to continue to see, move and stay ahead. Empowering skill-ready, responsive and responsible marketing leaders for more than 50 years, Marketing EDGE expands access to leading research, resources and events, fosters personal connections and diverse ideas, and provides real-time insights for real-world impact. For more information, visit www.marketingEDGE.org.