From the screaming to the crying, it was a very joyous moment.
A team of St. Clair College students has triumphed over hundreds of teams from around the world to win a prestigious digital marketing competition hosted by Purdue University Northwest’s College of Business.
Article content
“When we first got the news, we were all screaming and some of us were crying,” said team member Sara Rupert. “It just goes to show that we are prepared for industry. Our professors taught us so well. This would not have happened without our professors. I’m just really glad that I’m in this program. It’s a really prestigious thing that’s going on right now.”
Advertisement 2
Article content
The St. Clair team was one of four finalists — out of 271 groups — to make their pitches on Saturday in front of discerning judges and a global audience during the virtual Digital Marketing Competition & Summit.
“It was a Zoom call, so anybody could tune in around the world,” said Rupert. “We knew this, but we couldn’t really see their faces. So I think that made us less nervous. We were nervous about the potential outcome of this. We wanted to win, obviously. So there was a lot riding on us.”
The presenting team included Rupert, Emma Carosella, Zach Dillen, and Dalton Drouillard, all third-year students in St. Clair’s Advertising and Marking Communications Management program. Behind the scenes, Lariza Mendoza-Servin, Brianna DiMarco, and Bryan Connel did work including promotion, social media, and running the teleprompter.
Competitors were asked to create a campaign for a new product called Sole Search. It’s an AirTag that locks onto a child’s shoelace to keep track of their location.
“In the campaign brief they said it was concept only, so we could do whatever we wanted to,” said Rupert. “We really took that to heart.”
Advertisement 3
Article content
They tossed aside the entire marketing concept, from the company name to the characters it would use, and started from scratch. They did some research and learned the Sole Search domain name was already taken, and buying it would cost $6,000 U.S.
“Which is a lot,” said Rupert. “We didn’t want to put that in the budget. We wanted to save them money. Same thing with the tags they originally had. They were using Disney characters and NFL licensing. We knew these licensing agreements would cost the Sole Search brand a lot of money. It might not have even been possible for them.”
Related Stories
The students created the concept for a company called Pax Guardian, and the product would be Pax Pals.
“What we were thinking is peace of mind,” said Rupert. “We want to give parents peace of mind that their children will be safe, no matter what. And Pax means ‘peace’ in Latin. And then with Guardian, we didn’t want to limit this to just parents, so any guardian. So we created a whole new brand identity, and the judges really loved it.”
The students made the final round with a short video teasing their ideas. They had 15 minutes on Saturday to make their final pitch. After weeks of preparation they were eager, prepared, and very confident.
“Just going through and watching some of the schools present, we were like, we’ve got this in the bag, we got it,” said Rupert. “It’s just very important because we’re in our third year now and it just confirms that we’re ready for the next step in our career. And it’s important for St. Clair and for our program and for our professors.”
Article content
English 
Українська
Comments