The IDM Student Direct Marketing Competition

Winners from the University of Northumbria

Huge congratulations to the University of Northumbria’s Total Green Solutions, winners of the IDM Student Competition 2010!

Here's the IDM Summer School winners' reactionPictured are, left to right, Simon Burns, Anna Drury, Nicole Anderson, Emma Boyle and Paul Middleton-Walker, whose response to this year’s competition brief won them first prize after a tense, competitive pitch before sponsors the Carbon Trust and agency TEQUILA\.

Some 150 student teams submitted entries to the 2010 competition. Entries were whittled down to two finalists and the winners announced at a central London drinks reception attended by some of direct marketing’s leading players.

Another University of Northumbria team, MOSAIC, received the runners-up certificate and, like Total Green Solutions, took home a cash prize.

Complementing marketing and business studies

The competition is a valuable addition to any course that teaches marketing. The brief, provided at the start by the sponsors, is a well-researched assignment. It will cover all aspects of the direct, data and digital marketing disciplines, and involves the integration of these with wider elements of the marketing mix. It is used in Direct Marketing, Relationship Marketing and Marketing Communications modules.

Participation in the competition can provide strong publicity for the university or college concerned. It is covered in the UK marketing press, and, if your team is among the prize winners, local press often pick up on the story too. What's more, useful links can be established with the business world and, on an individual level, the lecturer supervising the winning team will win a trip to the US DMA Conference in October 2010.

A challenging marketing assignment

Although TEQUILA\ and their client The Carbon Trust produced the 2010 challenge, previous competition sponsors have included: TEQUILA\ London and The Army; KLP Euro RSCG with Nestle Purina; EHS Brann with Centrica; Barraclough Hall Woolston Gray with Volkswagen; Evans Hunt Scott with BMW; WWAV Rapp Collins with Oxfam and Toyota, Lowe Live with Orange; Tullo Marshall Warren with Guinness and T-Mobile; Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel with Young Person's Railcard and Partners Andrews Aldridge with Lexus.

The competition is designed to give students the opportunity to apply the theory they've learnt to a 'live' direct marketing assignment. Entrants are challenged to combine their knowledge and research skills with creativity and vision to solve a real-life marketing problem.

The winning team will receive a shared prize of £1500 and the runners up £500. The supervising lecturers for the winning team will attend the DMA conference in the USA in October 2010.

 

More information for lecturers can be found on our online teaching resource
www.teach-direct.com

 

Previous winners

The 2008-2009 winners were from the University of Leeds. The winning team shared a prize of £1500 and the runners up £800.

  • 22 Sep 2009
    .PDF
  • T-Mobile 2009
    Entrants were asked to look at increasing T-Mobile’s brand engagement as well as reducing churn rates and creating competitive advantage.
  • 03 Jul 2008
    .PDF
  • The Army 2008
    Entrants were asked to pitch for a new CRM programme for the Army to maintain contact with key prospects post-16, through education, up to the point where they will be making career decisions.
  • 01 Jan 2007
    .PDF
  • Lexus GB 2007
    Student teams were invited to pitch for the launch of the new Lexus LS 460 luxury saloon - with the primary objectives of building a prospect database of 10,000 non Lexus customer and of delivering 3,000 warm leads to Lexus dealerships.
  • 01 Jan 2006
    .PDF
  • Young Person's Railcard 2006
    Students were set the task to increase the number of Young Person's Railcard holders amongst 16 to 25 year olds from 25 to 28% and to increase the average number of journeys by railcard holders.
  • 01 Jan 2005
    .PDF
  • Guinness 2005
    The task set by Guinness was to strengthen the brand affinity of existing Guinness drinkers, in both the on- and off-trade, through the Guinness customer relationship programme.
  • 17 Jul 2008
    .PDF
  • Nestle Purina PetCare 2004
    The brief asked students to produce an integrated marketing plan showing how to increase value market share for three key Nestle Purina PetCare brands: Felix, Winalot Treats and Bakers Complete.
  • 01 Jan 2003
    .PDF
  • AA 2003
    The task is to develop a direct marketing strategy that provides the AA with a coherent and consistent framework for cross-selling. The strategy will bring the 'Just AAsk’'brand campaign to life fully and enable the AA to profitably capitalise on the broad range of products it sells.
  • 01 Jan 2002
    .PDF
  • Orange 2002
    As Orange's direct marketing agency, you have been asked to review Orange's current marketing activities and create a new direct marketing strategy that will use this range of services to retain and grow the Orange customer base.
  • 01 Jan 2001
    .PDF
  • Toyota 2001
    The task was to develop a direct marketing strategy for Toyota (GB) PLC for the UK launch of the Toyota Prius, the first mass manufactured hybrid technology car, in September 2001.
  • 01 Jan 1999
    .PDF
  • Oxfam 1999
    Oxfam International briefed teams to develop a pan-European direct marketing strategy that takes advantage of the introduction of the Euro. The strategy needed to gain substantial funds, establish Oxfam International as a pan-European charity with key audiences and begin to develop long term relations with these new audiences while positioning Oxfam prominently within Europe.
  • 01 Jan 1998
    .PDF
  • BMW 1998
    As an agency invited to pitch by BMW (GB) Ltd teams were asked to take an overview of BMW's marketing operation, with particular attention to the renewed focus on relationship marketing and customer service elements, and prepare a strategy document which will demonstrate specifically how direct marketing can be used to launch and sustain the introduction of a BMW Card to build increased loyalty among BMW customers.
  • 01 Jan 1997
    .PDF
  • Volkswagen 1997
    As an agency invited to pitch by Volkswagen UK, teams were asked to take an overview of VW's marketing operation and prepare a strategy document to show specifically how direct marketing could be integrated profitably into their operation launching the Beetle.


  pre-load image pre-load image pre-load image pre-load image pre-load image pre-load image pre-load image pre-load image pre-load image pre-load image