Shining a light on consumers’ health could help two DMU marketing students land a £1,500 prize in a national pitching competition sponsored by high-street pharmaceutical giants Boots.
Ashley Mika NG, 21, and Jordan NG, 24, are hoping their neon charity fun run idea, which has been proposed for three major cities across the UK, can help Boots raise the profile of its partnership with The Prince’s Trust charity.
The idea has helped the duo, who are both in the final year of their Advertising and Marketing Communications BA, advance to the final of The Pitch, an annual competition set up by the Chartered Institute for Marketing (CIM). The competition tasks university students with creating a marketing campaign for a renowned brand based on a business brief.
Pitching in front of representatives from Boots, The Prince’s Trust and the CIM, the pair will explain how their campaign can encourage more young people to get active and drive donations for the charity.
Speaking ahead of the final, which takes place on Friday 18 March, Ashley said: “We’re playing it cool. Of course, it would be amazing to win but we’re going into the pitch with zero expectations and we’re both just proud to be in the final.”
Jordan added that if they were successful, they’d be treating themselves to a nice meal out on the town, jokingly suggesting that the £1,500 prize money would get them a “great dinner”.
As part of the brief, each team has been given an imaginary £200,000 budget to raise awareness for the organisation’s partnership with The Prince’s Trust, using owned, paid for or earned media channels for promotion.
The neon-lit charity fun run put forward by the DMU students would take place initially in London, Manchester and Birmingham, before scaling up to other cities. Some of the budget would also go on official merchandise, which would be sold across Boots stores and at the fun-run itself with profits going towards The Princes Trust.
It’s part of a wider campaign proposal which will also include micro-donations that will ask Boots customers if they want to round up their payment to donate to The Prince’s Trust when using a self-service checkout.
Ashley said: “Our ideas have all been designed so both Boots and The Prince’s Trust can scale them up if they see fit. We’re hoping the fun run is something that would do really well organically on social media because of the bright lights and great photo opportunities.
“In our first pitch, we didn’t utilise all the budget available to us and that was picked up on by the judges. We’ve worked hard on scaling up our event and the advertising, both digitally across social media and also physical, with displays across Boots’ stores nationwide.
“By reassessing our budget, we’ve also been able to better incorporate the supporting ideas which will help us get The Prince’s Trust in front of those not interested in the fun run. I’m particularly proud of our ‘Foundation for Foundation’ idea, where a percentage of the sale of make-up and foundation goes to the charity during certain weeks of the year.”
The pair are now making the final preparations for their 15-minute pitch, which will be followed by a 10-minute Q&A session.
“This has been the first time we have presented to a panel of judges internationally,” said Jordan. “To be in a final and represent our university is quite a surreal experience, but we will do our best.
“We’re focusing on a few campaigns at a time to make sure we capture as wide an audience as possible. We didn’t want those not on social media to miss out on the partnership, so we were keen to explore ways we could get our messages into stores and the donation round-up feature was.”
DMU has had previous success in the competition. Last year Alicia Dorey Garcia-Verona and Emily Finlayson were highly commended by the CIM for their pitch to help Samsung market its new foldable mobile phones to Generation Z.
This year only Ashley Mika and Jordan have made it through to the final from DMU but Farhana Shaikh, lecturer in Marketing, who worked with the pair across the project, is confident they have what it takes to scoop the crown with their pitch.
She said: “Ashley Mika and Jordan are both confident speakers and are very passionate about their ideas. They have put so much work into researching what resonates with people interested in improving their health or looking at fun ways to give to charity, and I really think they’re on to a winner.
“I’ve been so impressed with how they have interpreted the brief and applied the feedback they received from their initial pitch into their final presentation.
“I’ve got everything crossed for a good result in the final.”
Other universities to make the final include Birmingham City University, Bournemouth University, the University of Strathclyde, Sheffield Hallam University, The University of Leeds, The University of Liverpool, Wolverhampton University and the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, based in Malaysia.
Posted on Thursday 17 March 2022