Competition winners (left to right) Adam Doherty, Chero Omer, Alana Maria DelZotto and Kaylee Nel

The 4th Annual Business School Marketing Competition winners Kaylee Nel, Chero Omer, Alana Maria DelZotto, and Adam Doherty (all MSc International Marketing students) celebrated a well-deserved victory with their #RefillRestyle marketing campaign for competition sponsors ASOS.

Their #RefillRestyle campaign used sustainable water bottles featuring unique, individual designs as a fashion accessory and these free giveaways were to be part of every student’s journey through university after signing up to ASOS.

The competition gives marketing students the opportunity to work with a real business on a real marcomms brief during Spring Term. This year, online fashion retailer ASOS provided the brief.

Fran Robinson, ASOS UK Marketing Manager, asked participants to develop their next student acquisition campaign this September to achieve 50,000 new student sign-ups to the brand’s website. In addition, the teams were tasked with converting sign-ups into that all-important first purchase, as well as making recommendations as to how to increase customer lifetime value.

Students had five weeks to develop their campaigns, which focused heavily on both digital and on-campus activity. James Sutton, Marketing Teaching Fellow, ran the competition for the Business School, and provided support for the teams as the competition progressed, including a pitch skills workshop, presentation skills workshop, and also individual ‘pitch doctor’ sessions.

Teams presented their strategies and creatives Fran and James in short pitches at the end of Spring Term. The winning team received £1,000 between them to spend, with the second and third runners up receiving £100 and £50 ASOS voucher per team member respectively.

Winners Alana, Chero, Adam and Kaylee said:

“We are very thankful to have won. This was a great opportunity to apply our marketing knowledge to a real life marketing campaign. We encourage other students to participate in business competitions and other opportunities such as these, because it has given us incredible teamwork, public speaking and communication skills that we can transfer into the workplace.”

Fran was equally positive about the competition from her ASOS business perspective. She said:

“The competition is such a good opportunity for the students and the brand. The students get some ‘real life’ experience interacting with a brand, acting as the agency, and the brand obtains the view point from a ‘student customer’ perspective. For any company who is looking to attract or work with students, I think it’s such a great opportunity to test your approach and get some fresh ideas. The student are also motivated in their studies by a fun and energetic task.”