Student Team Places in the Top 20 of Global Competition

Experiential learning is a cornerstone of the Business and Management major, with students actively participating in various projects through our different course offerings.

This semester, students enrolled in our Digital Marketing course formed groups to compete in the global Digital Marketing Competition. Each team of two to four students chose one of the top 100 US charities to develop and pitch a digital marketing plan that would bring awareness, volunteering, and donations from the target market of 18-24 year olds. 

This is the third semester that this competition has been used in the course, but the first time students competed.

“I appreciate how detailed the client briefs are in this competition,” said Professor C.C. Chapman, who created the course. “It gives the students real-world experience of what it is like to research, brainstorm and create a full marketing pitch to a client. This allows them to take what they’ve learned in class and immediately put it to the test.”

As an added twist this semester, the teams had to develop a viral trend similar to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that successfully raised awareness and funds in 2014. They were given a $500,000 budget to spend and were judged on various criteria, including paid advertising, content creation, and research.

Out of the over 160 teams who submitted their under eight minute pitch videos, one of our teams from Wheaton placed #19!

The winning team of Johnny Forman (‘22), Rachel Murray (‘23), Leah Shoulta (‘23), and  Hannah Wescott (‘22) chose the Humane Society as their charity. You can watch their pitch below.