STUDENT marketers battled it out to be named winners of ‘The Pitch 2011’, a CIM event hosted at McCann Manchester last night.
After tough competition from teams across the North of England, Julie Hobbs, Victoria Chamberlain and Charles Horton from team CH2 from the Isle of Man Business School were named as the winners by a panel of industry judges.
The competition, now in its 24th year, is open to anyone studying a marketing qualification at higher level in the North of England. Eight teams of three people from universities and colleges across the region were set a real life brief and given two weeks to interpret it and prepare a pitch.
This year’s brief asked the students to position Liverpool ONE, a McCann Manchester client, as one of Europe’s leading leisure and retail destinations.
Each team had just three minutes to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges, showcasing their understanding of the brief and how they applied marketing tools and techniques to answer it.
Managing Partner Dave Donaghue and Account Manager Laura Grainger from McCann Manchester, who both work on the Liverpool ONE account, judged the presentations with Davide de Maestri, Region Chair of CIM North West, and Keith Fletcher, Head of Education for CIM.
Dave Donaghue said: “The standard of entries was very high this year and there were some really creative ideas. It was interesting for us to see the student’s take on a brief we’ve been working on every day for some time now. We thought CH2 delivered an excellent pitch.”
Senior Planner Lucinda Curtois gave a keynote presentation to the students about how McCann Manchester responded to the real client brief when they pitched for it last autumn, before the winner of the event was announced.
Regional CIM Director and event host Diane Earles commented: “It never ceases to amaze me each year how strategic, creative and professional the competitors and marketers of tomorrow are and this year they have certainly done themselves proud!”
The winning team members will get 12 months free CIM membership each and their institution will be awarded custody of the CIM Shield for a year.