Sheridan School of Business students applaud their win at OCMC 2008.
Sheridan School of Business students continued their winning ways at the recent Ontario Colleges’ Marketing Competition by earning two gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal in five challenging events. This year 15 Ontario colleges brought teams of business students to the competition hosted in Niagara Falls by Niagara College.
“For us, as educators, it was both moving and very rewarding to witness first hand and in action, the bond that was formed between our exemplary faculty and their motivated and talented students,” said Dr. Robert Turner, President, Sheridan College.
The Ontario Colleges’ Marketing Competition challenges students to compete in ten case events and the ever-popular Quiz Bowl. Students compete in teams of two for most of the case events and individually in the Sales Presentation and the Job Interview event. At the OCMC site, each of the case events are open only to the student competitors and their judges – no outside audience is permitted near the judging or presentation rooms. Each student is permitted to register in a particular event only once.
In the Quiz Bowl event four students from each college are randomly mixed with other colleges to create a unique mix on each team. The Quiz Bowl, held on the first evening of the competition is the only visual event where the other competitors and faculty are invited to become the audience and cheer their teams to victory.
The OCMC is operated and maintained jointly by the participating colleges and the sponsors. For more information on the history of the OCMC please go to: http://www.sheridanc.on.ca/~nowell/ocmc/ocmchome.htm
Sheridan School of Business students enjoy camaradrie at the 2008 OCMC Awards Banquet held recently in Niagara Falls.
Mike Alves and Rachel Bosley Take the Gold Award in the Marketing Case Event at OCMC
Mike Alves and Rachel Bosley took the Gold Medal in the Marketing Research Case Event under the guidance of coach David Nowell.
Rachel Bosley and Mike Alves win the Gold Award for Marketing Research
The Marketing Research Case challenges the students to demonstrate their ability to develop a research proposal and present the proposal in a convincing manner to a panel of judges. Each team is given copies of the case, some presentation materials: three colored pens, and seven overhead transparencies, and have 30 minutes to prepare their case solution and then 15 minutes to make their presentation to the judges. At the end of the presentation the judges may ask the students challenge questions and then complete their evaluation of the presentation in private.
Kevin Viana takes Gold Award in the Sales Presentation Event
Third year student Kevin Viana continued his winning ways by taking the gold Award in the Sales Presentation Event, ably coached by Professor Keith Barnwell.
Kevin Viana captures Gold in the Sales Presentation Event
The Sales Presentation scenario consisted of selling an on-line media package from Yahoo Canada to CanadianTire.ca that would cover all of Canadian Tire’s objectives. These are to: raise Brand Awareness during the holiday period; sell to a demographic age of 25 – 54; use a six week campaign starting mid November; promote holiday sales and specials; increase on-line sales over last year; within a budget of $150,000.
Event coach, Keith Barnwell says he placed Kevin in front of 4 judges each week to simulate a competition environment. A debriefing occurred after each session and the pitch was changed based on the judges feedback.
“Kevin absolutely put his heart and soul into this,” said Barnwell.
This year marks Kevin Viana’s third OCMC competition. In 2006 in Ottawa, Viana competed in the Marketing Management Case. Last year he won the Silver Medal for the Sales Management Case in London.
Joline Christiani and Amanda Patchett take the Silver Award in International Marketing
Third year Advertising program student Joline Christiani and second year Advertising student Amanda Patchett took the Silver Award in the International Marketing Case under the tutelage of Professor Charles Minken.
Amanda Patchett and Joline Christiani take the Silver Award for International Marketing
Professor Minken says that he takes a systematic approach to coaching the students for the OCMC events.
“I always have great students which is the key ingredient to success, ” said Minken.
“We start by practicing analysis of a number of cases only for the first few weeks as this is the key to success. The next step is to include the practice of setting objectives and determining alternative solutions for a few weeks. At about week 4 we start moving towards completing the process that includes selection of the recommended solution and the accompanying action plans. Up to this point we don’t worry about time constraints. It is important to first get the process right before adding in the time constraint. My experience is that once the students are well practiced the time constraint is not much of a barrier. Bottom line is a step by step approach, practice , practice, practice and mostly keen and dedicated students who work well together, ” said Minken
Kevin Viana takes Silver for Sheridan in the Quiz Bowl
Third year Marketing student Kevin Viana took the Silver Award with his multi-college team in the exciting Quiz Bowl event.
Left: Kevin Viana, Sheridan College, Curtis Branscombe, St. Lawrence College, Tyler Wirsching, Durham College, Trent McClung, Mohawk College
Adam Ball and Vanessa Lawson take the Bronze Award for Integrated Marketing Communication
Advertising students Adam Ball and Vanessa Lawson took the Bronze Award for the Integrated Marketing Communication event under the guidance of coach Peggy Barnwell
Adam Ball and Vanessa Lawson take the Bronze Award for Integrated Marketing Communications at OCMC 2008
The IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) deals with all areas of marketing communications including advertising, sales promotion, event marketing, direct marketing, publicity, and interactive marketing. The students are required to solve a marketing communications problem by offering various types of communication strategies that will connect with a specified target audience to motivate them to take action -preferably to get them involved with the brand somehow.
“The IMC case runs the same as the other case events in so far as we do not know the case in advance. The difference is that we are given an hour to prepare and are given 10 PP slides to use,” said Peggy Barnwell, faculty coach.
Barnwell says that in order to prepare for this IMC event, she and the students work together for about 3 hours a week for about eight weeks prior to the OCMC event solving cases and working on improving presentation skills.
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