Look out marketing world, here they come.
The next crop of young upstarts, hungry for a chance and even one lucky break will soon be graduating business programs across Canada. Some of the very best went head-to-head in Toronto yesterday for the final round of Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec.
Rising above the field of 191 teams to win the competition, and a new car, were McMaster University’s Kailee Jamieson and Ryan Moran.
The students had to develop an integrated marketing communications strategy for the launch of the 2013 Chevrolet Spark in major Canadian urban centres.
Yesterday saw 10 finalist teams present their cases to a panel of judges at the Intercontinental Hotel in Toronto.
“While each of the top 10 teams submitted high-quality, professional plans, the top three entries displayed a level of strategy, creativity and feasibility that went above and beyond. We congratulate the winning teams for really taking this year’s competition to the next level,” said Patricia Wozniak co-chair, CNTAE, in a release.
As the grand prize winners, Jaimeson and Moran, each won a 2013 Chevrolet Spark.
Second Place winners Emily Dimytosh and Elizabeth Harris from Queen’s University took home $5,000 in scholarships plus Sony tablets The third place team of Christopher Larryant and Veronica Yeung, both from University of British Columbia, won $2,000 courtesy of Chevrolet and two Sony tablets.
Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec was created in 2007 by the DeGroote School of Business and is open to all full-time undergraduate students with either a major or minor in business or commerce and all MBA students.
Aside from the big prizes, the competition offers a chance at internships with sponsoring organizations.
UBC’s Yeung will be interning with the marketing team at PepsiCo, while Chevrolet awarded internships to Larryant, as well as Jia Zheng from Queen’s University and Guneet Singh from University of British Columbia.
“We look forward to welcoming our new interns who have already demonstrated their creativity and passion in this competition, and we know they will continue to impress us as they help launch the all new Chevrolet Spark,” said Kevin Williams, president and managing director of General Motors of Canada.
