It may have been an academic competition, but hundreds of students and faculty from around the province created a varsity-style setting for this year's Ontario Colleges' Marketing Competition.
Hosted by St. Clair College Nov. 14 and 15, the contest attracted participants from 13 colleges for a series of marketing challenges during the two-day event, where St. Clair's team of third-year Business - Marketing students collected a few awards.
On day one, four students from each school squared off in the "Quiz Bowl," a boisterous, rapid-fire multiple-choice event which tested their pop culture and marketing knowledge.
The spectacle, hosted by the infectiously energetic Mike Chalut in the Student Life Centre at Main Windsor Campus, was three hours of fast-thinking, constant lead changes and a tremendous showing of school pride.
"You could hear the smacking of the boom sticks and teams screaming all the way down the hallway," noted a visiting student.
Seneca College was the ultimate victor Thursday night, with St. Clair College getting narrowly edged off the podium for a fourth-place finish.
On Friday, teams were in a much quieter setting, doing case studies before a panel of judges on topics ranging from entrepreneurship to international marketing.
A Trade Show was also set up in the St. Clair College Centre for the Arts where students were encouraged to network with business professionals throughout the day.
During Friday's OCMC awards gala, the top five finishers in each category were announced before a full house at the St. Clair College Centre for the Arts Ballroom, in a setting equally energetic to the Quiz Bowl.
Third-year Business Marketing students Mimi Nguyen and Aziz Aziz secured a second-place finish in the ‘Prospect Pitch' category, which elicited a tremendous roar of applause from the St. Clair ranks.
"It was a lot better than we'd ever done in practices. It was seamless, it was flawless. We felt really confident going into it," said Nguyen, who also took home the prestigious Lydiatt Award for her constant encouragement and support of her team, commitment to the event and integrity demonstrated through sportsmanship.
"We worked together, we bounced off each other, we worked fantastic as a team and that's what brought us together and that's what brought us the win today," said her partner, Aziz, who also showed high praise for their ‘Prospect Pitch' coach, Adam Ibrahim, who is both College alumni, serves on the St. Clair College Foundation Board of Directors and works as a part-time instructor at the College.
"We appreciate Adam for his dedication and his time, he came early in the morning, he dedicated his time and there's no one better than Adam to be our coach. We thank him very much," said Aziz.
Also earning hardware from the case studies portion of OCMC was the team of Ben Pare and Nate Schincariol, who captured second-place honours for their ‘Retail Marketing' case study presentation.
The pair pitched an idea to revamp marketing to include near-field communication technology at the Duty-Free shop, to help drive more traffic into the store.
"We had good coaching, we had a good team around us, and we did the best we could," said Pare, who gave kudos to faculty coaches Kristina DiPaolo and Philip Cohen.
"We were set up for success. We couldn't have asked for better coaches, or a better College," he said.
"They passed down their wisdom from years in the retail environment workplace to us, and it just gave us an outside perspective on something we hadn't experienced ourselves," said Pare. "It helped so much."
"It's not just about having a coach but having a mentor for life," said Schincariol. "We learned a lot of valuable lessons from this, and I think it's going to help our careers going forward."
Fanshawe College won the overall trophy for most cumulative awards during OCMC.
Next year's OCMC will be hosted by Conestoga College in 2025.
