Newcastle Business School teams lead in national competition

Two teams, from Newcastle Business School, part of Northumbria University, gained the final two places in this year’s Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) National Student Competition where the task was to develop a business-to-business direct marketing plan to increase the number of Carbon Trust surveys undertaken by businesses.

First place went to the BA Business Management Team, called Total Green Solutions, which included students Simon Burns, Paul Middleton-Walker, Emma Boyle, Nicole Anderson and Anna Drury, supervised by tutor Naomi Kirkup.

They had been chosen, along with runners up, Mosaic Marketing Consultancy – the BA Marketing Management team made up of supervising tutor David Hart and students Annabel Jeffs, Laura Faulkner, Rachel Beales, Katie Hall, Danielle Mitchell, and Adam Knox – to go to London and pitch their entries to the competition sponsor TEQUILA\ and their client The Carbon Trust.

The result represents the fourth time in nine years that NBS has produced the winning team in the competition.

The winning team wins £1,500 and the winning supervisor Naomi Kirkup will receive an all expenses paid trip to the US Direct Marketing Association’s Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco in October. The event also incorporates the US Direct Marketing Educational Foundation event with the latest US and international research in direct and digital marketing.

Mosaic Marketing Consultancy wins the second prize of £800.

BA Business Management tutor Naomi Kirkup said: “I am tremendously proud of the students, who worked considerably well as a team.  Their success in winning the final demonstrates their commitment to their studies and is testament to their drive to become successful graduates.  Being in the final was a unique opportunity for both teams to network and build connections for their future careers.

“Our Newcastle Business School success over the past few years in the IDM competition signifies the dedication of our students and the abilities of our staff to successfully support students in delivering exceptional work to real life clients.  We are all extremely proud of the students and staff involved.”

BA Marketing Management tutor David Hart said: “I am absolutely delighted that Newcastle Business School students contested the national final. We have had a fine record in the IDM competition in years gone by, and the students have worked exceptionally hard to develop truly professional campaign ideas for a major organisation.”

Tequila\ CEO Tim Bonnet, said: “I was hugely impressed with the quality of the students who presented to us. Both teams showed a clear grasp of the insights and processes we need to go through in order to put together a fully integrated marketing campaign. The winning team really demonstrated their understanding of segmentation and how to communicate to different audiences with different messages. They’d also done some very interesting primary research to actually understand what motivates people in an organisation.”

Kate Burnett, IDM Director of Graduate Services, said: “The standard of entries was very high and to achieve a position in the final two is a great achievement.”