A team of UALR students has won the finals in a marketing competition for Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe.

Seniors Trey Woodruff, Danielle Hendrix, Tori Cecil, and Diamond Lewis competed in the Taziki’s Marketing Challenge on Nov. 15 and brought home a $5,000 prize for their efforts. UALR joins a team from West Virginia University in being named co-winners.

Professor Gary Geissler, who initiated the project and mentored the students since August, said the UALR team brought two important aspects to their presentation, one of which was their technical expertise. They also highlighted important data and provided insights that business people and marketers look for, he said.

“I’m extremely proud of them,” Geissler added.

The team created a 30-second television commercial on location at the Taziki’s restaurant on Chenal Parkway. In addition, they created a 30-second radio spot, a print advertisement, and wrote a media plan based on a hypothetical $30,000 media budget.

The members spent countless hours on and off campus honing the social media-driven project, adapting and evolving as they executed it from concept to final project.

In addition to UALR and West Virginia, Clemson University and two teams from Samford University in Birmingham were the other semi-finalists out of 31 teams that initially entered the competition.

Learn more about the UALR Marketing program.