UA Little Rock business students named semifinalists in international marketing competition
Three marketing students in the UA Little Rock’s College of Business were named semifinalists in the 2017-18 Collegiate ECHO Marketing Challenge.
Of more than 270 entries submitted by student teams from around the world, the UA Little Rock team members were honored as semifinalists for proposing an omni-channel marketing plan, which this year promoted Fossil’s Smart Q Watches among consumers aged 18 to 35.
The UA Little Rock team — Timeless Creatives — consisted of undergraduate students Brennen Boose of Rochester, New York; Joel Tanner Jr. of Little Rock, and Alexis McCartney of Ozark, Arkansas. Gary Geissler, professor of marketing, advised the team.
“This was the first time UA Little Rock has entered a team in this prestigious competition, and so to finish as a semi-finalist and among the top teams is highly respectable,” Geissler said of his students. “This was, by far, the largest number of teams we have ever faced in a competition.”
The students took Geissler’s fall 2018 class Advertising: Integrated Marketing Communications, which focused on maximizing communications impact by effectively blending promotional activities to deliver a clear, consistent, and meaningful message. The students studied the entire range of promotional activities, such as advertising, public relations, and sales promotion.
“ I told the students that they can feel proud to include their achievement as a semi-finalist in a major, year-long, international marketing competition,” Geissler said.. “The EDGE organization is based in New York, the media capital of the world. As such, it is a well-respected organization and competition.”
The Collegiate ECHO Marketing Challenge is hosted by Marketing EDGE, a national education nonprofit committed to fostering skill-ready, responsive and responsible marketers of the future. The content of this year’s competition was provided by Fossil, an American watch and lifestyle company.
Conducted since 1986, the Marketing EDGE Collegiate ECHO Challenge provides college students with a real-world marketing project by challenging them to create and pitch a marketing campaign to a leading brand. Previous clients include Facebook, DIRECTV, Domino’s Pizza, and Microsoft.
Photo above: UA Little Rock marketing students Brennen Boose, Alexis McCartney, and Joel Tanner Jr. competed in the Collegiate ECHO Marketing Challenge.