Student marketing team in final of Heritage Advertising Trust competition 

A team of students from Strathclyde Business School's marketing department reached the final of the Heritage Advertising Trust's student marketing competition but were pipped at the post at the final reckoning. 

The trio of students - Jude Dudley, Jennifer Doherty and Amy Frew - were tasked with working on a brief provided by Ginsters, purveyors of traditional, savoury pastry products. 

This is the first year for the competition and opened to students on January 26. Themed around ‘Bringing heritage into the future’, the competition is part of a pilot by the educational charity to engage students and HEIs across the UK. 

Students were required to produce a top-line marketing strategy to build the Ginsters brand and increase sales, emphasising their brand heritage to capture today's consumers. They were asked to address brand awareness and set out a promotional campaign to boost short term sales and long term brand equity. The teams had to come up with a campaign to broaden the appeal of Ginsters, emphasising its status as a traditional company that uses locally sourced ingredients, is sustainable and supports local farmers. 

The Strathclyde students competed with their peers up and down the country and the competition gave them the opportunity to present the plan to senior industry experts. 

Thomas McAlinden, marketing teaching fellow, said, "This was a brand-new competition this year and, as such, an exciting opportunity for our students to showcase their talent in marketing with regards to a real life product. Strathclyde's marketing department has had great success with our students in competitions such as these over the years where they are able to apply their learning on the course to a real life brief. With Strathclyde having an ethos of being 'the place of useful learning' and promoting such a way of learning on our programmes, this suits our students down to the ground. 

"Jude, Jennifer and Amy put a lot of effort into this competition and, from the competition feedback, it seems they were really just squeezed out at the end from being ultimate winners. It's unfortunate they didn't win outright but they did a great job getting to the final and coming a close second. We're all really proud of the hard work they put in and this has been a valuable and exciting opportunity for them, with lots learned." 

Published: 30 April 2026