Students win The Pitch competition

Two SBS students scooped first prize in a UK-wide marketing competition which saw them create a Marketing Plan for sponsor Wilkinson Sword.

Roxanne Colinet and Ellen Grieve, second year Marketing students, made up the winning team, Strath Gen Z. They attended the prestigious CIM Marketing Excellence Awards on April 12 where they found out they'd won and were able to celebrate their hard work and commitment to The Pitch 2018.

Notably, two Strathclyde teams had made it to the final 11 and presented their marketing plans to a panel of industry experts on March 15 in a bid to win a place in the top three.

However, only Roxanne and Ellen made it to the final, with competing teams from Hull and Bournemouth in the running for the top prize.

Roxanne said, "The full impact of the competition didn't really hit us until we made the finals competing against 10 other teams at the CIM Headquarters in Maidenhead. We realised there and then how great an opportunity the Pitch is for students; it allowed us to put our learning into practice and fully develop our marketing plan and pitch the idea to well-established marketing professionals. The day in itself was fantastic, the judges were great with feedback, and very willing to stay in touch with us and help with any questions we had regarding pursuing a marketing career."

She added, "Being the only 2nd year group to make it to the top 11 finalists, initially we felt apprehensive as we had not learned how to properly write a marketing plan. However this just motivated us to push forward and teach ourselves and our tutor Thomas McAlinden was very helpful in this process."

The Pitch is a nationwide marketing competition for students, designed to recognise and reward the marketing talent of the future. In small teams, students have to tackle a marketing challenge set by this year's sponsor and pitch to real industry leaders.

https://www.cim.co.uk/events/the-pitch/students/