Pitch perfect UCB students reach final of national marketing competition

Three marketing students from The Business School at UCB have proven themselves to be among the best in the country after reaching the final of a nationwide competition.

Adriana Braje, a BA (Hons) Marketing Management student, Aran Nugent and Sandeep Kaur, who are both studying for a foundation degree in Marketing Management, battled it out against 11 other institutions at The Pitch 2017, the student marketing competition run by The Charted Institute of Marketing and held at its headquarters in Maidenhead.

Although they narrowly missed a place in the final three, the students said it was a great opportunity to network with some of the biggest names in the industry and gain real-life pitching experience.

Teams were challenged to devise and pitch a marketing plan to help American travel firm StudentUniverse achieve success in the UK. The judging panel consisted of industry leaders from StudentUniverse, UniLad, Close Brothers Property, IBM, LinkedIn, Mintel and CIM.

UCB’s team devised a plan harnessing the power of social media, specifically using sponsored vloggers to spread the word about StudentUniverse. Their strategy also combined the use of virtual and augmented reality.

Graduate teaching assistant Nethan Punj, a former student on UCB’s BA (Hons) Business Enterprise and MSc Enterprise Management courses, was proud to mentor the group. He said: “The Pitch has got to be one of the most prestigious student marketing competitions in the UK. It was very tense on the day and every single pitch was brilliant. We were disappointed not to get through to the final three, but we learned a lot, and hope to be back in the final next year.”