St. Clair advertising class in the running to win international competition
Zachary Dillon grew up playing sports and likes the winning feeling.
He is part of a team of students at St. Clair College in the running to win a worldwide digital marketing competition hosted by Purdue University.
“It’s pretty exciting.” Dillon said. “We submitted the video three weeks ago, the original video to see if we could get in the finals and we kind of forgot about it.”
The video was an eight-minute version of their campaign and landed them a spot in the final four with the University of Oklahoma, Villanova University and Illinois' Wheaton College.
“When we saw it we, all of us collectively all the faculty, we all went holy cow. Really, really good,” said Stephen McEachern, professor and coordinator of the Advertising and Marketing Communications program.
The goal of the competition is for teams to develop and pitch their digital marketing strategy for a product called Sole Search, tracking tags for kids’ shoes.
“First, we didn't really care for the name Sole Search. It had a lot of negative connotations to it,” said team member Sarah Rupert.
The group also didn't like the company's proposed partnership with big companies like Disney and Major League Baseball.
“We wanted to basically allow the company save money and not spend money on these really big licensing fees,” Rupert said.
Sole Search was focused on marketing to parents but the group went against the grain and created a campaign that caught the attention of the judges.
“We decided to develop something that would appeal to children so that we could incorporate them into the campaign as well,” said Dalton Drouillard.
Team captain Emma Carosella is proud the group took a chance with their campaign.
“I think that they really liked that we took a chance and did something a little bit different that other groups may have been a little bit scared to do,” Carosella said.
There are more ideas that didn’t appear in the original video the group is excited to present to the judges in the final Saturday which will be followed by a Q&A with judges afterwards.
“There’s a lot they haven’t heard yet that we’re really excited to tell them,” said Carosella. “We're gonna look at partnerships potentially and different programs that we're kinda giving a different perspective on.”
Dillon feels what’s left is strong and could get the team over the top.
“I feel I’ve grown as a person and gotten more ready for industry through this competition,” he said.
Drouillard added, “It's an amazing experience cause we're still in school.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
AS IT HAPPENED Wildfire reaches Jasper Wednesday night, causes 'significant loss'
One of two wildfires threatening Jasper National Park reached the townsite Wednesday night and caused 'significant loss.'
Alberta calls in army to assist with wildfire situation
Alberta has called in the Canadian Armed Forces to help assist with the worsening wildfire situation in the province.
Biden explains why he ended re-election bid in Oval Office address
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Norad intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers operating together near Alaska in apparent first
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
2 Canadians being 'sent home immediately,' removed from Olympic team after drone incident
An analyst and an assistant coach with Canada Soccer are being removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and 'sent home immediately,' according to the Canadian Olympic Committee.
An unwelcome attendee has joined the Paris Olympic Games: COVID-19
After a handful of Australian water polo players tested positive for COVID-19 this week, questions have emerged around how the spread of the disease will be mitigated at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
Vacations, meals, booze: Contractor used $100K of charity's money for personal expenses, B.C. court finds
A B.C. man who was hired to help a non-profit build a food hub but instead spent the money on personal expenses – including travel, restaurants, booze and cannabis – has been ordered to pay more than $120,000 in damages.
Male, female killed, 2 others injured in 'gun battle' outside Toronto plaza: police
Two people are dead and two others suffered serious injuries following a shooting that police have described as a 'gun battle' outside a plaza in Scarborough, Ont. early Wednesday morning.