THE UNIVERSITY outclassed four other universities in the Marketing Communication Awards given by the Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA) at the Manila Hotel last Sept. 8.
UST’s team won first place for its marketing case study. The team was composed of Communication Arts seniors Josephine Burns, Maricon Garcia and Hera Sanchez, with adviser Prof. Bong Osorio of the Department of Communication of the Faculty of Arts and Letters; and advertising juniors Jeffrey Almario, and Jophine Quinto, with adviser Christy Que of the College of Fine Arts and Design.
With an apple soda as its marketing case, the group came up with its entry product called “Frenzi” with the copy “Get that Frenzi beat!!!.”
This year’s contest required participants “to conceptualize, design and present a marketing strategy that will highlight the role of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) for the brand given in the marketing case.” This included the conceptualization of the name of the product, situation analysis, SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) analysis, objectives, IMC strategies and tactics (creative strategy and IMC media application), budget utilization, and statement of evaluation.
The marketing strategy was judged according to its creativity, strategy, IMC application, market research, and documentation/content/presentation.
Now on its second year, the PANA-sponsored Marketing Communications Awards seeks to prepare college students in the field of advertising and marketing by making them conceptualize different marketing strategies.
The other finalists included De La Salle University-Taft, University of the Philippines-Diliman, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and Ateneo de Manila University.
According to Burns, the sleepless nights and hard work they spent on preparing their presentation proved to be rewarding when they were announced as winners.
“We didn’t expect to win. We were there just to do our best and show them what we worked hard for,” Burns said.
