Northumbria University students triumph in national marketing competition for whisky maker

Students from Northumbria University have come out on top in a national competition to find the “cream of the country’s marketing talent”.

Hedy Pang, Alpo Usno, Nongnaphat Bousai and Yamini Singh formed the winning team, Inffour, which bested competition from around the UK to triumph in this year’s Digital Marketing Association (DMA) Talent Challenge.

They were tasked with creating a 12-month integrated marketing campaign for global exporter and whisky maker, Whyte and Mackay. At the heart of this challenge was a drive to help the company acquire 10,000 subscribers and help its collection of single malt brands stand-out from the competition at the popular annual London Whisky Show.

Successful entrants were invited to pitch to an expert industry panel from the DMA, multinational software company Sage and UK independent media agency, Republic of Media.

Inffour created a campaign, “Whisky of the day”, with which the team gamified the experience to generate “immersive engagement” in the tasting of single malt whisky. The game featured a spinning wheel with a variety of whisky taste profiles and serving suggestions, supporting Whyte and Mackay’s belief that there is “a whisky for everyone”.

It was a double success at this year’s DMA Talent Challenge, with another team from Northumbria, Breeka, being awarded second place. Members of both teams are enrolled on Northumbria’s MSc Digital Marketing course.

Northumbria has been a regular finalist in the challenge and in the last five years has had a team in the final pitches every year, winning twice and taking runners up prize three times.

Dr David Hart, associate professor of marketing at Northumbria University, commented: “Congratulations to Inffour and Breeka on their success in this year’s DMA Talent Challenge.

“The IDM (Institute of Data & Marketing) /DMA partnership is central to our marketing degree offerings at both undergraduate and postgraduate level at Northumbria. We use the DMA Talent Challenge as an official assessment every year, and use it as a vehicle to practically apply data and digital marketing concepts.

“Each year the challenge gives students an entirely different context in which to creatively respond to a client brief, and provides them with opportunities to hone a host of skills that are critical for their career readiness.

“These range from market insights through to idea creation, channel integration, metrics and, of course, pitching to a high-profile judging panel. This is a central component of our work with industry to ensure our marketing degrees are distinctive and set up our students for the jobs market.”

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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