Once again, excellence shone as the students from University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman came out victorious in a battle of wits and strategies at the Strategic Marketing (StratMark) Competition, held at the Araneta Coliseum last July 27.
StratMark is the annual competition organized by the Philippine Marketing Association for the country’s leading collegiate minds. The contest give students the opportunity to test their marketing intelligence and knowledge on a real brand and create breakthrough campaigns for it.
Thirty-one school entries from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao were submitted but only five finalists were chosen. Namely, the teams from the University of Santo Tomas, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University–Manila and Southville Foreign Colleges and the winning team from UP.
With their tactical marketing concept for Taco Bell, the team from the premier state university impressed the judges with their marketing plan dubbed “Go Four It.” Their campaign highlighted the four variants of burritos from Taco Bell, relating the Filipino teen spirit to the world famous Mexican snack. The stratagem proved superior in building the brand of Taco Bell compared to the other finalists’ marketing plans.
We are very proud of our finalists,” Mary Faith Abaño, PMA’s vice president for Youth and Academe said. “This competition is like a preview on how bright the marketing world will be once this generation finally takes the free reins to driving the country to progress.”
The UP team, dubbed the Iskolar ng Bayan (the nation’s scholar), was made up of Ma. Theresa Ajon, Christine Anacay, Kriselda Celina Cabrera, Carmie Rome Cargo, Marlowe Emmanuel Javier, Luis Diego Lee, Nary Ann Therese Lorenzana, Delbert Stanley Ty. It was supervised by Ben Paul Gutierrez and Raymund William Acedera.
Prior to the competition, PMA held a conference featuring the father of Guerilla Marketing, Jay Levinson, to help widen the horizons of its participants. With the theme “Guerilla Marketing Revolution,” the talks delved on how marketing professionals and entrepreneurs can profit without traditional marketing and advertising campaigns.
