Fanshawe dominates marketing competition hosted by Niagara College

A team of eight marketing students from the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business placed first overall with a dominant performance in the Niagara College Marketing Competition (NCMC) hosted by Niagara College on Saturday, November 22 in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The team, comprised of students from the Business Marketing and Business Administration Marketing programs, competed against top student talent from other Ontario colleges in five marketing case events – Digital Marketing, International Marketing, Retail Marketing, Entrepreneurship Marketing, and Advanced Marketing Strategy. Each event challenged participants to solve real-world business problems, with feedback from industry professionals.

All eight student-competitors won medals in their respective categories, contributing to a first overall finish for the team, scoring 42 of a possible 50 points, with a dominant eight-point margin over second place.

Team head coach and marketing professor, Jack Michienzi, praised the group for their team approach, hard work, dedication and resilience.

“This was such an unbelievable team, and I think it really speaks to the resilience of these particular students as well as the strengths of Fanshawe’s marketing programs and faculty,” he said.

Jack added some context of the challenges the team had to battle through while preparing for the event.

“One example being a student having to be subbed into an event they hadn’t prepared for less than 24 hours before the event. They spent most of that night working on the case, working into the early hours, left their homes at 4 a.m. to catch a bus to Niagara-on-the-Lake, continued working on the presentation in the morning during the event, finished their presentation with 10 minutes to spare, and ended up winning gold.”

Congratulations to the following students and faculty coaches:

• Gold Medal - Advanced Marketing Strategy — Jaedyn Laanstra and Jeff Bowden (coached by Simone Moreau-Rodgers)
• Gold Medal - Digital Marketing — Jeff Bowden and Akylai Baktybek kyzy (coached by Dhaval Motwani)
• Silver Medal - International Marketing — Omar Elmahalawy and Bryce Da Fonseca (coached by Michelle Lau)
• Silver Medal - Entrepreneurship — Adam Cornelis and Ryan Usher (coached by Soph Katsademas and John Trembley)
• Bronze Medal - Retail Marketing — Malcolm Hartland and Ryan Usher (coached by Soph Katsademas and John Trembley)

Special thanks to program coordinator, Stacey Swartz, and alumnae Elise Carlson who helped with coaching at the event.