Win The Apprentice: 10 Practical Tips on Preparing & Presenting Marketing Cases

Donna Li, Apprentice Coordinator and winner of last year’s competition (along with Victoria Pham) shares tips she’s learned through competing in other marketing competitions including Schulich RISE Case Competition and  Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec.

5 Prepping Tips

1)    Patronize the numbers included in the case / use the appendix.

These resources are included for a reason – don’t overlook them because you think marketing is solely based on creativity. Many trends and market opportunities are carefully hidden behind these figures. Thus, thorough analysis is highly recommended.

2)    Become the expert: conduct thorough secondary and primary research

Give your judges reasons to believe you by backing up your idea with facts from credible library sources (e.g. Marketline, Euromontior, etc). Don’t stop yourself there – go the extra mile and conduct primary research. Whether it be an on-site analysis or surveying 50 people from your target market –judges will be impressed with your insights that competitors likely won’t have.

3)    Practice your presentation prior to presenting

“Practice makes perfect.” This tedious task will inherently hone your presentation skills. Also practice staying within the limit. Getting cut off in a presentation does not leave a strong lasting impression.

4)    Anticipate potential questions and prepare answers in advance

You can’t escape from the Q&A session, but you can do your best to prepare. Think about what judges would ask if you were in their shoes. Practice your presentation in front of friends and listen to their questions. There is a good chance the questions will be similar.

5)    Continuously challenge yourself to do more.

Always ask yourself: “Is there anything I can do to further improve my idea?” Committing yourself towards constant improvement will push your limits, allowing you to reach your maximum potential. Whether it’s conducting a store analysis, creating a survey, making a prototype (e.g. product, webpage, coupon, video, etc.) – these “extra elements” always give you that extra edge against your peers. Don’t be afraid to execute a great idea just because it’s difficult. Follow Nike’s slogan: “Just Do It.”

5 Presentation Tips

1)    Confidence is contagious – make sure you have it!

Standing up straight, making eye contact, and  voice are just a couple signs which display confidence. The more confidence you show, the more convincing you’ll be to judges.

2)    Exhibit a strong team dynamic

It’s not rocket science: don’t interrupt each other, take turns answering the questions, and pay attention to your partner when they’re presenting! We also like showing our unity through matching outfits – judges always notice it! Strange to say but audiences always have affinity towards teams that work well together and exhibit strong friendships.

3)    Emotionally connect with your audience

It takes practice to connect with your audience and relate to them emotionally. Make eye contact, tell personal stories, and take pauses to let them think and digest what you are saying. The more they can agree with you, the higher you’ll score in your presentation.

4)    Avoid Using Filler Words

“Like, Uhs, Umms” during presentations are extremely distracting to the judges. Instead of these filler words, simply breathe and take a pause. Your train of thought will flow more seemingly and you'll naturally display more confidence.

5)    Present your idea with excitement!

If you aren’t excited, who will be?! This points back to the first tip on confidence. Confidence and charisma is key to winning after you have a well thought out presentation.

Were You SCENE @ YMA?

This past Thursday, YMA hosted an event you wouldn’t have wanted to miss: our WANNA BE SCENEster event sponsored by SCENE and CampusPerks.

The turnout was (movie) fan-tastic!  With a jam-packed “theatre” of students from all years, you were unlikely to miss out on tons of free food, prizes and GIVEAWAYS including Toblerone, Ferrero Rocher, Lindt Lindor chocolates, candy, gift cards and wait for the best…FREE SCENE movie passes! Students’ marketing knowledge was put through the test in our interactive games: “Marketing Jeopardy” and “Can you spot this brand/company?” embedded in various movie clips, new and of course, oldie classics!

As for all you who love social media out there, our Twitter hash tag, #YMALovesScene, instantly went viral off-the-screen. After looking at the results, we congratulated our top tweeters: @patriknarbs and @yoonjeehuh!

After a long, hectic and not to mention, stressful week of midterms, YMA’s “WANNA BE SCENEster” event provided (at a movie rating of 5 out of 5)  fellow Schulich-ers and York students a way to unwind, de-stress and share some good laughs over marketing knick-knacks!

So, to keep the movie reels going and the SCENE points coming, we ask that you remember to sign up yourself, friends, and family for the FREE SCENE points card!

Step 1: Fill out the information and press submit (https://www.scene.ca/enrollmentprofile.aspx) 

Step 2: After registering, click on this link: http://prod.mtcontent.com/SCENEster/ 

Enter the email address you used to sign up for the card and use the SCENEster code "16" to enter a draw to win a free movie ticket!

Remember, the convincing success of our event, along with YOUR HELP will help YMA qualify for Round 3 of the contest. Allow us to throw you an even bigger and better SCENEster celebration!

The Best and the Worst of TIFF 2012 Sponsorship Activations

This past Sunday the 37th Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up by awarding the Blackberry People’s Choice Award to the Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper starrer The Silver Linings Playbook. While tourists will be heading home and Torontonians returning to their daily lives, TIFF sponsors will be heavily reviewing their sponsorship activations and business impact.

As a loyal TIFF-goer, I took the opportunity to check out their activations in between the twelve films I saw over the last week. Here’s the scoop on the best and worst activations.

Best Pre-Movie Ad: RBC

RBC decided to continue with their ‘Uncle Marv’ spots which started last year. The new editions of ‘Not everybody has an uncle in the biz’ commercials were unique, funny and well-acted. As one of the many TIFF regulars who saw numerous films over the course of a week, I found these clips stayed fresh and were still able to garner chuckles from audiences well into the latter days of the festival.

This TIFF 2012 ‘Not everybody has an uncle in the biz’ spot perfectly highlight RBC’s reasoning for supporting emerging filmmakers

Most Annoying Pre-Movie Ad: L’Oreal Paris

What do you get when you take a group of unknown models, too much hair flipping and one too many provocatively whispered cinema clichés? The L’Oreal Paris’ TIFF 2012 ad received more groans and boos than any ad I’ve seen in my four years of attending the fest. As this blogger noted: “this is a commercial that prompts most of its viewers to want to get up and leave — before the film they’ve come to see even begins.” Definitely not one to recycle for next year’s festival.

Coolest Physical Activation: L’Oreal Paris’ Beauty Complex
Despite the poor pre-movie ad, L’Oreal gets major thumbs up for what looks to be the biggest physical activation in TIFF’s recent history. Free product, food and drink, product demonstrations and mani pedis had women lining out the door most days of the festival. Its location right by Roy Thomson Hall meant that visitors to the complex got to share in the glamour of the red carpet arrivals every night at 6 and 9pm.

L’Oreal Paris’ two story ‘beauty complex’ was a great attraction, with lines of women out the door on most days of the festival

Coolest New Media Activation: Bell ‘O Cinema’ Augmented Reality 

Bell commissioned five artists to create five different film-themed murals. If you held up your smartphone (with the right app of course) to the mural, you could see a 30 second time-lapse video of the mural’s creation. As Marketing Mag put it, Bell’s implementation of augmented reality was ‘quick, light and visual’ - just what good AR should be.

Bell ‘O Cinema’ mural artists at work before the festival 

Most Recycled Activation: Bell Fibe Commercials and Booth

As the festival’s most devout sponsor (proven by 18 years of support and the naming rights to the TIFF lightbox), Bell is completely entitled to recycle some elements now and then. However, the choice to reuse last year’s Fibe TV ad and booth set-up by Roy Thomson hall came across as tired and uninteresting. The protesters surrounding their Fibe activation didn’t help either.

Best New Sponsor: Grolsch Beer

This is Grolsch’s first year as the official beer of TIFF and it made quite a splash. In addition to a film content app The Grid, they launched a comprehensive online and OOH media campaign. Despite not being one of the major sponsors, they definitely managed to catch my eye as one of the most strategically present sponsors throughout the festival. So it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re rewarded with great post-fest recall/recognition as a result.

Next Big TIFF Sponsor: Target?

Target has no open stores in Canada yet they are already creating buzz amongst Canadian consumers. They took over the new Templar Hotel to create a branded lounge for bloggers, influencers and Canadian film talent. Even Bullseye, the brand’s mascot made an appearance. If Target is looking to make a splash when they open their first stores next spring and summer, becoming a major partner of TIFF may be one way of doing so.

About the Author: Telly Carayannakis is the York Marketing Association Co-President. Former Starbucks barista. Twin. Film fanatic. Reality TV junkie. Board game geek. Cat lover. Proud Torontonian.

YMA Welcome: 2012-2013

Well, ready or not, the start of the 2012-2013 academic year is just around the corner with classes kicking off tomorrow! The York Marketing Association (YMA) Executive Team has spent the summer diligently preparing for a fantastic upcoming year full of marketing awesomeness. 

Some exciting things we wanted to share with you...

Our New Website!
The YMA website has a fresh new look with photos, opportunities, our events and more to come! Check it out to learn more about what YMA has in store this year...

Becoming a Member!
Interested in marketing and thinking you'd like to learn more about the industry, make valuable connections and have fun? For only $20, you can register at our booth at the Schulich Club Week or Yorkfest (more info below) to receive all membership benefits, as well as a sweet swag bag! 

Club Week!
York Marketing Association will have a booth in the Schulich Basement for Schulich Club Week on the following days:

• Monday September 10th - 8:30am - 5:30pm
• Tuesday September 11th - 8:30am - 5:30pm
• Wednesday September 12th - 8:30am - 5:30pm
• Thursday September 13th - 8:30am - 5:30pm

There will also be a YMA booth set up on Campus Walk during The Yorkfest Village, on the following day:

• Wednesday September 12th - 8:30am - 5:30pm

Come visit the YMA Executive team members whenever you can on these days to get more information and sign up to become a member!

We're Hiring!
We will be looking to hire new members for the following positions:

• Finance Director (1)
• First Year Representative (1)
• Promotions Committee  (Several)

Applications will be available at both booths during Club Week (and will likely circulate via email-outs to members as well).

Connect with Us!
If you aren't already connected with us, check out the YMA on:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Pinterest 

There will be a social media contest going on during Club Week so if you plan to become a member, keep tabs of our tweets and posts to potentially win your membership free! 

Bookmark this blog for cool and interesting marketing-related posts to be released throughout the school year as well!

We hope you had an amazing summer and we can't wait to welcome you back at Club Week! 

YMA Presents....A Workshop Speaker!

YMA welcomes Alannah Virtanen, Consumer and Shopper Lead for The Nielsen Company, to the Marketing YOUniverse! 

Alannah serves as an Analytic Lead for The Nielsen Company in the practice area of Segmentation and Targeting. Alannah is Nielsen Canada’s in-house ethnic expert and helps manage Nielsen projects for both retail and CPG clients that contain an injection of consumer insight across all areas of the company, including real estate, store planning, direct marketing, in-store execution and category management.  Alannah has, in the past, worked in the Consumer Panel Services team of Nielsen Canada, including a role on-site at Wal-Mart Canada.  Prior to this she worked in the Financial Services industry in marketing research roles and in total has 12 years of marketing experience, particularly focused on demographic strategy and targeting.  Alannah has a BA in Geography from the University of Western Ontario and also has a Masters from the University of Waterloo specializing in consumer segmentation and marketing geography.

Alannah's workshop, titled "Tea for Me Strategy: Precision Marketing", will explore how a company like Nielsen turns to comprehensive consumer data to create very focused, precise targets with specific end goals in mind. In a day of limited marketing budgets, its important to determine not just how to best and most cost effectively reach people, but also intelligently determine just who should be targeted in the first place.

YMA Presents....A Workshop Speaker!

YMA is proud to welcome Shannon Kelly the Marketing YOUniverse! Shannon is the Social Media Manager at the Toronto Real Estate Board, In-Game Host for the Toronto Rock and a featured CFL commentator on 3rd and Long (a CBC Sports Podcast).

Shannon attended York University, graduating with Honours in English, before attending Centennial College for Corporate Communications and Public Relations. She works as a Social Media Manager and with any other free moment, in Sports Broadcasting. Over the past 5 years, Shannon has been a Toronto Argonauts Cheerleader, and currently hosts the 2011 NLL Champions, the Toronto Rock. She also is on a CFL Podcast called 3^rd and Long, on CBC Sports.

 

Shannon will be discussing “The Power of You: How to Leverage Your Brand”

As a recent graduate, it was hard to find my footing in the “real world”. That is, until I found my brand. I positioned myself in a way that was marketable to the freelance sports world, and leveraged that experience to land myself a professional gig. Learn why YOU need to create a personal brand, and how that can give YOU the edge.

Welcome the Marketing YOUniverse Shannon!

See you at the Conference!

YMA Presents.....A Workshop Speaker!

YMA is excited and honoured to welcome Kendra Hum, Account Exectuive at Google Canada to the Marketing YOUniverse!

As an Account Executive at Google, Kendra works with brand marketers, along with creative and media agencies to provide integrated, cross-platform communication plans to reach consumers at all touch-points on the path to purchase. Prior to joining Google, Kendra spent the last 7 years on the creative agency side in Toronto working on various consumer packaged goods and retail businesses including Frito-Lay, Kellogg, Cadbury Adams and Wal-Mart. Kendra completed her BComm at the University of British Columbia, and has an MBA from Queen’s. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, snowboarding, documentary films, and despite having left Vancouver almost a decade ago, still loves her Vancouver Canucks.

Kendra's workshop will incorporate a discussion about ZMOT! Not sure what that is? ZMOT stands for Zero Moment of Truth and more information can be found by following this link:  http://www.zeromomentoftruth.com/

Welcome to the Marketing YOUniverse Kendra!

See you at the Conference!