Congratulations are in order for the BCIT Marketing Association (BCITMA). They are the only Canadian team among the finalists at the American Marketing Association (AMA) Collegiate Competition. Capilano’s case team was the second Canadian team that entered this competition, and they achieved an honourable spot as a semi-finalist. As a finalist, the BCIT team will have the opportunity to present their work in New Orleans this April.

The AMA Collegiate Competition is a year-long competition that sees top post-secondary marketing students from across North America compete in a detailed business challenge.

This year’s challenge sponsor is the Sheth Foundation, a non-profit organization who strive to help develop and recognize scholars in marketing. For the case competition, teams are tasked to design a campaign about environmental sustainability to influence individuals, businesses, academia, and the government to be more sustainable.

The BCIT case team has 13 members from the BCIT Marketing Association Club, which includes first year and second year Marketing students, as well as Business Administration students.

Bachelor of Business Administration students:

Second-year Marketing Management students:

First-year Marketing Management students:

“What makes a solid team for a competition like this is passion and resilience. We encountered various challenges when creating our campaign that made us return to square one multiple times, but we never gave up,” says Julie Chu, Case Team Student Lead. “We all feel quite strongly about sustainability so we combined our passion for a greener future with the information we gathered from researching to create our campaign, landing us among the finalists.”

Julie also mentions how validating the team felt once they heard they were finalists. Being the only Canadian team that is still in this competition gives them a chance to not only network with American students and industry professionals but also introduce BCIT to an international audience.

Julie further says that there was a good amount of help from faculty members at BCIT. BCIT Marketing faculty advisor Erica Halvorsen provided immense support for the case team. Julie also recognized Tom Jopling and Mary Ho for supporting the team on their interviews, and in providing advice and feedback on their work.

With only a few months until New Orleans, the team will continue to meet weekly to improve their case and develop the presentation. They will also continue collecting research to solidify their findings and may reach out to BCIT students and faculty for further assistance.

Good luck team!