The Next Generation of Direct Marketers
My Experience as a Judge of the DMAW/EF 2022 Fall Collegiate MAXI Competition
Blog written by Sydney Paner, Manager of Fundraising Strategies
When I was asked to judge the 2022 Fall Collegiate MAXI competition, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to interact with college students – especially those interested in the fundraising/direct marketing industry. As I was in their shoes just a few years ago, I was curious to see what they would bring to this competition and what their level of fundraising knowledge would be.
Not only did these students blow me away with their ability to present and compete virtually - they also displayed a significantly deeper understanding of the industry than I anticipated. The groups presented unique strategies full of out-of-the-box ideas and demonstrated thorough research that went beyond the requirements of the case competition.
But, most of all, I was impressed by the shared experience that every competing team spoke of during the questions and answer period. Many of the students shared how much they appreciated the experience, and I could tell they were genuinely excited about what they learned. Some of the students were in direct marketing classes where this counted for a grade, while others were in clubs – just doing the competition for fun (and the chance to win the prize money!).
One group specifically stood out to me with their ability to keep audiences top of mind throughout their entire strategy. Another impressed me by creating a monthly communications calendar broken out by channel. And all of the decks were beautifully designed, with consistent branding and creative mockups that far exceeded my expectations.
After the competition, I thought back to my college experience, and reflected on how little I truly knew about this industry before joining. This experience showed me how much our industry benefits from reaching out and encouraging the younger generation to consider this industry when they graduate and are looking to get into marketing.
I hope to see more collegiate-level events like this geared towards promoting fundraising and direct marketing as a career, more colleges encouraging direct marketing and fundraising in the classroom, and more companies attending college career fairs. These students are the future of direct marketing, and if the 2022 collegiate MAXIs gave us any indication – we have a great reason to believe they are worth investing in.
Each academic fall and spring semester, the DMAW/EF offers the Mid-Atlantic five state regional Collegiate MAXI Case Competition that provides undergraduates as well as graduate students the chance to apply the direct/interactive marketing principles they learn in classes to a real-world scenario.
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