2008 Sponsor: Pitney Bowes

With an emphasis on using multichannel direct marketing, creativity, and technology, the 2008 competition was exceptionally valuable for Pitney Bowes as students gained real-world business experience while still in the classroom. The Collegiate ECHO challenge was to create a $4 million innovative and integrated direct/interactive marketing campaign to establish the Pitney Bowes’ Stamp Expressions™ printer. The target was small businesses and the focus was on new media such as blogs, social networking and mobile marketing. “Pitney Bowes wishes to thank all the student teams, and their advisors, who participated in this year’s Collegiate ECHO Challenge,” said Daniel Kohn, vice president, Pitney Bowes.  “[Winning teams] provided a…combination of solid market research, a thoroughly determined media model, creativity, and the ability to reach the target audience. Overall, both first-place teams provided very sound, professionally packaged presentations.”

Gold - Undergraduate

Gold + Honorable Mention,  Best Marketing Strategy  - Graduate

2007 Sponsor: Litle & Co.

In 2007, the direct marketing challenge centered around Litle & Co. — named Inc. Magazine’s 2006 fastest growing private company. They sought to generate leads and acquire customers for payment processing, their core business. With a $500,000 budget, the challenge required a multichannel campaign that included direct mail, email, outbound telemarketing or other media, alone or in any combination. According to Litle & Co. Chief Marketing Officer Chris Long, “As the challenge unfolded, we were able to present our real-life marketing issues to some of the best and most creative direct marketing minds in America — the undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty at some of the country’s finest colleges and universities. In the end, I think that we learned as much about direct marketing as the students did.”

 

Gold & Honorable Mention, Smartest Budgeting Approach - Undergraduate

Gold - Graduate

2006 Sponsor: United States Postal Service

The 2006 challenge attracted more than 120 entries from undergraduate and graduate colleges nationwide. Using a $5 million budget, teams submitted direct/interactive marketing campaigns that focused on branding direct mail for Postal Service business customers. While the choice of specific B-to-B target audiences was left to the discretion of the student teams, the challenge required direct mail to be used as a marketing channel. “We at the US Postal Service are honored to have sponsored [the 2006] Collegiate ECHO Competition,” said Patrick O’Connell, Program Manager, Advertising, US Postal Service. “…Our goal was to tap the best and brightest young minds and discover new outlooks, fresh thinking, and innovative ideas that could advance one of the Postal Service’s products. We were excited to work with a new group of marketing and advertising leaders in the world of direct.”

Gold - Undergraduate

Gold - Graduate

2005 Sponsor: ING DIRECT (2 Challenges)

The 2005 challenge allowed over 150 teams to submit direct/interactive marketing campaigns that focused on customer acquisition for two ING DIRECT products. Challenge I focused on the Orange Mortgage, and Challenge II focused on customer acquisition for the Orange Savings Account.. “We were impressed by the strategic thinking that went into these very professional campaigns that all the teams presented in answering our challenge to attract new Orange Savings Account and Orange Mortgage customers,” said Vic Wolff, Head of Marketing, ING DIRECT. “The winning teams presented campaigns that best touched upon ING DIRECT’s value proposition and how these products can help people save their money.”

Challenge 1

Gold - Undergraduate

Gold & Honorable Mention,  Best Creative Execution, Most Innovative Marketing Strategy and Best Media Plan  - Graduate

Challenge 2

Gold - Undergraduate

Gold + Honorable Mention, Best Media Plan - Graduate