Montana State’s American Marketing Association Named a Top 10 Chapter Internationally
BOZEMAN, Mont. - April 19, 2021 - The American Marketing Association at Montana State showed up to the International Collegiate Conference (ICC) ready to compete. The student-led chapter was named a Top 10 Chapter internationally and placed in the top three in six different categories. There were more than 1,400 students in attendance at the conference, held virtually April 8-10.
“I am overwhelmed by the success of our chapter this year,” said Kaitlin Lane, senior marketing student from Harlowton and president of the AMA chapter at MSU. “I'm humbled by what we have accomplished, and cannot be more proud of all the AMA members who made the Montana State chapter so successful this year. Every single member of our chapter has contributed to its success and I am very grateful for everyone's effort.”
The AMA chapter participated in 14 competitions and was awarded for half of them. The chapter earned the following:
- Top 10 Chapter out of more than 300 chapters worldwide
- 1st place in National Sales Competition: Nick Guidera
- 1st place in Best Recruitment Video: Guidera
- 1st place in Marketing Strategy Competition: Isabelle Ivankovich and Lane
- Winner of the Social Impact Scholarship: Ivankovich
- 3rd place in International Case Competition: Grace Allen, Jackson Braggins, Nate Brown, Max Clark, Sam Dehio, Caris Ferguson, Hailey Henesh, Lane, Rebecca Vann, and Kali Vine.
- 3rd place in Giving Tuesday Collegiate Challenge
- 16th place in SABRE Business Simulation: Shayna Armer, Amaya Frank, Hailey Henesh, Keeley Morrison, Maddison Wheeler, and Hunter Young
- Honorable Mention in Perfect Pitch Competition: Alec Giacoletto and Ivankovich
To be awarded a Top 10 chapter, each team was evaluated in six areas from its annual report. These areas include; (1) Professional Development, (2) Community & Social Impact, (3) Fundraising, (4) Membership, (5) Internal & External Communications, and (6) Chapter Operations. This is the second year in a row that the chapter has earned this designation in just five years of existence. The annual report was submitted earlier this year by Lane, Ivankovich, executive vice president of the chapter, and Katie O’Malley, the director of graphic design.
Guidera took first place in the National Sales Competition and created the Best Recruitment Video out of all the AMA chapters that entered. The sales competition was a multi-day, multi-round competition requiring participants to not only present in front of judges from the sponsoring company but build a PowerPoint presentation in less than 12 hours once they learned they were a finalist. About 200 students entered. Guidera is the chapter's director of film and photography, and produced a video last fall that was used in classrooms and online to recruit more than 60 students to join AMA this year. About 300 chapters entered this competition.
“It’s such an honor to get to compete with a great group of students against some of the best schools in the world,” said Guidera, a senior marketing student from Boulder, Colo. “I have learned so much from this experience and am glad to be a part of the Montana State AMA chapter.”
To watch Montana State chapters winning recruitment video visit this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQqVJQFw1w4&t=1s
Lane and Ivankovich earned first place in the Marketing Strategy Competition. This is another multi-day, multi-round competition in which the students are handed a product briefing and have 20 minutes to come up with a full marketing strategy and seven minutes to present to a panel of judges, which includes the sponsoring company and their marketing agency in the final round. The prestigious competition is limited to one team per chapter with only 96 universities in total allowed to participate.
Ivankovich, the executive vice president of the MSU AMA chapter, also won the Social Impact Scholarship. This $5,000 scholarship is determined by a students' efforts on- and off-campus. In addition to being the executive vice president of the chapter she was appointed by the Dean of Students to the Student Conduct Hearing Board, and was elected to a position on the MSU Supreme Court by the student government. She also was appointed as an Ambassador for the Jake Jabs College of Business & Entrepreneurship, and serves on the College’s Retention Committee responsible for creating an environment that helps foster inclusion and a sense of belonging among students within the university. Outside of school, Ivankovich volunteers for a nonprofit organization called Thrive. This organization helps school children improve their academics and social skills through numerous programs. She serves as a CAP mentor, working with young children who need guidance.
Participation in the International Case Competition is the result of a class offered at Montana State called BMKT 485-Applied Marketing Strategy. Throughout the fall semester, eight marketing students and two design students work on a strategic marketing plan for a sponsoring client, this year PODS Moving & Storage. Out of almost 100 universities that enter, 10 are named finalists and get to present their plan at ICC to marketing executives from the sponsor. In four years of participating, MSU has made the finals three times and finished third each time.
On the Giving Tuesday Collegiate Challenge, chapters were asked to raise funds for two student scholarships in a 24-hour period on December 1, 2020. The students from MSU raised the third-most amount of money.
The MSU chapter took 16th place against 47 other universities in the SABRE Business Simulation. A team of six students participated on April 7 and 8 in the eight-hour event. In this competition, teams are given a product and a budget and are told to take it from there.
Giacoletto and Ivankovich received an honorable mention in the Perfect Pitch Competition. In this event, students have 90 seconds to pitch themselves for a job in front of a panel of HR professionals from the sponsoring company. The two MSU students who made the finals in this multi-day, multi-round competition did so out of more than 300 students who entered.
ICC is held every spring and is hosted by the Chicago-based American Marketing Association. It is intended for students to grow and network as young marketers. Students learn valuable skills and connect with professionals each year. This is the fifth year the Montana State chapter has participated and has captured 33 awards along the way.
The American Marketing Association is the student lead chapter of the AMA at Montana State University. AMA’s mission is to prepare students for their professional careers through experiences that inspire students to cultivate strong networks, personal growth, and ethical leadership with a community-oriented focus. Membership is available to all students and majors. For more information about AMA at Montana State University or membership please visit the following website: http://www.amamontanastate.org/
Montana State AMA Contacts:
Shayna Armer
VP of Communications, AMA
communications.msu.ama@gmail.com
Eric Van Steenburg
Faculty Advisor, AMA
eric.vansteenburg@montana.edu