Six students from our Advertising and Marketing Communications Management program arrived in The Blue Mountains to participate in the Ontario Colleges Marketing Competition (OCMC), representing Centennial as one of the 12 schools that competed.
The competition was case-study-based, involving real-world business problems for various clients, and students paired off to compete in the following three categories: Marketing, Integrated Marketing Communications, and Advanced Marketing Strategy.
Up against large teams with significant training and experience at OCMC, Centennial ranked 3rd in the Advanced Marketing Strategy category!
Devon Feyen, Program Coordinator, shares, "The three teams of students worked incredibly hard leading up to the competition and showed their passion and dedication to improving their skills. Our win was a team effort, with Sam and Tina delivering a stellar presentation. I am incredibly proud of our students and can't say enough good things about this experience overall."
Hear From the Students Involved
Hector Rodriguez, a student (now graduate) who participated at OCMC, says it was a great way to end his academic program at Centennial. “This competition was the perfect opportunity to enclose my three years of acquired knowledge into one fifteen-minute presentation. It gave me a sense of how the marketing world works outside of school.”
He adds, “The support provided by our school and program coordinators prepared us to have a finalized product through industry standards. The opportunity to go to this event at Blue Mountain with other schools gave us an extended idea of what the future of marketing would look like. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
For Victoria Avendaño, OCMC was her marketing-related event. "It was great arriving at the venue and seeing so many young marketers like myself; it was inspiring to see," she shares. Victoria also notes how bonding with classmates outside of the classroom was a great opportunity. There were several colleges in the competition. Victoria notes that many had much more experience and practice with OCMC but says it felt nice that Centennial could bring a trophy home. In the future, she hopes that more awareness can be spread about the competition to incite students to join.
Mary Valverde shares similar sentiments about how great of an experience OCMC was and adds how lucky she felt to share it with the people she is close to. “A lot of work went into the competition. My teammate and I, Aaron Tiu, started practicing months before to ensure we could put on a cohesive and interesting presentation in 30 minutes,” she explains. “Our category was marketing, which meant we would be closed in a room for 30 minutes without any access to the outside world, no internet, no phones or technology of any kind, and once those 30 minutes were up, we were taken directly to the presentation room to present our work to the 'client.'"
Mary also references the learning experience OCMC provided. She shares, “The entirety of the competition wasn't just fun; it also taught me so much about my work and how to interact with a client. I am very grateful I got to experience it.” Devon Feyen's guidance was also significant in feeling prepared for the competition. "Without her, we would've never been ready the way we were. If anyone has the opportunity to go, do it! You won't regret it," she explains.
Congratulations to this group of students on such an incredible display of hard work and dedication and for breaking the hiatus with your award-winning skills.
Article by: Alexandra Few
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