At the end of November IEML students team came in a good third from Saint Petersburg and brought diplomas in the nominations “For working solution”, “For ability to follow the customer’s needs” and “For developing self-management skills”.

The way to the place of honor wasn’t easy. Al the candidates had to go through a very tough selection to get to this prestigious International marketing competition which was organized by Marketorium Interuniversity creative ground (Saint Petersburg) and supported by professional associations – Russian Marketing Specialists’ Guild, Russian Branding Companies Association, Russian Communication Agencies Association and CIS coordinating council on advertising. Applications were received from 34 cities of 5 countries: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Great Britain. There were also applications from foreign students from Uzbekistan and South Korea who are studying in Russia.

Then the teams were formed and the “player” coaches – representatives of communication agencies and marketing companies – were appointed. And everything started. Each team got a case from the real customers (Boris Eifman theatre of balley, “KudaGo” interesting events aggregator, “Dom Rasputina” beauty shop network and hairdressing school, “Bukvoed” bookstore network and St. Petersburg Planetarium). They had to solve it distantly and to make a presentation of their “agency” team.

Two tense weeks, kilometers of sleepless nights and Skype – and the teams’ members meet in Russia’s northern capital for the first time. It was responsible, frightful and exciting – but it was only beginning. Then a new case followed and the work became more intense: many people faced the real difficulties of the real businesses for the first time. 15 customer companies, 17 teams and 14 days to successfully solve the case.

The topic of BigGame 2015 was Digital & Guerrilla Marketing. All playing agencies were divided into 2 sections: Promocode and Digitalent. Tasks were different depending on the section. Thus for the Promocode section the playing communication agency had to:

- make a target market marketing research;

- develop and implement a solution of unusual marketing communications depending on a customer’s case.

For Digitalent section the playing digital agency had to:

- make a target market marketing research;

- develop and implement a solution on Internet marketing, SMM and mobile marketing depending on a customer’s case.

Not only the particular events happened in this project, but Marketorium School was working as well. Within the framework of this school marketing specialists carried out 16 master classes and workshops based on topics connected with the innovative marketing technologies. The program included open lectures, seminars and brainstorms which were interesting both for beginners and experts.

So here it comes, the moment of glory, the zero hour. On the 21th of November 2015 the final of the International marketing competition took place, then the projects were presented in front of strict and high-qualified judges – representatives of the partners of the competition and marketing agencies: Brandson company, Coruna Branding, GREAT advertising group, UNISENSE agency, Brusnika, SPN Communications, Total Communacations, ENDY, Modul Pro, VOZDUH, COMMUNIX, Labelmen, BrainStore, High resolution advertisement studio, ODB company, dev.brand company, COMCON Research, Toy-Opinion  research companies, digital-companies EmailMarket, INBOXER, LID-X, Nero Colins and many others.

In the end the IEML students’ team was awarded with the 3^rd place and valuable and memorable prizes and presents. It is worth noting that success on marketing competitions becomes a good traditions for IEML students: more than 60 diplomas and certificates of different levels evidence this.

Congratulations with a well-deserved award!

Senior teacher of Marketing and economics department,

Natalia Grishina