CIT BRAND CHALLENGE

Last week, we were back in Cork Institute of Technology for the final round of the #CITBrandChallenge with 3rd-year students of the Bachelor of Business in Marketing.

Back in November, 28 teams were whittled down to only 4 who would go through to a Dragons’ Den-style pitch session. We have been so impressed with the calibre of work delivered by these bright, young minds, and Tuesday’s presentations were no different.

CIT has taken an awesome approach to this course and in our humble opinion, are offering students a unique opportunity to tackle real-world projects. Each group was tasked with building, budgeting and owning all parts of a simulated marketing campaign, culminating in a presentation back to us as the client. This experience offers an incredible springboard into their chosen field and in a clear advantage as they kick-start their careers.

Students were tasked with fleshing out their experiential marketing campaign strategies for Gym+Coffee, identifying how their campaigns would generate great buzz, increased brand awareness and potential new audiences translating to sales. All of the teams had a clear grasp of our business and our audience and we’ve said it before but it bears repeating: there is a huge amount of talent coming out of Cork!

Only one team could take the top spot though, and it was Eimear Devane, Michael Ryan, Jack Foley, Craig Sykes and Owen Good with their Talk is Rich concept that won out on the day.

The Talk is Rich team had taken a mental health awareness approach to the task and developed a scalable project that we can absolutely see Gym+Coffee putting into practice in a real-world situation. They set up camp at an organised morning run in Cork, providing space for conversation and of course, piping hot coffee for the attendees.

Their concept encourages a community to take their commitment to physical health to the next level, incorporating a safe and relaxed space to get to know one another a little more and facilitate a destigmatised arena for conversation around their own, and others’ mental health.

At G+C, we know that physical and mental health are inextricably linked and we love any idea that allows for a positive increase in both.

A massive round of applause and all the high fives to the Talk is Rich team. You guys are really going places - remember us as you rise to the top! And a special shout-out to the 3 finalist groups, congratulations again on all your hard work:

Wellbeing on the Go
Nuttawud Nutchanat
Sarah McCarthy
L. Fogarty
Sorcha Twomey
Dawid Krysa

Into the Woods
Brianna Connick
Jamie Sheehy
Kate O'Meara
Aoife O'Sullivan
Dean Sexton

How Rich Do You like It?
Grace O'Donnell
Clodagh Forde
Aoife O'Sullivan
Avril Pratt
Charlie Petford

Last but certainly not least, to all the marketing students at CIT who were a part of this awesome project - thank you so much for including Gym+Coffee in your early marketing careers! We look forward to seeing the creative places you head to next!