‘A dominating performance’ for Team Algonquin at provincial marketing competition

Algonquin College placed first in the 2019 edition of the Ontario College’s Marketing Competition.

The 39th OCMC was hosted by Niagara College in Niagara Falls on Nov. 22.

The Algonquin College team was organized and lead by professors Jim Neubauer and Bill Garbarino and consisted of 19 competing students, nine professor coaches and 10 alumni coaches.

“It certainly was a dominating performance for our team,” said Bill Garbarino. “I can’t recall very many instances where a college cracked the 60 point threshold. Also very gratifying was the fact we finished in the top five in 9 of the 10 case events – a very balanced level of excellence by all teams and their coaches.”

The OCMC is an annual sales and marketing competition that is comprised of eight case competitions in various marketing disciplines.

The competition consists of eight competitions in retail marketing, entrepreneurship, direct marketing, integrated marketing communications (IMC), prospect pitch and international marketing, sales presentation, job interview as well as a four-person team event called “quiz bowl” that consists of members from different colleges answering questions against the buzzer.

Over 300 students from 12 different colleges participated in the event this year.

“It is always a rewarding experience as an alumni to give back to the college who helped me grow personally and professionally,” said Aaron Quinn, an alumni coach for direct marketing. “Being able to watch the students improve every week is my biggest takeaway from the OCMC event. It’s almost like watching your kids blossom in such a short time period. OCMC is always a memorable experience year over year. This is evident just from the amount of OCMC Alumni who ask to be a coach the year after they competed.”

Here are the award-winning teams and coaches.

First Place – Prospect Pitch – Jonathan Hindo / Danielle Hammond (Bill Garbarino)

First Place – Sales Presentation – Kaleb Yadeta (Patrick Charlton)

Second Place – Marketing – Kortney Force / Brian Mikula (Melanie Haskins and Alex Frangione)

Second Place – Direct Marketing – Anastasia Naleykina / Shane Hiley (Aaron Quinn and Hailey Hamilton)

Second Place – Marketing Research – Katie McAleer / Kyle Giroux (Emily Robinson and Tommy Killen)

Second Place – Entrepreneurship – Ethan Kirkpatrick / Pushpvir Singh (Laurie Logan)

Fourth Place – Retail Marketing – Vince Ramos / Derek Helmer (Jim Neubauer, Katie Barrett, Sara Barnoski)

Fourth Place – Quizbowl – Kaleb Yadeta (Charmaine Akiwenzie and Renay Dixon)

Fifth Place – International Marketing – Laura Pardy / Brenden McBride (Sean Howe and Kevin Poulton)

Fifth Place – Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) – Emilie Brochu / Matt Traynor (Noni Stukel and Karen Kavanagh)

The Algonquin College OCMC team managed to get 61 points overall, beating second-place Humber College and third-place Fanshawe College by over 20 points.