Planning The Social Impact Marketing Case Competition

As the Vice President of Community Affairs for The American Marketing Association at UMD, my role gives our members (and the entire Smith community!) opportunities to develop an affinity to “doing good” that they will carry into their professional careers.

One of the ways I have been able to create a space for AMA members to actively engage in serving their community this year was by planning and hosting The American Marketing Association at UMD’s first annual Social Impact Marketing Case Competition with Capital Area Food Bank. By working with Nima Farschi from The Center for Social Value Creation at Smith on this unique event, I learned how organization, persistence, clear communication and having a strong network are all keys in successful planning.

Last Monday, seven teams of students presented their extensive research on stigmas surrounding food insecurity among college students. Through their primary and secondary research and marketing analysis, the teams created implementation plans and potential marketing materials to our hand-picked panel of judges with a variety of backgrounds. Each team showed true professionalism, attention to detail and dedication.

A special thank you to Capital Area Food Bank’s Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer, Mary Beth Healy, the president of Consult Your Community, Isabella Crocker, and Roxanne Lefkoff, a marketing professor from The Robert H. Smith School of Business, for your thoughtful feedback when judging each of the teams’ case presentations.

Each team showed true professionalism, attention to detail and dedication to their presentations for this case. Congratulations to our top three teams:

Hope For Change (Debbie Adam, Grace Suh, Swarnapali Keppetipola)

Senior Citizens (David Rosenstein, Adam Sarsony, Ariana Riske, Brianna Ho)

Do Good (Stella Lappas, David Molot, Michelle Lui, Brittney Pavlick)

Good luck to Hope For Change, who now has the opportunity to compete in The Milgard School of Business Case Competition on Social Responsibility in Tacoma, Washington this spring.

Photos from the event can be found here.