New Zealand Post reveals 2010 Student Marketer of the Year finalists tasked with Westie Pac brief

Kiwi students have taken creative, out of the box thinking a step further in their pursuit of marketing to their peers, judging by this year’s Student Marketer of the Year finalists, announced today by New Zealand Post.

The 2010 New Zealand Student Marketer of the Year finalists are:

Joe Stuart & Lydia Moore, AUT, for Student Rock Star; Erin Gulyas & Christabel Spong, AUT, for Better choice than your last resort; Lilly Beech, University of Auckland, for Keeping life simple for 3 more years; Sinead King & Shannon Bell, Massey, for Outrageously good fortune; and Frances Cooke & Wicky Tafau, AUT, for Make the most of what you’ve got.

The New Zealand Post Student Marketer of The Year Award honours excellence in marketing strategy, creativity and innovative thinking in tertiary students and, along with other prizes, offers the winning student/s the chance to present their talents to a room of prospective employers.

This year’s award programme gave students the chance to create amarketing campaign for the 2011 annual launch of the Westpac “WestiePac” student account that incorporated direct mail, online andexperiential activity.

Westie Pac is an annual campaign designed to engage students across thecountry. It provides the opportunity to create fun and entertaining onand off-campus activity that speaks directly to young Kiwis. As expertson campus life, student marketers were asked to develop a campaign tocommunicate the benefits of Westie Pac to their fellow students andencourage them to sign up to the account.

The 2010 finalists include students from AUT University, MasseyUniversity and the University of Auckland. The winning campaign will be announced on 8 December2010 at the Student Marketer of the Year Showcase Event.

Says Westpac’s Grant Andrews: “The Westie Pac annual campaign is alittle more off-centre than our traditional marketing activity,providing something a bit less serious and a lot more fun for youngKiwis.

“We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to involve studentsin the process and wanted to call on the fresh, creative thinking ofstudent marketers to make this a campaign like no other and we werethrilled with the quality of the work.

“The overall creativity was of a great standard, and in many casessupported by sound strategy and rationale. On the whole we were verypleased with the level of professionalism the students displayed.”

Says Fiona Woolley from New Zealand Post: “We’re always blown away bythe talent of our young marketers and this year has been no exception.All finalists have achieved extremely fully integrated, highlyinnovative campaigns they can be proud of.

“We’re excited that one student team may have the chance to see theirwork produced and put into market – a fantastic thing to have in theirportfolio – and hope it will make a real difference to the success ofthe 2011 Westie Pac campaign.”