Latest news: Northern winners of CIM's 'The Pitch'

A team of students from the University of Huddersfield has won the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s (CIM) regional ‘The Pitch’ competition, after coming up with a media campaign to raise awareness of diabetes. 17/11/2011

Team Envision’s campaign utilised the NHS’s current ‘Change 4 Life’ slogan, with bus, tube and watercooler stickers, as well as an innovative clothes peg gimmick for the Diabetes Awareness Group marketing programme.

The group’s pitch was praised by head judge David Matthews, who is professor of diabetes medicine at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford.

‘Team Envision’s pitch was direct, well-researched and very impressive. The quality of their slides and the mock-ups of their proposed advertising campaign were first-class,’ he said.

The students, Jack Taylor, Collette Allen and Rebecca Hall, win year-long membership of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)  and the chance to pitch their idea at the national final in March.

Competitors at the event had to devise a three-minute, eight slide marketing pitch designed to raise awareness of diabetes in the UK. As well as receiving feedback on their pitches and advice from CIM members, they also had the chance to improve their CVs with marketing recruitment specialists Network Marketing .

Judge Keith Rowland, a fellow at the CIM and sales and marketing manager at Cook Medical, told all the competitors to be proud of their achievements.

‘The future of marketing is clearly in good shape, if the contestants here are anything to go by. In fact, I would say the future of marketing is more secure than the present, if judged on the quality of the ideas we have seen here,’ he said.

The event drew competitors from business schools, universities and trainees from the North and was the first regional final, with further events planned for the Midlands and southern England.