This fall, Bryant Digital Marketing students proved they were could stand among the best in the world in the international Digital Marketing Competition (DMC). “Team Le,” made up of Bryant seniors Yen Le, Hayley Aspinall, Christian Kjeldsen and Michael DiSabito, won first place in the undergraduate category by combining creativity, insight, and a mastery of the concepts they’d learned in Professor of Marketing Sharmin Attaran's Advanced Digital Marketing class and over the course of their Bryant education. Three additional Bryant teams finished among the competition’s top 20.

In this fall’s DMC, run by Purdue University Northwest, 220 undergraduate and graduate-level student teams from around the world — the largest DMC Competition ever — create a digital marketing campaign for a real corporate sponsor. “This is a case that is backed by a real company with real needs who plan to incorporate some of the students’ ideas to address those needs,” says Attaran, noting a tradition of Bryant success in the DMC, including a second-place finish in the spring. “The students know that what they’re working on can make a difference.”

Claiming a global title is just icing on the cake. “I think it's definitely something to brag about,” says Le, the team leader and namesake for Team Le. “How many students can say, ‘Oh, I competed against more than 200 teams from some of the top schools in the world and won?’”

A foundation of excellence
The DMC’s Bryant competitors were students in Attaran’s Advanced Digital Marketing course, which examines how to analyze, develop, and implement digital marketing strategies across a range of channels and platforms. The course covers search engine optimization, search engine marketing, display advertising, mobile advertising, social media marketing, content marketing and web analytics.

But the core lesson, Attaran explains, is learning how to perfect a strategic approach. “We put a focus on formulating strategy right from the beginning,” she says. “The students learn, first and foremost, they're focusing on the client, building a case and then pitching an idea. If you have that framework and an understanding of the core principles based on theory and process, you can learn and you can pivot.”

“Even though we were all in our own groups, we all bounced ideas off one another and supported each other. We all worked together to help each other reach the top.”

Le agrees. “The DMC is a competition that lets you apply everything you’ve learned about marketing all at once, which is perfect practice for your future career, because you can’t just be good at one thing.”

The Challenge
This year’s DMC challenge was to develop a digital marketing strategy for MegMade, a retailer offering restored and painted furniture, upholstery and interior design services. Participating teams received a case study containing key details about the company and its marketing objectives. “It was up to us to come up with a whole campaign from scratch,” says Aspinall.

Throughout the project, the students drew upon the lessons they’d learned. “You have to be able to do a lot of things to succeed in the competition,” notes Kjeldsen. “You need to have strong research skills, you need to be able to understand the market, you need to know how to use the tools and you need to know how to combine them all.”

“You work so hard on a project like this. You want to do well in the competition, but you want your client to love what you presented to them even more.”

Managing the project’s myriad facets also demanded that they work together. In fact, that team spirit suffused the entire Bryant class, Kjeldsen states. “Even though we were all in our own groups, we all bounced ideas off one another and supported each other. We all worked together to help each other reach the top.”

Creating success
Over the course of the semester, Team Le and the other Bryant students worked on their campaigns, incorporating new lessons from Attaran, and wisdom from the course’s guest speakers, into their already impressive body of knowledge. 

For the first round of the DMC, each team prepared a YouTube proposal. When Team Le heard they had been selected as one the top five pitches and would proceed to the next round, a Zoom presentation made directly to MegMade’s founders and other industry professionals, they were ecstatic. There was one twist, though: The company had concerns with an app at the centerpiece of their campaign and asked them to reconsider their idea before the final presentation.

Undaunted, the students reimagined their proposal. “The feedback was fantastic in that it pushed us to work even harder to create a better idea that would work for our client,” says Aspinall. “Up to the last second, we were working on our proposal and trying to make sure everything was perfect for MegMade.”

“Working on a real project like this has definitely opened my eyes to the different paths and opportunities in digital marketing."

When the day of the final presentation arrived, the team was prepared, poised, and ready to share their big idea. Their 15-minute elevator pitch, mixing hard analytics with unique insight and a polished, eye-catching presentation, impressed the judges. “The client specifically said that they really liked how creative we were with our presentation,” says Le. “Every team had the same goal and the same data to analyze but we made our project our own.”

That praise, she says, was one of the high points of the competition. “You work so hard on a project like this,” Le notes. “You want to do well in the competition, but you want your client to love what you presented to them even more.”

After some deliberation, the judges announced that Team Le had been awarded first place, as well as a special “Most creative” distinction. For Aspinall, it was an affirmation that months of hard work had paid off. “We knew that we were competing against teams from some other very impressive schools, but we were also happy with what we had done,” she says.

Standing out
The benefits of the DMC extend beyond claiming the title. “Working on a real project like this has definitely opened my eyes to the different paths and opportunities in digital marketing,” says Aspinall.

Creating a full digital marketing campaign gave the students a chance to demonstrate what they can do, which is one of the hallmarks of Bryant’s Digital Marketing program, says Le. “When I was preparing to apply for jobs, I went through all of my marketing classes and made a list of all the projects I’ve worked on, the certifications I’ve earned, and the companies I've worked with,” she says. “Employers really like that because it puts you ahead of so many other candidates and they know you can do the job.”

The DMC victory, she says, found its way to the very top of her list of accomplishments.