GVSU’s student run communications agency, GrandPR, placed third in the Digital Marketing Competition (DMC) out of 158 different teams from around the world.
GrandPR is Grand Valley’s student-run integrated communications firm. It serves to give young public relations professionals the space to further their understanding of the industry through real-life work and experiences.
The DMC is a global competition; this year hosting its largest competition to date with participants from five different continents.
“DMC gives students the opportunity to work with a real company by researching their digital competency and then creates a digital marketing campaign for the client,” said GrandPR team member, junior Clare Quirin.
Teams were tasked with creating a campaign to resolve problems for real-life client, Wondr Health, a digital weight management program.
The finals took place online with students answering questions from the judges in a Zoom session followed by the award ceremony.
GVSU’s GrandPR team was made of Quirin, junior Payton Peltomaa and senior Hunter Bachman. The team was guided by its coach, GVSU Ad/PR program alum Riley Holbrook of BlackTruck Media & Marketing, as well as faculty advisor and Associate Professor Dr. Adrienne Wallace.
“Competitions like DMC are important to our program,” said Wallace. “They demonstrate that our students are ready for the 21st century global workplace. That our team placed first out of all US teams is a hat tip to our student ambition, but also to our program for maintaining curriculum and extracurriculars that prep our students for success immediately upon graduation.”
This year, finalists were judged on four categories: research, owned strategy, paid strategy and media and evaluation. Key members of Wondr Health’s management team, along with digital marketing professionals from Amplified Digital; Epsilon; Amazon and Butler, Shine, Stern, & Partners acted as judges.
