The creative marketing proposals and TV commercials designed by students at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) have earned them six awards in the tertiary education group of the first Young Marketing Communicators Award.

Organised by the Hong Kong Institute of Marketing, the Young Marketing Communicators Award is an integrated marketing communications plan competition open for all young people aged 17 to 25 in Hong Kong. Under the theme of “New lifestyle for youth entertainment”, participants have to design a marketing plan and shoot a 30-second TV commercial promoting a karaoke group or a youth multi-entertainment company.

The competition is divided into open and tertiary education groups, with the latter further divided into media and non-media specialism divisions. Students majoring in creative media or advertising are grouped under the “media specialism” division.

Four CityU teams formed by business and creative media students brought home six awards, including the Gold and Silver Awards in the media division; Gold and Merit Awards in the non-media division; and the Creative and Director Awards. The results exemplify the team spirit of CityU students and the synergy of inter-disciplinary learning.

The team led by Gilbert Cheung Hon-ning, a Year 2 student in the Department of Marketing, won the Gold and Creative Awards in the non-media division. The concept of their TV commercial, “Colourful life in Youth Club”, received positive feedback from the judging panel. They used different colours to represent the diverse entertainment choices offered by the youth multi-entertainment company.

Their creativity was also evident in their marketing plan. “One of our promotion activities was to use a lorry with a live band performance travelling around the city in order to catch the target customers’ attention,” Gilbert said.

Steve Tsai Chi-wai, also a Year 2 student in the Department of Marketing, led his team to win the Gold Award in the media division. He said the Department always encouraged students to take part in competitions and activities to acquire practical experience so he teamed up with six other business and creative media students to compete in the Young Marketing Communicators Award.

Business students in Steve’s team applied marketing knowledge learnt at CityU in the preparation of the marketing plan, from analysing advertising strategies and budget to soliciting consumer preferences through a focus group discussion and survey. Under the guidance of the creative media team member, the team produced a TV commercial under the theme of “choices”, highlighting the selling point of the multi-entertainment company. Steve believed that their comprehensive research and the presentation’s reliance on real market data was the key to their success.

Another team formed by Joyce Yu Choi-fung and seven of her fellow marketing and creative media students won the Silver and Director Awards in the media division. The team led by Yannie Choi Sin-ting, a Year 2 student in the Department of Marketing, won the Merit Award in the non-media division.

Thanks to the advice and guidance given by their marketing teachers, the winning teams have enjoyed a fruitful learning experience. The teachers were Mr Alex Tham Koy-siong and Dr Vincent Fok Shun-cheong, teaching fellows; Mr Regan Lam, an instructor; and Ms Daisy Lee Suet-mui, a lecturer in the Department of Marketing.

Participants submitted their proposals and TV commercials in August 2007. Ten teams were selected to the final round of competition held on 29 October. Final entrants were to present their proposals to the judging panel and answer the

panel’s questions. The judging criteria were effectiveness, creativity, presentation and execution. The award ceremony was held on 22 November.

The Hong Kong Institute of Marketing is a non-profitmaking association for marketing professionals. The Young Marketing Communicators Award is one of the activities marking its 25th anniversary.