1st in Digital Marketing Contest

4 MBA Marketing Fellows create winning plan for meat supplier

A team of four MBA Marketing Fellows from Texas McCombs took home first prize in the graduate division of the Fall 2024 Digital Marketing Competition at Purdue University. The contest drew entries from around the world, including the U.S., Mexico, France, and Hong Kong.

The winning team was made up of Cecilia Gonzalez, Alondra Villarreal,

Michelle Jennings, and Ana Keren Carretero, all Class of 2025, and their coach, Chris Aarons, an assistant professor of instruction in marketing. The contest is held in the spring and the fall with a different sponsor each time.

Meats by Linz, a meat supplier popular among chefs and steakhouses, sponsored the competition last fall. The company was searching for digital marketing advice to help grow its newly launched direct-to-consumer segment, The Linz Shop. The brand was relatively unknown to home chefs and entertainers. “It was our job to put together a strategy and marketing plan to support the growth of this exciting new platform,” said team leader Gonzalez.

“We focused a lot on how to address the underlying challenges the company was facing, which was standing out from competition and defining their value proposition,” Jennings said. “Then we made our campaign theme and drew that theme throughout the entire strategy.”

In a surprise, the McCombs team also won the What’s Trending Award, given to the team that creates the most buzz among the judges. “The award was given to us for our Connoisseurs Club idea, which was a campaign focused on how Linz can elevate their customer’s entire lifestyle, including tips on entertaining and hosting, dinner settings, recipe ideas, and more,” Gonzalez said.

All four team members are enrolled in Aarons’ MBA digital marketing course and part of the 13th class in the Marketing Fellows program, which is supported by the Center for Customer Insight & Marketing Solutions at McCombs. “All of us are aspiring CMOs, and we loved getting to challenge ourselves during the competition,” Villarreal said.