Downtown marketing competition brings fresh ideas to Greater Sudbury’s historic core
Media Release, April 1, 2010
(View PDF version of media release)
The Downtown Village Development Corporation (DVDC) and Downtown Sudbury (BIA), also known as ‘The Downtown Partnership’, announced today the results of a collaborative effort with Laurentian University, in a Downtown Marketing Competition. Commerce students in the fourth year marketing course were divided into teams and given the task of developing a comprehensive marketing plan and branding strategy for Greater Sudbury’s downtown as a destination to live, work, and play and invest.
The Competition was integrated into the course curriculum. The students were given a proposed marketing budget to work with, and the task of developing marketing strategies to attract business and residential development, to increase tourism traffic, and to create an action plan to increase consumer traffic in Greater Sudbury’s downtown village.
Laurentian Marketing Professor, Michelle Munro felt that the Marketing Competition “was a fantastic opportunity for the students to gain real life experience, from responding to the request for proposals, to creating an implementation strategy for the marketing plan”.
The purpose of the Competition was to work with the City’s young adults to tap into some fresh ideas for Greater Sudbury’s historic downtown village. ‘The Downtown Partnership’ felt that by working with the Laurentian students, there was an opportunity to explore new ideas and approaches in promoting the downtown. “The downtown is currently undergoing a transition, with a variety of new niche businesses opening, and the younger population is an important demographic to capture as we progress in our revitalization effort”, stated Bob Wygant, Chair of Downtown Sudbury (BIA).
Included in this competition was a formal presentation by each ‘Consulting Team’ to a panel of judges – ‘The Client’. All four teams had excellent proposals for branding and marketing the downtown village, ranging from interesting website ideas, downtown packages for tourists, winter festivals, as well as immigration and investment recruitment strategies. Joe Bradbury, DVDC Director, shared that “the student teams exceeded our expectations, making the judging panel’s job a very difficult one”.
Today, representatives from ‘The Downtown Partnership’ announced the results of the competition and awarded first prize, of $2,000 to “Charge Marketing” (Jeff Fynn, Jacynthe Gelinas, Julia Kay, Carly Montpellier, and Danielle Roy), and second prize, of $1,000 to “Creative Tactics” (Alisa Scagnetti, Jordan Rooley, Katelyn Smith, Krystin Kainola, Matt Bortolotto, Reuben Boissiere). In addition, ‘The Downtown Partnership’ announced that, due to the success of this initiative (for both the students and The Partnership); this ‘competition’ will become an annual event, and presented a trophy to the Commerce Department as a gesture of their commitment to this collaboration.
‘The Downtown Partnership’ commended the four Teams for their time, effort and concrete and creative suggestions contained in all presentations and for making the Downtown Marketing Competition a tremendous success.
For more information contact:
Angela Gilmore, Project Coordinator
Downtown Village Development Corporation
670-0963
Maureen Luoma, Executive Director
Downtown Sudbury
674-5115