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Buckeyes mean business

OSU students go to New York, the concrete jungle where dreams are made.

By Emily Gibb

Throughout Winter Quarter, two groups of students from the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University showed that they have what it takes to out-smart the competition when it comes to a good marketing campaign.Ivy League students have nothing on these Buckeyes.

Ten undergraduate students saw their names scroll across the Jumbotron in Times Square and received $5,000 after winning the American Eagle Outfitter's marketing competition. The students took first place during the final round of the competition on Jan. 26.

Although three groups from Fisher's Honors Cohort Program competed, only one made it to the semi-final round in Pittsburgh and eventually won, said group member Melissa McGhee.

For a half hour of every class during Fall Quarter, the group developed a full comprehensive marketing plan for the Back to School campaign for the denim segment of American Eagle Jeans. They began with research, moved on to do an analysis and ended with their creative ideas. The final result was their campaign titled "Do It In Denim."

"We were fairly confident that we did our best with the campaign ... The biggest rush was when we presented to the CEO of American Eagle, along with six other executives," McGhee said.

Additionally, a team of Fisher MBA students walked away with $50,000 Feb. 6 after winning Wake Forest University School of Business's 2010 marketing summit. The international case competition pinned Ohio State students up against schools such as Dartmouth, IESE-Barcelona and the London Business School, but the Bucks came out on top.

IBM challenged the students to spend 36 hours developing a comprehensive marketing plan to increase their business in Dubai. The presentation needed to last 40 minutes, including time for questions and answers. Having seven people helped to get all the work done, including an innovation framework, several mock print-ads and a 30-second commercial, as well a financial analysis to make sure it was a worthwhile project to be considered, said team captain Michael Hrostoski.

"Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep that weekend," Hrostoski said.

Before they could reach that point though, the students had to go through a tight selection process, said Marc Ankerman, their coach and core professor in the Fisher College of Business. Ankerman coaches all Fisher case teams, including the CIBER competition, a Green Case Competition, the Minority Key Bank Case Competition and the Big 10 Case Competition, held annually at OSU in April.

The seven students selected came from the CIBER team and the Big 10 team from last year. The students then competed in an internal case competition, and needed to be the one of the winners, like best speaker or best presenter, Ankerman said.

"This was a "super-team" of our best students, so we were definitely in it to win it. I think we would have been a little disappointed coming home without the win," Hrostoski said.

Having both successful teams of undergraduate and graduate students might not be just a coincidence.

"I think the Fisher College attracts a special kind of student. One who not only has great technical ability, but also great interpersonal skills and a spirit of collaboration," Hrostoski said.

To put it simply, he calls it being "smart, but nice."

These "smart, but nice" students might have a year or two until they graduate, but they already have a jump start on their "real world" competition. They've already figured out what it takes to run a successful marketing campaign.

Originally Published: March 3, 2010