25th Annual Marketing Analytics Summit Attracts Top Student Talent

3.30.2015 General, Leadership, Marketing, News Release, Reynolda Campus, School News
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Prestigious North American Business Schools Compete with a Focus on Marketing Data Analytics

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – To celebrate the 25th anniversary of theWake Forest University School of Business Marketing Analytics Summit, not only will top teams be competing against the best and brightest from business schools across North America, but students will also have even more opportunities to network with executives and managers from top corporations. This year, for the first time, the Summit will be held during the Inmar Analytics Forum April 6-8, 2015, a symposium featuring executives and thought leaders from multiple industries offering their insights on the impact of “Big Data” on all functional areas of a business.

“Teaming up with Inmar allows our competition to intensely focus on data analytics, which is a growing need for marketing professionals,” said Roger Beahm, RockTenn executive director of the School’s Center for Retail Innovation. “We believe as the function of the marketing professional has evolved rapidly in the last decade, the ability to provide thorough analysis of marketing and other data will be a key differentiator for graduates. We’re especially excited to offer the student teams full access to the entire Inmar Analytics Forum.”

The partnership with Inmar, a company that operates intelligent commerce networks, means the students will take on a case that challenges them to find insights from marketing data, develop decisions based on data and offer persuasive recommendations. The event, the longest-running student-led competition at the School, offers $45,000 in total prize money, with both graduate and undergraduate business students competing.

Graduate business teams competing include Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business, Michigan State University Eli Broad College of Business, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, Purdue Krannert School of Management, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, Wake Forest University School of Business and Yale School of Management. Undergraduate teams will travel from Universidad Panamericana IPADE Business School, University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, Utah State University Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Wake Forest University School of Business, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale School of Management. Each team will receive the case just over a week before the competition.

All teams will travel to Wake Forest University School of Business to present their ideas to judges during the first round of the competition. They will also be in the running for fan favorite, an online voting competition held atmarketingsummitlive.com.

  •  Teams present their work to judges on Monday, April 6th.  Finalists will be announced the same evening
  • The top three undergraduate teams will present their case solutions to the judges and attendees at the Inmar Analytics Forum, where audience response will be tabulated for 20% of the score on Tuesday, April 7. The winning team will be announced the same evening.
  • The top three graduate teams will present their case to judges and attendees at the Inmar Analytics Forum, which will also include audience response as 20% of the score on Wednesday, April 8. The winning team will be announced the same evening.

Admission to the Inmar Analytics Forum is free for manufacturers, retailers, health systems and academia. Those interested in attending can register now online.

Media contact: Stephanie Skordas, skordas@wfu.edu or 336.758.4098.