Villanova Students Topple West Chester in Marketing Competition

A team of students from Villanova University has captured the Sixth Annual N. W. Ayer Cup for distinguished scholastic marketing communications. They won the cup for marketing excellence in a competition with students from West Chester University.

The cup, named in honor of America’s first advertising agency, has been the prize in a unique annual competition between student teams from the universities supervised by faculty members Joseph P. Tamney at Villanova and Dr. Edward Lordan at West Chester. This year’s presentations were campaigns to increase brand awareness of Lilly Pulitzer, a globally recognized female fashion and accessories firm located in King of Prussia, to the 18 to 25 year old market.

The competition provides students a "real life" opportunity to create and present comprehensive campaigns for consideration to well-known and dynamic marketers who are located in the Greater Philadelphia region. The students met with Lilly’s marketing staff about six weeks prior to their presentations to acquire background about the company and learn about its product line, as well as its current marketing efforts. Following that meeting, the students prepared their campaign to present last week to members of the Lilly staff. Coincidentally, both teams chose a similar theme for their branding challenge (WCU created a Lilly for Life campaign and VU created a Live Lilly presentation) but they differed in their initiatives, tactics and solutions.

"We were really impressed by the work and energy of both student teams, and we liked a lot about both of the presentations," said Darcy Hyde, a member of Lilly’s senior marketing staff who coordinates the event for Lilly. "It was hard to decide on a winner, but in the final analysis the Villanova team was our unanimous choice," Ms. Hyde said. In fact, the Lilly people were so pleased with the presentation that they invited the Villanova team to return to headquarters to present again to their entire marketing staff in the near future.

Members of the Villanova team were: Lauren Willis and Kevin Flynn, of Malvern; Kelly Costlow, of Johnstown; Johny Walsh, of Tabernacle, NJ; Colleen Ray, of Basking Ridge, NJ, and Carla Cassidy, of Puerto Rico. West Chester team members were: Lauren Deacon, of York; Nick Groninger, of Telford; Alicia McGlade, of Upper Dublin, and Jenna Garvin, of Norristown.