Monica Walker is accelerating to the top of the business world with her recent success as the winner of Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec—and she will be getting there in her new Mitsubishi.
At Monday’s awards ceremony in Hamilton the Comm ’07 student was awarded the prestigious title and the choice of either a new Mitsubishi Eclipse or Lancer, valued at more than $30,000.
“It’s the most intensely I’ve worked on any single project in all my time at university,” she said. “It was extremely thrilling because competition was really tough. Just to have been selected was a huge honour.”
The competition was put on by McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business and sponsored by Mitsubishi.
The competition gave students the task of coming up with a marketing campaign for Mitsubishi that would bring consumers face-to-face with the product.
Walker’s winning campaign featured a promotional launch to build awareness among the younger target market and to get them to experience the vehicles and all of the features in a social setting.
As well, she proposed to revamp the traditional test drive by having customers picked up and dropped off at a convenient location in order to get more customers behind the wheel.
A of 10 judges consisting of academic and industry representatives selected Walker and the other nine of the top 10 finalists from 19 universities across Canada based on how creative, innovative and feasible their marketing plans were.
Competition wasn’t easy: Walker said a lot of creative brain power and hard work went into the final presentation of her marketing plan.
“Judges likely chose my submission because they thought it would really appeal to the young customers they were trying to attract,” she said. “My plan was creative and different but also feasible so they could implement these ideas really quickly.”
After she graduates, Walker will start work at the Toronto branch of the Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm.
Queen’s student Warren Duffy, Comm ’07, placed third in the competition.
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