MBA Class Wins Second Place in National Marketing Competition

MELBOURNE, FLA.—“Clear Choice,” a Florida Institute of Technology MBA student-led team, placed second in the national America’s National Gas Alliance (ANGA) Collegiate Energy Challenge held recently. The Florida Tech team was one of only three finalist teams chosen from among teams at 16 universities who participated in natural gas marketing campaigns in November.

Nathan M. Bisk College of Business Associate Professor Andrew Cudmore, faculty advisor, and five of the 21 participating students made the trip to Washington, D.C., to compete for the Scholastic Achievement Award (SAA) $5,000, $3,000 or $1,000 prizes.

“The judges were so impressed with the ‘Clear Choice’ project that they unexpectedly gave $200 to each of the MBA students in addition to our $3,000 second place award,” says Cudmore. “I was quite surprised with the generous gesture and I am very proud of the professionalism and diligence of my students.”

The challenge for Clear Choice was to implement an integrated marketing campaign to educate and inform the community about natural gas. They facilitated this with a natural gas exposition event on campus and measured the success of their educational initiatives with pre- and post-event research surveys to gauge public opinion of natural gas usage and development.

The Florida Tech team was supported by EdVenture Partners, which provided guidance throughout the project as well as feedback on each element of the marketing campaign.