The Pitch, The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s (CIM) 2020 student competition is now open to marketing students across Wales. The national competition, now in its ninth year, sees students from leading universities compete to respond to a live client brief, in a bid to win £1,500 and the title of ‘Marketer of the Future' at the organisation’s annual industry awards to be held in April 2020.

Last year, a large number of universities and colleges across Wales registered to take part in The Pitch, including Cardiff Metropolitan University and Swansea University. Wales competed strongly in the competition, with student teams, Met: à la mode and Met Marketing Masterpiece from Cardiff Metropolitan University shortlisted in last year’s competition on their marketing plans to support Hawaiian Tropic’s drive to help young women feel protected in the summer.

The competition is sponsored this year by leading retailer Lidl, with teams challenged to tackle one of the most important climate issues in the sector, plastic waste. Lidl has committed to a 20% reduction of its own brand plastic packaging by 2022. Students will be asked to show how Lidl can most effectively market this commitment to customers, helping shoppers change their habits in order to reduce their own plastic use.

Wales chair of CIM, Dr Gavin Davies said: “CIM’s annual student competition is now open for 2020, and we are hoping for some strong submissions from Wales undergraduate marketing students. The challenge set for 2020 is a relevant and important topic for marketers to tackle sustainability amongst retailers and helping to market the reduction of plastic use amongst consumers and businesses.”

The commitment follows Lidl’s initiative to remove all single-use carrier bags from stores in 2017, which resulted in 26 million fewer plastic bags being sold per year.

Discussing the competition, 2018 The Pitch winner Roxanne Colinet, said:

“Without a doubt I would recommend The Pitch to students. When starting university, marketing was never my thought-out career path. However, since entering The Pitch and being in the presence of 600 marketing experts at the CIM’s Marketing Excellence Awards, I now cannot wait to get into the marketing industry and put my stamp on it.”

“If I hadn’t put myself forward for The Pitch competition, I really don’t think I would now be enjoying a career in marketing. Being able to talk about responding to a live brief and pitching to a panel of marketing experts was invaluable for my CV, and as part of my interviews after University.”

The competition is open to second and third year students at UK universities studying for a marketing degree or a business degree with a marketing module. In teams of two or three, entrants must devise a 2,500-word marketing plan and present it to judges from across the industry, including representatives from Lidl, Microsoft, Printt, Mintel and CIM.

The top three teams chosen on the day will then be taken through to the CIM Marketing Excellence Awards on 2nd April 2020, where the winners will be announced and presented with the ‘Marketers of the Future' award. This is also an excellent opportunity for students to meet and develop relationships with senior marketing figures from key brands across the industry.