Industry Competition
Duration
One weeks
What Do You Win?
This competition gives you the chance to engage with a real company and gain experience you can speak about confidently in interviews and professional settings. You will work in a real context, communicate with decision-makers, and demonstrate your ability to think strategically.
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Top 5 Certificate of Potential: Evidence of your skill and applied capability
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Top 2 Full Scholarships (worth £599.8 total): Continue developing your campaign with personalised mentoring
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£50 Cash Prize: Awarded based on demonstrated strategic marketing ability
This is your chance to turn academic knowledge into practical, portfolio-ready experience.
The Competition
This case competition is an opportunity to engage with a real-world challenge and provide an impactful solution that puts you on the radar as a potential talent in the region. It is open to Yorkshire-based university students and recent graduates who want to build real marketing experience while being guided step-by-step.
You will receive one-to-one mentorship and support as you develop a strategic marketing campaign proposal for a real company. The assessment criteria for the Training & Selection Phase are explained clearly so you know exactly what is expected.
The top five will be recognised with a Certificate of Potential, demonstrating that your work and reasoning stood out. The top two will advance to collaborate directly with the company and refine their recommendations with personalised mentorship and training. One final winner will receive a £50 cash award
How Do I Win?
1. Enter the Competition
Submit a short (up to ½ page) outline of how you would approach the real-world marketing challenge. You do not need to have the “right answer” now. We are looking at your understanding of the case and your potential to develop it further.
2. Training & Selection
You will join a briefing session to understand the company context, followed by a one-to-one mentorship session to support the development of your campaign.
The mentorship will be delivered directly by Ali Toosi (Founder of The Experiential Academy, MBA, enterprise consultant), who will help you translate your academic knowledge and research into a practical campaign.
Assessment Criteria are the quality of the report, the logic (stemming from your research and academic learning), and the practicality (stemming from your skills to contextualise your learning), using ICE scoring.
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Impact, i.e. how much this initiative will move the needle on the key goals
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Confidence, i.e. the certainty that the initiative will achieve the predicted impact
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Ease, i.e. the effort required to implement the initiative
The Judging Panel
Ali: Director, Experiential Academy
Victoria: Director, Quick Labs & BindEthics
Andrea: Entrepreneur, Marketing Specialist
Leyla: Consultant, KPMG
Participants receive feedback to improve their future work.
The Top Two
Will be awarded the XPA Full Scholarship (worth £599.8 in total) to continue developing their campaign with further one-to-one mentoring and direct collaboration with the company.
The Top Five
Will receive their Certificate of Potential
3. Direct Collaboration With the Company
Only the top two participants will collaborate directly with the company’s top management team. This stage is designed to help you refine your recommendations to reflect both industry needs and your developing expertise.
Certificate of Excellence
Demonstrating verified industry engagement and capability
£50 Cash Prize
Awarded to the highest-performing finalist
Professional Network
You’ll be integrated in the professional market.
Key Dates
| Date | |
|---|---|
| Competition Entry | 17th Nov |
| Stage one | |
| Project Kick off Webinar | 18th Nov |
| Deadline | 23rd Nov |
| Finalist Announcement | 24th Nov |
| Stage Two | |
| Deadline | 6th Dec |
| Winner Announcement | 8th Dec |
96%
of our partner companies have said they will refer the students to their professional network
Student Voices
This platform is the one thing that gave me real-life experience and the valuable experience I’ve gained in this process is just amazing.
It was also beneficial in building my consultancy skills and learning how to communicate in a professional manner.
It became a meaningful addition to my CV. I was able to apply what I had learned in class to practical work and deepen my understanding of the role while working on the project. Most importantly, it was a meaningful experience as it provided an opportunity that is not easily accessible to students.
Was very excited to work with a company and apply the knowledge I had learnt, and that’s exactly what happened, the process was smooth well-managed and got the chance to use our knowledge to apply for a real world company.
This collab with [the company] was really great for me as it allowed me to do it in a very consulting style
75%
of our partner companies have said they will consider the students for upcoming vacancies.