Before we announce the winners, we would like to give a big thank you to Alex Dobson of Audible Design, a long-time advertising industry exec, for sharing his marketing expertise and helping to judge our Super Bowl LV student competition. Thank you for your time and feedback Alex!

In conjunction with Super Bowl LV, Sports Career Consulting hosted a student competition with a focus on developing a fundamental understanding of the concept of promotion. Students were tasked with the development of a point of purchase display representing a consumer goods brand tied to Super Bowl LV. The contest drew over 100 entries and we saw a lot of impressive ideas. Overall, the effort students put into this competition was more than evident. Props to all those who participated!

OVERALL FEEDBACK:

Selecting our three winners proved to be quite a challenge, with so many students demonstrating an exception grasp on key competition elements like promotion, retail, store placement etc. and the creativity (many students made real-life models of point-of-purchase displays) was fantastic and fun to see. That said, we felt that three students managed to create a display and promotion concept that really stood out. The top three entries submitted ideas that were not only creative, but offered strategies that would most certainly lead to an increase in product sales.

WINNERS:

First Place: M. Wozniak (Tappan Zee High School, New York)

Congrats to Ms. Wozniak at Tappan Zee High School in New York for winning SCC’s Super Bowl LV Promotions Competition! Some highlights from her point-of-purchase display:

• Super concept for a POP display, love seeing a different approach to building a display using product…typically, you’ll see a grocery display spelling out the words “Super Bowl” or the names of participating teams. Ms. Wozniak’s idea levels that concept up by building a locker room featuring product. We can imagine it being an awesome experiential display to walk through, and something that would most certainly attract the attention of shoppers leading up to the big game.
• Of course, it isn’t just about the display… We really liked the product integration with soda boxes for columns, and chips integrated into the locker stalls. At the end of the day, the success of a promotion is measured by sales so it was great to see Ms. Wozniak keep her eye on the prize, so to speak.
• Also thought it was a fantastic idea to include an “enter-to-win” element to elevate the level of consumer engagement by giving away the displayed jerseys

Second Place: D. Vu (Justice High School, Virginia)

Congrats to Mr. Vu at Justice HS in Virginia for taking second place in SCC’s Super Bowl LV Promotions Competition! Some highlights from his point-of-purchase display:

• Bringing coffee (and Starbucks) into the football conversation? Loved it. We appreciated the recognition that brands other than the obvious (snack foods, soda, TVs etc) can benefit from aligning a promotion with the big game.
• We thought it was a really smart idea to include collector’s edition Starbucks football helmets as part of the promotion, certainly an aspect of the promotion that would garner consumer attention! The addition of an “enter-to-win” promotion would definitely boost levels of engagement as well.
• Really nice job from Mr. Vu explaining the importance of where the promotion would be placed in the store, one of the key components of this competition.
• Food for thought to take it over the top next time: Perhaps specially flavored/named drinks for the teams or players would add even more sizzle to the promotion? (The original Starbucks in Pike Place Market in Seattle sold a special Beast Mode coffee drink when he played with the Seahawks)

Third Place: L. Miller (Hinsdale Central High School, Illinois)

Congrats to Ms. Miller at Hinsdale Central HS in Illinois for her third place finish in SCC’s Super Bowl LV Promotions Competition! Some highlights from her point-of-purchase display:

• We loved the overall integration of a “concept” to Ms. Miller’s entire display, based off the storyline of the game Brady (“classic” old guy) vs. Mahomes (the “young” guy and future of the league) that had media outlets around the world talking…great way to tap into the added buzz to benefit the brand!
• Aligning specific products to those players (Brady-Classic Doritos vs. Mahomes – Newest flavors) was a nice touch.
• We absolutely loved the tagline: “Craving a taste for something new, or stick with what you love? We have both!”
• As was the case with all three finalists, Ms. Miller demonstrated a solid understanding and explanation of the important role placement of the display within the store plays in boosting product sales

Congrats again to all three of our finalists! We have prizes coming your way!!!

HONORABLE MENTION (ALEX’S A.C.E. AWARDS: AWESOME CREATIVE EFFORT):

E. Tavares – Tappan Zee HS, New York

We really liked the potential of Mr. Tavares’ idea of bringing the iconic M&M’s characters to life in stores leading up to the Super Bowl. No doubt the promotion would turn some heads as customers enter the store. We would have loved to see you take things a step further…potentially outfitting the characters in Tampa or KC jerseys, maybe even partnering with a personality like Gronk to create a new character, even holograms of characters could be really cool! Either way, great concept, super creative. Well done Mr. Tavares.

Kent CTC students – Michigan

Props to students in Kent Helfrich’s class for taking the time to put together a YouTube video! We appreciate the effort that went into that and really like the idea of stop motion video to attract the attention of consumers. Also appreciate the recognition of the short attention span of shoppers, making a quick six second video clip to grab the attention makes a ton of sense. Really creative and very well done!

A. Payne – Tappan Zee HS, New York

Wknd chillin’ in his pool enjoying his moment on the big screen? Awesome. Definitely one of our favorites in this competition. Nice job Ms. Payne!

T. Wagner – Foster High School, Texas

Clearly Mr. Wagner put a lot of time into the project…check out his REAL display using Coke and Sprite products!! Super impressive.

Pine Island students – Minnesota

Students in Nicole Rusch’s class created one of the better visuals for a POP display in this competition, really appreciated the attention to detail…nice job incorporating the “LV” into the display…would have been cool to see something extra with the goal posts at a supermarket…maybe a chip brand that is part of PepsiCo portfolio etc. Nice work though!

T. Nordberg – Foster High School, Texas
T. Tobin and D. Handelman – Tappan Zee High School, New York

Two entries from different schools had the same brilliant idea by creating a life-size version of both Super Bowl QBs using bags of potato chips…so awesome. Great idea if you can pull it off!

Subway once recreated the likeness of former Heisman winners Robert Griffin III and Marcus Mariota using bread, cheese and cold cuts, so why not a Brady or Mahomes statue made of bags of chips?? Love the creativity.