PRESS RELEASE

Winners announced at CIM and University of Manchester Summer School Pitch competition

• The University of Manchester Summer School competition challenged students from backgrounds across the Sciences, Engineering, or the Arts, to develop a new sustainable business idea for the post-Covid globe
• Judging panel included representatives from CIM
• Students also had the opportunity to sit the Marketing Principles Level 3 award from CIM’s Level 3 Foundation Certificate in Professional Marketing

The University of Manchester in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has announced the winning student team of its annual Summer School Pitch competition in The Faculty of Science and Engineering.

Taking place virtually between 12 July and 23 July, this year’s Summer School saw 42 international students from across the top 30 universities in China, specialising in different disciplines, tasked to develop a new sustainable business idea for the post-Covid globe.

The students were split into eight teams, each putting forward ideas ranging from alternatives to waste packaging, to saving water in novel ways around the home, to products made from recycled plastic bottles.

Ruogu Huang, Kaifa Cao, Qi Jia, Yi Fan, Jinlin Tan and Yuyue Zhang were announced the winners in the live virtual final on 23 July. Their winning campaign was an innovative and sustainable alternative to paper and plastic straws, answering many of the different user complaints with existing products on the market, which put the customer at the heart of their creation.

Commenting on their achievement, the winning team said: "We are delighted to have won this year’s University of Manchester Summer School Pitch competition for our ideas in shaping a sustainable business idea for the post-Covid globe. The Summer School allowed us to develop our knowledge on sustainability, which is a major topic for the marketing profession, at the same time, allowing us to improve our English, which isn’t our first language. A big thankyou to the University of Manchester and CIM for providing us with this opportunity, it was a great experience.”

CIM’s learning partnership managers, Maureen Wincott and Jonny Crawley, and CIM’s North West communications ambassador, Rasha El-Shirbini, headed up the judging panel, who deliberated over the student pitches, to reach a consensus on the winning team.

Rasha El-Shirbini, CIM’s North West communications ambassador said: “It is no secret that governments across the world are encouraging businesses to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly. China is aiming to reach peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, so it makes sense for any innovative, international and cross discipline initiative, like this virtual Summer School, to focus on bringing future minds together to help meet these brilliant objectives with new ideas and show how to take them to market. Congratulations to the winning team and to all teams involved, it was a brilliant event.”

Aswell as taking part in the competition, all students had the opportunity to sit CIM’s Marketing Principles Level 3 award, which is a module that is part of CIM’s Level 3 Foundation Certificate in Professional Marketing.

Speaking about the competition, Paul Cowell, lecturer of new product development at the University of Manchester said: “The most amazing thing about the pitches was that the teams started the Summer School on the 13 July, never having met each other previously and coming from different disciplines and different Universities in China and produced a sustainable product which they pitched in English to CIM judges on the 23 July and everything was virtual."

Maureen Wincott, CIM’s learning partnership manager concluded: “We are delighted to have worked with Paul Cowell in helping to make the University of Manchester’s online Summer School initiative so successful. The Summer School students were all signed up as CIM studying members and the University facilitated the students sitting the CIM Marketing Principles award during the duration of the Summer School.

“CIM also helped with judging of the school’s own Pitch competition, and we were amazed at the quality of submissions by all of the teams. Many congratulations to the winning team on their excellent business concepts of addressing the issue of sustainability and all students who took part.

“We are very much looking forward to collaborating with the University next year whether it is online, or campus based.”

ENDS

For CIM enquiries
James Delves
CIM Head of PR and External Engagement
james.delves@cim.co.uk

Corinne Lavictoire
CIM PR Executive
corinne.lavictoire@cim.co.uk

About CIM:
For over 100 years, CIM has supported the marketing sector. With over 20,000 members in more than 100 countries, CIM strives for business leaders and opinion formers to recognise the positive contribution professional marketing can bring to their organisations, the economy and wider society. We support, develop and represent marketers, organisations and the profession all over the world. Our ability to award Chartered Marketer status recognises a marketer’s commitment to staying current and abiding by a professional Code of Conduct. While our diverse range of training courses and world-renowned qualifications, enable modern marketers to thrive in their roles and deliver long-term success for businesses.

About The University of Manchester Summer School:
The University of Manchester Summer School takes place annually and encourages students to apply their discipline knowledge, from backgrounds across the Sciences, Engineering, or the Arts, to develop ideas for a particular goal by mixing different expertise when forming teams.