Students in national semi-finals of Microsoft Protégé competition

Advertising students from Swinburne are putting their carefully crafted marketing plans to the test, as they present to managers from Microsoft Australia this week.

Three student teams have successfully made it to the national semi-finals of the 2016 Microsoft Protégé Challenge.

Running from 23-24 June, semi-finalists will present their entry as a PowerPoint presentation, followed by up to five minutes of questions from the judging panel.

The students were tasked with developing a marketing plan that would help Microsoft to increase their market share of Lumia devices in Australia over the next twelve months.

Advertising lecturer David Reid says the Swinburne entries were of a high standard.

“Swinburne has been incredibly successful in this competition already. From the 100 teams that entered across Australia, Swinburne has three teams in the pool of 16 semi-finalists.”

If successful, the teams will proceed to the grand final which is held in Sydney in August.

Putting their skills to the test

Beth Conroy, Bachelor of Arts (Professional) with a major in Professional Writing and Editing, says the experience in the competition so far has given them a great insight into how advertising and creative agencies operate.

“Microsoft Protégé has definitely been challenging. But it means we’re learning quicker and it’s being applied to real life,” Ms Conroy says.

“We’re taking what we’re learning in lectures and putting it into practice straight away.”

The Microsoft Protégé project is offered as a part of Swinburne’s advertising major.

This is the second year in a row that Swinburne has had success in the Protégé competition. In 2015, Swinburne students Georgia, Kimberley, James and Vania made it to the grand final of the Microsoft Protégé competition.

The Swinburne teams in the national semi-finals are:

Virtual Student Agency one
Yazmine Lomax, Daniel Vesel and Austin Yudionoputra

Virtual Student Agency two
Eden Young, Beth Conroy, Charlotte Butcher and Alannah Hosemans

Virtual Student Agency eleven
Christina Maher, Sandra Arnaout and Laura Rehunathan

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