Shortly after the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament concluded, a trio of Southwestern University business majors performed well in a different type of “March Madness” in Waco.
Juniors Olivia Bakke, Logan LeBlanc and Abby Ryan placed in the top 10 at the inaugural National Collegiate Digital Marketing Championship held April 11 at Baylor University. Southwestern's team competed against some of the nation's top universities in the March competition. A crazy academic competition.
“The amount of competition and competitiveness was exactly the same as at a college sporting event, but in digital marketing.” – Olivia Bakke '25
All three students were taught using materials from Associate Professor of Economics and Business Debika Sihi's digital marketing course.
“I'm very proud,” Dr. Schich said. “Their marketing acumen is definitely on display and as an educator I was really pleased. Here at Southwestern, we strive to educate the whole person, including both professional and personal development. Seeing them interact with each other and with other students, faculty, sponsors, and recruiters made me even more proud. It's about people growing up and becoming good citizens, and that's who they are.”
The championships consisted of four different individual and team events, with universities earning points in each competition. Bakke and LeBlanc competed as a team in the main event, “Presentation Pro.” The tournament was a bracket-style tournament with 32 teams in which each school competed to wow the judges with their marketing presentation.
“The amount of competition and competitiveness was exactly the same as at a college sporting event, but in digital marketing,” Bakke said. “You would never think that that experience would give you the same kind of athletic motivation.”
Bakke and LeBlanc also competed in Going Viral, a competition that requires them to coordinate an impactful social media campaign across multiple platforms. LeBlanc was crowned champion in her YouTube category and finished 13th out of 81 participants in the overall individual competition.
“With the help of Dr. Shihi and my teammates, I was really happy to win the tournament and get some points against Southwestern and show that even small schools can win,” LeBlanc said. Ta. “The business department here at Southwestern has really prepared us to compete with larger schools like Florida and Texas that offer well-known advertising marketing and digital marketing programs.”
Ryan competed in “Quantum Quiz,'' a timed competition in which you have to answer questions about a wide range of marketing concepts, and “Man vs. Machine,'' an event where you compete against artificial intelligence to build the most engaging marketing campaign. I participated in both.
“It was really exciting, but a little nervous,” Ryan said. “Even though our team was small, I knew that we all had internships in the marketing field, so I felt really prepared. was also ranked very high.”
Southwestern's team finished 10th in the nation, competing against schools such as the University of Texas, University of Florida, University of Missouri, LSU, Florida State University, and Ohio State University. Sometimes SU's squad would play against his team of eight to 10 students.
“It was really exciting to learn that you don't have to go to a big school to be successful and you don't have to major in marketing to be good at marketing,” Bakke said. “I feel like most of the analysis and numerical analysis is taught in the classroom, but a lot of it was something I discovered through my internship, which was really insightful.”
Bakke and LeBlanc are both interns in Southwestern's marketing and communications department. Additionally, Mr. Bakke is interning at Power Digital Marketing, a national marketing agency. Ryan currently works for Austin PX, a pharmaceutical and manufacturing company. She plans to pursue her master's degree in marketing after her graduation in 2025.
“Potentially, I’m considering getting a master’s degree in marketing from UT,” Ryan said. “It was really great to be able to interact with the students and compare the learning methods at our school, which offers a wide variety of educational topics. I can't think of another opportunity like this. .”
Apart from the academic competition, the event also provided an opportunity for the trio to network with recruiters, industry professionals, and students from across the country. It is also now possible for recruiters to witness student activities.
“It was great to go and hear from experts in the digital marketing world,” LeBlanc said. “Being able to hear and see what other students are seeing in their internships and job searches gave me more insight.”
“I can't think of another opportunity like this.” – Abby Ryan, '25
After their initial experience, the group plans to return to Waco next year to compete in the second National Collegiate Digital Marketing Championship, and hopefully as part of a larger team in the Southwest.
“We hope to have even more students participating next year,” LeBlanc said. “I know I can make the team a little bigger and be strong in college.”
“This occasion was unforgettable,” Bakke said. “I can't wait to do it again.”
