AATCC is proud to announce the winners of the AATCC Millennial Marketing Award, a juried, invitation-only, university marketing competition for students studying retail merchandising and marketing.
All of the winners are students attending Florida State University, in classes led by Jeanne Heitmeyer, Associate Professor, Department of Retail Merchandising and Product Development.
Delia Bledsoe, Karolina Borchert-Hunter, Brittany McNally, Samantha Tira and Natasha Salman won first place in the competition. The team will be awarded $1,500.
Allison Bouis, Beca Branch, Kyle Strype and Erika Akerley won second place. The team will receive $500.
Honorable mention goes to Taylor Bowen, Ashley Reddick, Jeff Pelage, and Changhyun Nam. This team will receive $250.
In addition, the department is being awarded $1,250 and Prof. Heitmeyer is receiving an honorarium.
“Students are our future,” says John Y. “Jack” Daniels, Executive Vice President. “AATCC is proud to offer meaningful opportunities to allow students and their professors to contribute and participate in many of our Association’s activities. AATCC provides exceptional avenues for students to hone their technical skills, develop professional contacts, and begin their transition to professional careers.”
The purpose of the contest was to design an effective membership development/marketing program targeted specifically at the millennial demographic (students and young professionals age 31 and under). The students who participated were asked to identify strategies and methodologies for attracting student members and building student chapters as well as strategies for retaining students as AATCC members after graduation.
“We were pleased by the quality of the entries and especially want to thank AATCC student chapter advisor, Kay Grise, Florida State University,” says Maria Thiry, Publications & Membership Director at AATCC.
“We are also grateful to Jeanne Heitmeyer for shepherding her students through a challenging contest to a successful conclusion. In addition, our contest judges deserve our grateful thanks. Without our dedicated volunteers, AATCC would not function.
Our judges came from a variety of backgrounds, locations, and sectors of the industry and included Freddy Miller with Hickory Yarns, Kerry King with Spoonflower, Inc., Akshita Bajpal, Mary Brannan of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) and Rachel Lessne, founder of Green Envy Eco-Boutique.
The Millennial Marketing Awards contest is one of several offered through AATCC and the AATCC Foundation, to support emerging young professionals.
Annually, AATCC and the AATCC Foundation award more than $42,000 to textile, material, engineering, and fashion merchandising students worldwide through scholarships, grants, and industry contest awards designed to provide real life professional opportunities.
