Pivoting in a Pandemic: How Brands can Emerge Stronger from the Covid-19 Crisis opinion piece led to award for Nick, a high performing student
Nick Murray, a 4th year BBS (Hons) Marketing student at WIT, is the winner of the 2020 Marketing Society of Ireland LePere award, winning €1,000 and invaluable industry recognition.
The Marketing Society of Ireland LePere annual award was set up in commemoration of the late John LePere (the acknowledged founding father of marketing in Ireland). This National award recognises and rewards academic excellence in the field of Marketing and celebrates the future leaders of the industry. The competition is open to all third-level students in Ireland who are in their final year of a Level 8 Marketing course.
Stiff competition
At the online awards ceremony which took place on Friday, 4 December, Naomi Staff (Marketing Society of Ireland and MD of Core Research) noted that they had a large number of entrants this year with very stiff competition. She stated that “The judges were impressed with the structure of Nick’s essay, it was well thought through, researched and planned with some very strong case studies to back up his arguments and persuasive points. Congratulations and well done on such a great achievement Nick”
Nick’s task was to research and prepare a 2,500-word opinion piece based on a marketing topic provided by the Marketing Society of Ireland. His essay was entitled “Pivoting in a Pandemic: How Brands can Emerge Stronger from the Covid-19 Crisis”. All entries were judged independently by a three-person panel, comprising Ms Deirdre Wafer - Marketing Society of Ireland Chairperson, Mr Noel Quinn - Senior Marketing and Media Rights Manager, GAA and Dr Sarah Quinton - Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Oxford Brookes University.
High performing student
This prestigious win follows previous success including winning the Dean’s List award in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020, which recognises the top 5% highest performers in the Business School at WIT. Commenting on his win, Nick said "I am absolutely delighted. It is an achievement I am immensely proud of, especially when I think about how I was competing against students from colleges across the country. A big thank you to Dr Ethel Claffey for nominating me and for believing that I would be good representative for WIT. I would also like to thank the Marketing Society of Ireland for presenting me with this prestigious award."
Speaking about Nick’s success, Dr Thomas O’Toole, Head of the School of Business, WIT, said: “We are thrilled for Nick Murray who took the opportunity to develop an essay with a strong practical bent on how brands can respond to Covid-19 in their marketing positioning. His programme at WIT, the Bachelor of Business (Honours, WD048) marketing stream, has a strong analytic component which prepared him well for his entry into this national competition.”
Support from staff
Joan McDonald, Head of Department of Management and Organisation congratulated Nick for his outstanding achievement, and Dr Ethel Claffey and the Marketing lecturers for the support and encouragement they give to their students.
Dr Ethel Claffey, Stream Leader - BBS (Hons) Marketing, added “We are delighted that Nick has been recognised by the Marketing Society for academic excellence. He is a very worthy recipient of the LePere Award. Winning this award highlights the high calibre of our marketing graduates. Nick is a very diligent student and we are very proud of his achievement.”
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