The Students’ Association of Business and Technology (ABT) at the Department of Commerce and Financial Management (DCFM), University of Kelaniya hosted the Young Digital Marketers Challenge 2014 with the aim of showcasing marketing know-how blended with technological skills of the 3rd year undergraduates reading for the Bachelor of Commerce Special Degree in Business Technology. The event was held on the 31th October 2014 at the faculty premises and it was driven under the theme, Unleashing the New Era of Marketing.
The event was a successful outcome of the E-Commerce Technology subject taken by the 3rd year undergraduates in their Business Technology stream. The challenge enabled undergraduates to demonstrate their digital marketing pilot projects carried out for three Sri Lankan renowned companies: Nisaco Furniture, Softwave Printing and Packaging and Royal Paints, who haven’t adopted digital marketing strategies initially.
The keynote was given by the Mr. V. Dinesh, Vice President – Product Strategy and Digital Marketing at 247 Techies. During the keynote he emphasized importance digital marketing in today business context and how it has impacted to the survival in the competition. Moreover, he appreciated such endeavor by the undergraduates. Subsequently, Mr. Gihan Ayatha, Account Manager – Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) PLC delivered a speech highlighting the applicability of digital marketing for telecommunication industry specially in SLT. Further, the event was graced by Dr. D.M. Semasinghe as the chief guest, Dean, Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies including the Head, Department of Commerce and Financial Management Dr. C. Pathirawasam and the distinguished representatives from the above mentioned companies.
Initially, undergraduates were guided by the lecturers to select companies and develop the digital marketing strategies to be executed the pilot project. Afterward, project proposals were carried out liaison with company’s digital marketing requirements. Contestants’ digital marketing pilot projects were mainly judged and evaluated based on the criteria such as innovativeness, creativity, reachability, content and marketing orientation. Project evaluation was carried out by two phases where initially projects were judged prior to award ceremony by the panel of judges consisted of lecturers attached to the Department. At the same time projects were constantly monitored by the distinguished officers from each respective company to examine the compliance for company’s requirement. During the initial evaluation, judges gave their feedbacks and recommendations for further enhancement of the projects. The final phase of the evaluation was scheduled on the competition day and the evaluations were carried out by the panel of judges consisted of industry representatives and lectures to select the team who clinch the most effective digital marketing pilot project award while the pilot projects were being presented by the contestants. Dream Builders (Nisaco Furniture) dominated the competition by bagging the award, including the medals for group members. Additional certificates were awared to all the participants to commemorate the honor of effective partaking for such event. Representative Officer from each company who presented for the event extended their valuable thoughts and insights about the competition at the winding up of the event.
The entire programme, from the initiation, was guided by the lecturers of the DCFM; Dr. C.N. Wickramasinghe, Dr. Kaushalya Yatigammana, Ms. L.C.H. Jayarathna, Ms. B.C.P Jayarathna and Mr. H.A.H. Hettiarachchi with special commitment of ABT alumni member, Mr. M.A.P Wimukthi as a resource person. Initiated by the Students Association of Business and Technology (ABT), the competition was designed to elevate the standards of learning excellence on E-Commerce Technology education thus embracing the ICT for modern day business studies. Besides, having multi skilled graduates are undeniably essential for modern day business world. Further, such events pave the way to Outcome Based Learning and Industry Affiliation. The competition was a success with a courtesy of Siyapatha Finance Ltd as a sponsor. It was a highly successful competition and met with much enthusiasm by participants as well as the audience.
