The Texas American Marketing Association hosted a two-day conference featuring its annual AMAze Competition, demo day for AMA’s consulting agency, and a mini marketing networking fair. Participants got to enjoy free food and hear from guest speakers.
During Day 1 of the conference, five groups went up to present their marketing plan for the AMAze Case Competition in front of a panel of judges. The companies this year were Clean Cause, Cuvée, Credera, Nimaroh, and Case Knives. Thought these companies range large and wide with their specialties and with the products and services they provide, they were all judged on on three categories: professionalism and preparedness, presentation and aesthetics, and content. All five groups provided very thorough and creative plans for bettering or implementing marketing strategies for their respective companies. Here are brief overviews regarding each company:
Clean Cause is a drink company that produces organic, sparkling yerba mate. The Austin-based company advocates and supports addiction recovery by donating 50% of their net profits to help with those recovering from alcohol and drug addiction. They have also provided 3202 scholarships to date, valuing over $1,601,000. Their yerba mate product acts as an energizing drink similar yet different to coffee and traditional energy drinks and appeals to markets of young people like students at the University of Texas at Austin.
Started in 1988, Cuvée is the Austin-based company that pioneered Nitro Cold Brew, a drink that has spread beyond the company’s borders to many well-known cafés including Starbucks. The company offers a wide range of coffees ranging in form, roast, and origin, catering to people of different tastes. Coffee subscriptions are available on their website, and customers can have coffee regularly shipped to their door. In addition to coffee being the company’s specialty, Cuvée also boasts 17.6k followers on TikTok, penetrating what is called “coffee tok” and reaching many young users.
Credera is a boutique consulting company located across the U.S. in cities like Houston, Los Angeles, New York and also globally in places like India, Singapore, and Australia. The company emphasizes a people-first culture for both its employees and its clients. Credera actually hosted a consulting workshop for AMA earlier this year, which you can read more about here. The consulting company aims to maintain an inclusive company culture and to establish a perceptive client culture, working in a vast array of industries like consumer goods and services, healthcare and life sciences, and transportation and logistics just to name a few.
Nimaroh is a creative house and advertising agency that was recently acquired by Idea Peddler and has become a full-service agency. Just a few weeks ago, Nimaroh was able to provide a company tour for some of the members of Texas AMA. Idea Peddler provides services in production, design, advertising, media, public relations, and social media and works with 3D rendering and motion graphics to provide really fresh and up-to-date techniques as a creative house.
Extending back to 1889, Case Knives is an icon of American craftsmanship that has been passed through generations of use and admiration. From prize-winning bull riders to country music legends to former U.S. presidents, many people have and continue to be impacted by the products Case Knives provides. Durable knives for simple daily tasks in the kitchen to specialty tasks out in the wilderness can be found on the company’s website. For those exploring knives for the first time, you can “Find the Right Knife” with this survey on the company’s website.
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Day 2 of the conference consisted of a presentation from Professor Aarons and Demo Day from AMA’s own agencies which displayed a culmination of their semester-long efforts. Similar to the first day, these students were graded on categories of professionalism and preparedness, presentation and aesthetics, and content.
Undergraduate and MBA lecturer and Wall Street Journal and Amazon best-selling author, Professor Chris Aarons started off the event with information about consumer insight and The Digital 15. The Digital 15 is a collection of 15 principles curated by Professor Aarons and his colleagues on how to correctly approach digital marketing.
Shmoody is a mobile toolkit in the form of an app that helps with improving mental health and recovering from substance abuse. Users are able to connect with others and access a variety of features that help them deal with mental health. The app targets mainly people of ages 18-25. Though mobile apps and phone usage can lead to toxic mentalities, Shmoody aims to provide a source of comfort and recovery for users. The agency presented many creative ideas to help market the app. These include partnering with UT Austin’s mental health and wellness facilities, adapting a cute and memorable Shmoody Cat mascot, and integrating the use of social media and music apps like Instagram and Spotify.
Wonderkind is an Austin-based content marketing studio that specializes in promoting food and beverage brands that advocate for wellness. The trendy agency provides services in design, social media, and photography. The women-led team behind the company consists of designers from diverse backgrounds. Together, they display a very distinct and vibrant aesthetic within the work they do for their clients.
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This semester has been very eventful for AMA and its members. We have had the pleasure to host many speakers that have given us very valuable insight into each of their companies. Within AMA, the 2-day conference wrapped up a very well-rounded year for the teams that showcased their ability to analyze and prepare a marketing strategy for real-life companies and the agencies that have worked long and hard. While the year is coming to an end, AMA will be preparing and looking forward to next school year with its members. It has been a pleasure for the blog team to work with media and design to document AMA’s events this semester. We hope you have enjoyed these blog posts as well!
TEXAS AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION 