Entering the 2021 Digital Marketing Challenge

Back in 2021, based on some information from one of my lecturers, my partner and I entered the digital marketing challenge organized by the Business and Economics club, Boğaziçi Üniversity in Turkey. The Business and Economics club is said to have been established within Robert College in 1953, started to be known as the “Business Club” in 1975, and the “Business and Economics Club” in 1990. It is also said to be the “most established student club”.

With all of these credentials, we hurried off to send in our applications and soon, we got sent an email.

It is unclear how many Nigerians/ Africans entered this contest or how many universities in North Cyprus were represented. We also don't know how many people contested in total. The organizers did not release this information. We know that we entered in, made it through the preliminary stages and all the way to the semi-finals. We didn’t make it to the finals, though, for several issues related to the contest. We have since voiced our complaints to the organizers (which were mainly ignored) and a lecturer at our university. While I appreciate the fact that the competition was extended to other international students outside of Turkey, like North Cyprus, and I applaud the diversity they were trying to encourage, it didn't really end well.

The first issue? our last task was a mess

Before our time in the contest came to an end, we were required to make a promotional video for tote bags which would be judged according to how much sales were made- using the reference code provided for each candidate. Below are our concerns about this particular task:

(a). The decision to grade participants on the number of sales generated from their videos was poor and unfair, especially for non-Turkish students and students not schooling in Turkey, and here is why: On the WhatsApp group, the organizers shared, “You can increase its visibility and sales by sharing on your own accounts.”. What is likely to happen is that we would share within our networks, but what happens when our personal networks are not residents of Turkey? Many people would not do the shopping for the cost of shipping one bag/ mask/ diary and so on to destinations like Nigeria, Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, especially because of the pandemic. Why? Because the cost is not worth it. Even in North Cyprus, where we reside, the import tax and the stress of retrieving it from customs are very discouraging. So how, then, do we compete with someone who has friends and/or family in Turkey and can order and get it delivered at less expense?

(b). The organisers posted all the videos on the same Instagram account and had barely 218 followers at the time (in total, 19 videos). Given Instagram’s engagement and conversion rates of about 1–5% (see here), it is unclear how we should increase our sales based on that.

C). In digital marketing, a customer needs to see an Ad 5x–7x before making a decision (see here), so what happens when someone watches 3, 5 or maybe seven videos and decides to buy using the code from the 8th video? Do all 3, 5 or 7 of us get the credit? Or does only the 8th person? Did the customer make a decision based on the 8th person alone?

The second issue? Updating the rules in the middle of the contest

As at the time of application, pre-selection, reaching the semi-finals and even when the organisers sent the initial video task, at NO point did they mention being graded by sales OR the second leg of the semi-final, i.e. the blog post. This is not how things are done and reflected poorly on their side, especially to an international audience. They moved the goalpost and, unfortunately, created the impression that this competition was devised not to be won (even though this was probably not their intention).

Nearly all of the prizes can only be used in Turkey.

Save for two online courses and cash so it is unclear what the incentive is for international students, especially those not currently schooling in Turkey, to engage in your competition. Even the shopping voucher does not cover shipping. Why would anyone use it when these things are cheaper in their countries, even with free shipping in some places? I understand that the organisers are probably working with what they have, but when you have international students, you need to think these things through and the image you are projecting.

Poor Communication

It is unclear why the WhatsApp group created was blocked shortly after it was opened. For a digital marketing competition, it is ironic that the WhatsApp group is permanently blocked in favour of private messaging. Not only is this very unprofessional, but it is also super weird and opens the door to unnecessary conversations. If the number of messages per time is too much, they could have created open hours of six to eight hours a day when participants can chat and engage with you and others. Part of the wins of competitions like this is meeting new people and networking, but they blocked that. Interestingly, a WhatsApp group in my country had over 400 students, and they were not blocked. This group had barely over 100 people, but somehow, the messages were overwhelming.

Did I mention there were very few female judges? And zero feedback from the very many judges?

Finally, there were ten jury members (Not even the Shark’s tank, X-factor or America’s got talent has that many judges simultaneously, and why are there just two women out of ten?). That said, it would have been nice to get feedback from them (whether we succeed or fail) on our entries so we can improve, which also ties in with the overall goal of improving digital marketing.