Each year, the Digital Marketing emphasis program at the University of Georgia hosts the Digital Marketing Competition, where students work with real-world clients to develop strategic marketing solutions for active business challenges. The competition has been running for more than a decade, and company participation is highly competitive, with brands paying to participate and a waitlist to serve as clients.

In Spring 2026, I collaborated on a team that won the competition, competing against more than 30 teams and 140 students. Our challenge was to develop an integrated marketing campaign for Arby's focused on improving brand perception among Gen Z consumers.

I led the research portion of the project by creating a Qualtrics survey that generated more than 140 responses and using data from the survey to uncover insights that shaped our campaign strategy. Throughout the project, I took ownership of ensuring all messaging, creative direction, and channel recommendations aligned with our core strategic insight, helping us develop a cohesive, insight-driven campaign across every touchpoint in the consumer journey. I especially enjoyed digging into research, uncovering audience insights, and ensuring every recommendation and activation connected back to the core strategy.

The final round of the competition took place at Inspire Brands headquarters, where our team presented a 40-slide deck to senior leadership, including Arby's Chief Marketing Officer, featuring consumer research, insights, audience strategy, a five-month integrated campaign plan, example creative, activations, and a detailed budget.

After evaluating each team’s presentation, the leadership panel selected our team as the winner of the competition, citing our strong consumer insights, targeted creative concept, and actionable strategy as the key factors that differentiated our campaign from the other teams. They specifically highlighted that our strategy successfully addressed a unique challenge: attracting a new Gen Z audience without alienating the brand’s existing core consumer base of older generations — a gap the brand had been actively trying to bridge. Our team worked tirelessly and passionately to develop and perfect our pitch, and it was incredibly validating to have that hard work recognized with this win.

Our prize was an all-expenses paid trip to NYC, where we toured brands and agencies and heard from professionals across the industry. During one agency visit, we heard from a Junior Strategist at Razorfish, and I left feeling inspired, motivated, and like I had found exactly what I wanted to do. As she described her day-to-day responsibilities — analyzing consumer insights and culture, developing strategic briefs, planning personalized customer journeys, and ensuring creative executions aligned with a larger brand strategy — I realized it perfectly reflected the parts of marketing I naturally gravitate toward most. During the competition, I found myself most energized by uncovering insights, translating them into insight-backed strategy, and making sure every recommendation connected back to a clear strategic rationale. Hearing how closely that aligned with the actual work strategists do every day confirmed that strategy is the direction I want to pursue.

This experience solidified my passion for strategic thinking and showed me how much I enjoy connecting research, consumer behavior, and creative execution to solve real business challenges. It reinforced my interest in pursuing a career in strategy, particularly within agencies where collaboration, insight-driven thinking, and culturally relevant marketing play such a central role.

Hear more about the competition from:

• Terry College of Business

• Jennifer Osbon (digital marketing professor and competition director)