Z Marketer 6 gives students experience in marketing competition and event management

More than 2,000 students from universities across Vietnam, took part in Z Marketer Season 6, a nationwide marketing competition organized by British University Vietnam (BUV) students. The Z Marketer Season 6 organizing team with finalists, judges, and industry experts at the grand finale. Photo courtesy of BUV Photography Club Over three months until the finale in June, the organizing committee coordinated four competition rounds involving 680 teams, nearly 100 judges and mentors, and 25 partner organizations.While contestants presented solutions to industry case studies, the student organizers managed communications, partnerships, judge coordination and event operations.In the early stages, each functional team worked largely within its own area of responsibility. Communications focused on attracting participants, the content team developed campaign materials, while others managed sponsorships, coordinated judges and mentors, or looked after guest experience. As registrations continued to exceed expectations, however, the project quickly outgrew this way of working."At the beginning, we never imagined the competition would attract more than 680 teams or nearly 100 judges and mentors. As applications continued to grow and more industry leaders agreed to support the project, we realized we had to rethink the way we worked," said Pham Huong Giang, project lead and a third-year Digital & Social Media Marketing student at BUV. Project lead Pham Huong Giang shares her team’s experience organizing Z Marketer. Photo courtesy of BUV Photography Club According to the organizers, running the competition at this scale required team members to look beyond their own responsibilities and understand how each decision could affect other parts of the project. A delay in one area, they said, could trigger a chain reaction, disrupting communications with participants, forcing changes to judges’ schedules and complicating coordination with partners.To keep the event on track, the team had to shift from an execution mindset to a management mindset. This meant seeing the project as a whole, making decisions proactively rather than waiting for instructions, coordinating progress across different teams, balancing limited time and resources, and taking collective responsibility for the competition’s overall outcome."We realized that focusing only on individual responsibilities made it easy to overlook how one team's work could affect another. We had to strengthen communication across the organizing committee and ensure everyone understood the bigger picture," said Hoang Vinh Nhan, project assistant.The competition itself also gave contestants a chance to think and perform like marketing professionals. Contestants worked on business case studies throughout the competition, developing marketing strategies, presenting recommendations to industry professionals and refining their ideas based on feedback. A student presenting her team's project. Photo courtesy of BUV Photography Club The competition's theme, "Opening the Way," encouraged participants to identify their strengths, recognize areas for improvement and explore potential career paths in marketing.After advancing through 680 teams, Ma Dao Thanh Champion won the competition. According to the team, every round meant testing new ideas, adjusting courses, and relearning how to look at a problem. Champion team of Z Marketer Season 6. Photo courtesy of BUV Photography Club "Taking part in Z Marketer helped us grow enormously, both professionally and personally. We learned to research more deeply, consider different perspectives, and make decisions under pressure. Those are experiences difficult to gain through classroom learning alone," the team representative said.Both contestants and organizers were solving real-world challenges. One side had to come up with answers to briefs modelled on real business environments; the other had to build the very environment in which those answers could be tested, challenged and recognized. Representatives from partner organizations said the students demonstrated professionalism throughout the project.Luu Anh Duc, representing Biti’s Hunter, said: "The students were highly organized in the way they communicated, coordinated every stage of the project, and kept everyone informed. Their professionalism, thorough preparation, and collaborative attitude made the entire partnership a genuinely positive experience."Academic partner MarWuy said the competition provided students with opportunities to work on business case studies, receive feedback from industry professionals and engage with companies. It also offered two forms of practical learning: contestants tackled real-world challenges, while student organizers managed the competition from positioning and content to participants and partners, allowing both groups to apply classroom knowledge and gain experience relevant to future marketing careers.