The owners of eCommerce startup Organize My Drawer have chosen the winning team in the University of Denver, Daniels College of Business campaign challenge in Integrated Marketing Communications.

During winter quarter seven teams of MS Marketing students assumed the role of full-service agencies charged with preparing Integrated Marketing Communications plans for the Centennial based eCommerce startup.

The IMC teams spent seven weeks studying Organize My Drawer and developing campaigns to achieve maximum impact within budget. Each then presented its plan to owners Wayne and Andrea Qualkinbush.

This year the company focus shifted to business-to-business with a new Business Partner Program and division focused on healthcare organizations. The Qualkinbushes tasked students with creating IMC campaigns aimed at entering B2B markets.

“We were excited to partner with the Daniels’ IMC class and see what 37 of the newest minds in marketing came up with,” said Wayne Qualkinbush, Chief Executive Officer at Organize My Drawer.

The IMC class is taught by Dr. Ali Besharat, Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing, and covers the key concepts and methods in marketing communications for traditional and digital media. “Dr. Besharat guided but did not micromanage his grad students, allowing them to approach this exercise as if they had been hired by OMD,” Qualkinbush said.

Dr. Besharat has overseen similar projects with Comcast, Qdoba and ehealthscreen. “I like to give graduate students hands-on project experiences to prepare them for the real world,” he said. “Students applied the knowledge and skills they learned in class to help OMD identify appropriate promotional tools. The OMD project was key in sharpening skills necessary for success in the business world, such as written and verbal communication skills, presentation skills, working in a team environment and uses of secondary information.”

The winning team includes Noa Kenigsztein, Matthias Malojer, Marisa Margolies, Adam Rosen and Brianne Sheridan. The team members were awarded trophies and a gift at the Honors Convocation on May 19, 2017 at 9 a.m. in Anderson Academic Commons 290.