The Association of MBAsí Best Marketing Practice Award was presented last night to Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) in recognition of the schoolís innovative use of resources and a targeted campaign to raise the profile of the MBA amongst women. The prize-winning submission, entitled Behind Every Good Woman is a Great MBA, was written in response to one of the categories of this yearís competition, Implementing an International Recruitment Campaign. The award, which was sponsored by the Independent Newspaper and UffindellWest, was presented to RSM at the Associationís Gala Dinner in Whitehall yesterday.
The Best Marketing Practice Award is now in its fourth consecutive year and recognises the valuable role marketing and external relations plays within business schools. It also enables the Association of MBAs to offer a visible ìthank you and well doneî to those individuals and teams involved. The competition is hosted annually by the Association of MBAs and is open to all accredited business schools. Previous winners have included London Business School and IMD.
RSMís award-winning essay, OneMBA Diary, described two marketing initiatives designed to increase recruitment of women to its prestigious Global Executive MBA ñ OneMBA program. The OneMBA Diary written from the point of view of a female participant in the program, and in concert with Wall Street Journal Europe ìWomen in Businessî essay contest, provided two leading female contenders with Ä24,000 scholarships to enable them to participate in OneMBA.
The RSM campaign, which was geared towards local participants from The Netherlands, was subsequently followed up by the Wall Street Journal Europe, Women in Business contest. The innovative campaigns resulted in a significant increase in attracting female applicants to RSMís OneMBA program - 48% in 2004, as opposed to 37% in 2003 and 22% in 2002 ñ a significant 15% uptake in female participants for the OneMBA program that was launched in September 2004 - women represented approximately 40% of the class.
ìThe prizes for Best Practice in Marketing are an important means of celebrating success in business education and we are proud to welcome some outstanding winners this evening. This award provides an opportunity to demonstrate innovative use of resources and tactical campaigns which have led to greater awareness of our business schoolsí accredited MBA programmes.î commented Jeanette Purcell, Chief Executive of the Association of MBAs.
The panel of judges for the Award were:
Adrian Day - Innovation Consultant & Director,
UffindellWest
David Rose - Chairman, Association of MBAs, London & South-East
Dr Rosa Chun - Lecturer in Reputation Management & Director of the MSc in Corporate Communications, Manchester Business School
The Award was presented to Rotterdam School of Management at the Associationís Gala Dinner in Whitehall, London on Thursday 11th November.
Best Marketing Practice Award was presented last night to Rotterdam School of Management
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