{"73745":{"#nid":"73745","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Management Team Defeats UGA on mtvU\u0027s \u0022Quad Squads\u0022","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPitted against peers from the University of Georgia, four undergraduate students at Georgia Tech College of Management emerged victorious on the November 28 episode of the reality-show series \u0022Quad Squads.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EA new program of MTV\u0027s mtvU network, which is broadcasted on college campuses nationwide, \u0022Quad Squads\u0022 features the Tech and UGA students in three episodes competing to see which team can devise the best marketing plan for Amp\u0027d Mobile, a new phone company whose service allows customers to access the Internet, play mp3s, and watch streaming video on their mobile phones.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Tech team - seniors Christin Hubbard and Matt Swanburg, junior Jason Nelson and sophomore Vicki Rokhlin - learned they\u0027d won during taping of the final episode November 13 after presenting their plan to marketing and advertising executives for Amp\u0027d. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir prize package includes a $1,000 scholarship for each team member, a trip to mtvU\u0027s Spring Break and a year of free service from Amp\u0027d. The victory episode will continue airing regularly until Dec. 4, and all three five-minute shows will be available online indefinitely at mtvU\u0027s Website \u003Ca href=\u0027http:\/\/www.mtvu.com\/uber\/\u0027\u003Ehttp:\/\/www.mtvu.com\/uber\/\u003C\/a\u003E. Then, click on the green \u0022enter here\u0022 bar and scroll through the list of shows.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We always thought we were going to win,\u0022 Swanburg says. But he concedes that viewers might have made a different prediction after the second episode aired October 31 (the first was on October 10). \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022They portrayed us as underdogs in the second episode,\u0022 Hubbard says, explaining that the team didn\u0027t want to reveal too many of their marketing ideas to their competitors, so the University of Georgia appeared out front at that point. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ETeam members say they learned to be careful about what they said on camera after the first episode when they saw how editing could be used to play up inter-group friction. \u0022They could get things out of us, get us to say things,\u0022 Hubbard says. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFilming proved to be a \u0022reality\u0022 check for the team in other ways. \u0022For example, we could sit here and talk with mtvU filming us,\u0022 Hubbard elaborates, \u0022and if they liked something, they would say, \u0027Stop, say that again. You move over here; the light wasn\u0027t right.\u0027\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022It\u0027s not really reality TV if you have to do everything three or four times,\u0022 Nelson adds. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EHe and his team members didn\u0027t know each other before mtvU selected them for the show after Tech marketing faculty encouraged students to audition. Show producers approached Georgia Tech and UGA because they wanted to pit schools with existing rivalries against each other. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThough each episode of \u0022Quad Squads\u0022 is short, mtvU spent hours filming the Tech team, recording group meetings, conducting interviews, and following each student around campus. Team members spent many more hours off-camera formulating their strategy, a six-week process for which mtvU provided a $2,500 budget. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team didn\u0027t know what the challenge was until taping began, but they knew it would involve marketing. The show\u0027s producers estimated it would only take ten hours a week of the students\u0027 time, but the amount proved to be much greater (approximately 120 hours total). \u0022I had to quit a weekend job at Red Lobster for this,\u0022 Nelson says. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDuring the home stretch, the team worked more than twenty-four hours straight. \u0022I was really impressed with how well we came together in the last twenty-four hours,\u0022 Rokhlin says. \u0022It was a really stressful situation, but it was so fun!\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFor their marketing plan to reach the eighteen- to twenty-four-year-old demographic desired by Amp\u0027d, they created a variety of materials with the help of design students, including print-quality advertisements, a super-hero mascot and an elaborate model of an interactive tent booth for marketing the product\u0027s high-tech features at college sporting events. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir market research showed that Amp\u0027d would have to move beyond traditional media to reach this demographic, so their strategy included commericals shown in movie theaters and ads printed on pizza delivery boxes. All of their suggested promotional efforts were designed to drive people to the company\u0027s Web site, where they could learn more about the phone. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Their whole presentation was very polished,\u0022 says Fred Johnson, vice president of marketing for Amp\u0027d who judged the contest. \u0022What stood out overall was their professionalism and attention to detail. When they brought out the mockup of the booth, it blew us away. In a lot of professional presentations, they leave you with one last thing. They had three or four last things.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDespite all their hard work, Tech\u0027s team members haven\u0027t gained much fame from the show, because mtvU is only broadcasted to college dormitories and campus buildings like student and recreation centers. But they figure their most important audience is composed of the employers who will be impressed to see this experience on their resumes. \u0022This is going to look incredible,\u0022 Rokhlin says.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter:\u003C\/strong\u003E Brad Dixon, College of Management\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Pitted against peers from the University of Georgia, four undergraduate students at Georgia Tech College of Management emerged victorious on the November 28 episode of the reality-show series \u0022Quad Squads.\u0022","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Management students win marketing competition"}],"uid":"27301","created_gmt":"2005-11-29 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:00:59","author":"Elizabeth Campell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2005-11-28T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2005-11-28T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"73746":{"id":"73746","type":"image","title":"Management team","body":null,"created":"1449178012","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:26:52","changed":"1475894678","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:38"}},"media_ids":["73746"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.mtvu.com\/uber\/index.jhtml?name=live","title":"mtvU"},{"url":"http:\/\/mgt.gatech.edu\/index.html?link=logo","title":"College of Management"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003ELisa Grovenstein\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=lgrovenste3\u0022\u003EContact Lisa Grovenstein\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-8835\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lisa.grovenstein@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}