Three students at the University of Sussex School of Business, Management and Economics won £1,000 in a “Student Marketing Competition” in collaboration with U.K. self-storage operator Big Yellow Group PLC. Students were challenged to come up with a plan to increase the brand awareness of Big Yellow Self Storage among prospective residential customers, according to the source.

Though the contest was open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at the university, freshmen Samantha Letts, Emilia Roberts and Emma Sivess took first place. Their entry earned praise for how the homeowner audience was segmented, target-marketing ideas and media proposals, the source reported. Second and third place prizes of £600 and £400, respectively, were also awarded. Entries were judged by Anthony Chenery, head of marketing for Big Yellow, and James Sutton, a marketing professor at the university.

“Big Yellow’s commitment to supporting the community includes helping local students, and this marketing challenge enabled us to do that,” Chenery told the source. “We gave the teams a real-life marketing brief to work on, and all the teams presented back some fantastic ideas. Congratulations to the winners for an impressive and well-thought-out plan.”

“We wanted to give students a flavor of the real world of marketing before they embark on their adventures in their chosen careers,” added Sutton. “Having the chance to work on a real brief will be invaluable experience for all the students who took part.”

Big Yellow Group operates 89 self-storage locations in the United Kingdom under the Big Yellow Self Storage and Armadillo Self Storage brand names, with most concentrated in Greater London. Its total portfolio comprises 5.3 million square feet.

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