First Annual "Retain the Brains" Marketing Plan Competition

I'm hearing all about this thing. What's it all about?

It's about holding a marketing plan competition among local college students, where the "product" to be marketed is the Greater Rochester Area and the target market is 18-28 year old men and women.

Why are you doing this?

The brain drain is well documented.

The RUMP group has printed the hard facts. 47% of 18-21 year olds and 36% of 22-30 year olds plan to leave our area

The Democrat and Chronicle recently reported that New York State attracts more students that any other state, yet we loose the most too.

A Milken study states that where companies used to attract intellectual capital, now intellectual capital attracts corporations.

What can we do to help?

We can send a marketing message to the 18-28 segment of the population that Rochester has a lot to offer them.

And who better to create the message than the audience itself? The result of this competition will be a message by the young professional targeted towards the young professional. The message will surely be about something other than good schools and short commute times.

How will it work?

• Student teams prepare their marketing plan
• A school-level competition is conducted. All plans are presented to school leadership and fellow classmates. The best plan as determined by vote of school leaders and the winner advances to the regional finals.
• One team of finalist from each school presents to local economic development leaders, marketing executives and CEOs.
• The winner is selected by a 7 judge panel.
• Highlights from the winning plan and noteworthy concepts from other plans may be published in our various media outlets.

What's in it for the students?

• Experience developing and presenting a marketing plan
• A chance to present the plan to their school's leadership
• A chance to show off their skills to the region's elite
• A greater appreciation for our region and its assets
• Great content for their resume

Is there a prize?

In addition to all the glory and praise from their classmates, school leaders and a chance to personally interact with the region's elite, we are working on a number of different concepts that will be very attractive to students.

Expected prizes:

• $1,000 cash per team member
• A "Rochester Pass" for free admission for one year to Rochester's cultural and athletic venues
• A guaranteed interview with a growing Rochester company

We have certain sponsors identified and committed, and we'll be securing additional sponsors in the days to come. Become a Sponsor!

What's in it for The Greater Rochester Region?

• A marketing plan that attracts a segment of the market that we sorely lack, for no/low cost
• Insight into the hearts and minds of the brains that we strive to retain
• At a minimum, the students learn more about our region
• Students getting off the campus and into our community, which is the first step towards them learning about and enjoying all that we have to offer

Who's behind you?

As of right now, we have received wonderful and gracious support from:

• Greater Rochester Enterprise
• Greater Rochester Visitor's Association
• Rochester Business Alliance

What do the community leaders think of this?

• "I think it's a wonderful idea. It is a very innovative project and Rochester Young Professionals should be saluted for their thinking along this line."
  -Ed Hall, President and CEO, greater Rochester Visitor's association

• "I believe this is a tremendous idea and I am somewhat surprised that this input hasn't been pursued and embraced to date for the "Made for Living" campaign."
• "The fact that Rochester-area universities and colleges are attracting and nurturing some of the finest talent in the country, yet losing them at an alarming rate to other cities and states after graduation is a shame."
• "Clearly we are not paying the right attention to this critical segment."
• "Any economic development package forwarded to prospective executive decision makers and relocation specialists that doesn't embrace retaining young talent is flawed."
  -Gregory Smith, President of Jay Advertising

• "A specific focus on the next generation makes all the sense in the world."
  -Peter VonDerLinn, associate creative director, Wolf Group

• "Reaching out to new groups of people is never a bad thing. Maybe this is an opportunity to put a more youthful face on Rochester."
  -Scott Perkins, Agility Advertising

• "It is a great idea! Is it timely? Yes!"
• "We are like a brain farm. We grow them here then send them out to the national market."
• "To generate economic development you need to retain young brains and attract businesses here. Thank god somebody is doing that."
• "The most critical issue is why does it have to fall to a group of young bright kids to identify this? Why isn't it being done already?"
  -Joel MaHarry, Creative Director at MaHarry & Co.
  

In addition, we have heard from a number of individual faculty members that they fully support the concept.

Who is eligible?

• 18-21 year old undergraduate students
• Full-time or part-time students
• Can be from local college or live locally/attend elsewhere. If a student attending another school can't find a team, we will help place them on a team.

Cool! Very Cool! But when is all this going to happen?

That is yet to be determined. We need to work with all of the schools and various local agencies and judges to make sure all of our ducks are in a row.

What Can I do now?

Students - e-mail us and let us know you are interested. If you know of a professor or administrator we should contact, tell us who that is and how to contact them.

Potential Sponsors - Well, we would love to hear from you. We have many creative ways to reward the winners. Would you like one of the winners as an intern? An employee? Let us know!

Faculty or Administrators - Let us know you support the concept. We would love for you to include this in your syllabus or offer extra credit for it.

Interested Citizens - We would love your help! Join our team!

We are doing this as a way to get involved in our community and try to make a difference.