IT Tralee’s Business students have won a national award for the best marketing campaign in the Smarter Travel Campus Awards organised by the National Transport Authority.

The winning group of students; Laura Moloney, Lisa Preus, Helena Bijl and Zoë Lieux developed a marketing campaign to promote cycling as a sustainable mode of travelling to and from work and college.

The Smarter Travel Campus Awards invited students from Irish third level colleges and universities to create entries relevant to their course discipline to promote the use of more sustainable modes of transport such as walking, cycling, public transport and carpooling.

A total of 5 student teams from IT Tralee were shortlisted for the Marketing/Digital Marketing award category, competing with students from colleges and universities throughout Ireland. The Bachelor of Business in Marketing and Erasmus students worked in small teams under the guidance of their lecturer, Sheila O’Mahony, to create marketing campaigns for submission to the competition.

The 5 student teams from IT Tralee who were shortlisted for the award were:

• Laura Moloney, Lisa Preus, Helena Bijl and Zoë Lieux
• Alice Ryan, Lorna Moriarty and Shauna O'Donoghue
• Bronagh McCarthy and Meryem Bougattaya
• Maxime Bedouain and Lucas Suichninski
• Ryan Bustard, Zoë Lieux and Emily Esther Garcia

Commenting on the win, marketing lecturer Sheila O’Mahony said “All 5 student teams from IT Tralee should be very proud of their achievements in the competition and it’s great to see their marketing talent being recognised at a national level. The competition gives students the opportunity to apply their learning to a real-life project and highlights how we can all reduce our carbon footprint through our choice of transport when travelling to and from college and work.”

Head of School of Business, Computing & Humanities Mary Rose Stafford said “I’d like to congratulate the winning team as well as the other four teams who were shortlisted for the award. It is testament to the quality of teaching provided at IT Tralee – soon to be Munster Technological University – that we had such a strong showing at these awards. A hands-on approach as well as the use of industry-based projects within our business programme prepares students specialising in marketing, management or accounting to enter the workplace immediately upon graduation.”

The Smarter Travel Campus Awards are organised by the Smarter Travel Campus programme of the National Transport Authority. The competition entries were judged by a panel of external expert judges and the award ceremony took place virtually on Thursday, 15th October with RTE 2FM DJ Tara Stewart as MC. This was the sixth year of the awards and is open to third level institutions in Ireland who are partners of the Smarter Travel Campus programme.