On Nov. 6, the Warsaw Sports Business Club made its second appearance at the annual Sports Marketing Association Conference in Saint Louis, Mo., where they took first place.
The team, comprised of Saachi Poddar, Archie Roden, Jack Button and Owen Huyler, beat 19 competitive teams from universities across the United States.
After missing out on the finals the previous year, senior Saachi Poddar reflected on the team’s challenges.
“Last year was the first time we competed, and we were just trying to figure out how to navigate a case competition. This year, I knew we had to build a super strong team,” Poddar said.
This year, the competition centered around the pickle company, Sucker Punch Pickles, which tasked participants to expand the company into the college football and sports landscape. Preparation for the competition began five days before the event when the team received the case brief.
“Every morning we’d come in at 9 a.m. and work for five, six hours, doing all the due diligence,” Poddar said. “We knew the case in and out, and our preparation really came through when the judges started questioning us.”
The participating teams pitched their idea to a panel of professionals. Rodin recalled feeling “very nervous,” however, he “learned how to channel those nerves into poise and deliver a really good presentation at the end of it.”
Oregon’s competitors took a unique approach, using their extensive background knowledge and personal experience to effectively target 18 to 25-year-olds.
“Our concept leaned into how fun their product is. We even had a pickle mascot named ‘Big Deal,’ a pickle truck called ‘Bigger Deal,’ and a blimp called ‘Biggest Deal.’ It was the weirdest case ever but gave us room for an insane pitch.” Poddar said.
For Poddar, first place was also a personal win.
“I made a deal with a guy from the pickle company that if we won, he’d give us custom boxing gloves they made as swag… at the awards, they said that we had won, and they gave us the gloves,” she said.
The team not only won first place but overcame the challenge of being perceived as outsiders.
“We joked that we were the villains of this competition, coming from a bigger program,” Poddar said.
UO competitors took on this reputation, using it to inspire their stand-out performance.
“We kind of channeled that energy into that we deserve to be here, and it wasn’t like an imposter situation for us like we deserve to be here and we deserve to learn,” said Roden.
