Creativity meets competition as students tackle a real-world marketing challenge

The Brief

Early on a sunny morning, business professionals from far and wide piled into a large conference room and took their places around a grandiose 16-seat mahogany table in Parks Hall. These are the judges — and they are all alumni of Western’s Marketing Program. Laughter and introductions fill the room as a new kind of cohort forms. These judges span thousands of miles and decades of experience, and soon they will put their minds together to observe and rule upon the 2026 Student Marketing Association (SMA) Case Competition.

Hanging in large wooden frames around the room are old, printing-press-era editorial cartoons, designed to showcase the spirit of the industry itself. Monarchs and business magnates sit on piles of gold, holding swords and shields inscribed with words like “statesmanship,” “spoils,” and “monopoly.” At their feet, minuscule suits scramble about, carrying letters and pamphlets inked with “plunder,” “gambling,” and “fraud.” One cartoon features a certain magnate trapped between two concrete pillars: one representing the free press, the other of the free market. Outside the conference room, current stock ratings stream endlessly across an LED information board along the walls of the hall.

Business, like any sector, functions on a set of constraints, operating around various formulas, designed to predict and influence outcomes. But unlike any other sector, the constraints in the business world are uniquely human. Demand, market share, investor confidence; All of these numbers are made up of the behaviors and actions of the billions of people who work, live, eat, and play in our lives. They are the consumers. So, in the business world, when the ground shifts, it is not as much due to material changes such as a new scientific discovery, a change in weather patterns, or a new government proposal, but rather how the thoughts and actions of the population decide to react. This means that even with all the predictions, mathematical plotting, and prior research one can create, the world of business will always be a volatile one. The cartoons on the walls don’t lie: The titans of business and industry are among the craftiest, sharpest, and in many ways, most human of us all. In order to make it in this year’s 2026 SMA Case Competition, the students will need to be just that. 

The Case

Let’s face it, America runs on fast food. On a given day, 33% of American adults consume some type of fast food, amounting to 12% of all calories consumed daily. We Washingtonians tend to eat less fast food than the national average, but we are used to our local staples like Taco Time and Mod Pizza. But there is another competitor that few have heard of in these parts: Checker’s and Rally’s. Originally two individual restaurants, Checker’s (from the South, yet prevalent across the East Coast) purchased Rally’s (from the Midwest) in 1996, merging the companies and creating a true American classic. Known primarily for their crunchy fries, Checker’s and Rally’s has 700 locations across the United States — most of them being kiosk and drive-thru style diners with no physical seating present.

While Checker’s and Rally’s has been a success since its conception, it has always been known for its fries and beef burgers, with chicken being primarily offered as a side. In 2020, as beef prices surged and chicken prices remained slim, Checker’s and Rally’s launched the Mother Cruncher, a new chicken sandwich that they intended as an entree of its own. Additionally, the brand ramped up its digital marketing during this time, looking to appeal to younger audiences. 

The competitors in the SMA Case Competition are tasked with managing this transition in branding and ensuring that the Mother Cruncher proves to be a smash hit.  

Justin Casper, a WWU alumnus who works at New Engen and wrote this year’s case, said he is focusing on financials in his grading criteria.

“I’m really looking to make sure that they have plans of measurement, that they’re using all of the budget, and that they are hitting the chicken messaging,” Casper said.

The competitors are given sample metrics for previous quarters' success in the market, stock product prices, and a budget for their marketing. Through a process of market research, revenue analysis, sponsorships, and community outreach, they must ensure that their customers get the message — chicken is back on the block. 

The Stakes

Our competitors come from a great many majors within the College of Business and Economics. While the bulk of them come from a marketing track, others come from majors like accounting, economics, and business management. Some are even public relations or psychology majors, bringing unique skills to a unique problem. The competitors have prepared a wide array of strategies and schemes to present to the judges, who will grade them on their overall strategy as well as their ability to adapt to current revenue numbers and make the best use of their individual budgets. They have 20 minutes to present and 10 minutes to hold a question-and-answer panel with the judges.

The competitors present four at a time, in four different rooms, with four unique sets of judges throughout Parks Hall. Some of the students know their judges — former professors, mentors, graduate students and alumni. But some of the judges are unfamiliar faces, leaving the competitors to present as if in a real-world situation, with curious and concerned investors alike. 

After three rounds of presentations per room, the judges will select four finalists, who will present again to the complete, rejoined panel of judges once more. In the end, a winner, a runner-up, and a people’s choice award will be selected as victors of the day.

“It’s hard on them. They are taking time out of their busy schedules to compete here,” says Dan Purdy, a senior Marketing instructor in CBE, who has played a primary role in the organization of the event. “We’ve already had a group drop out. Those of them that have stayed, they really want it.”

At Purdy's makeshift desk in the conference room lies a program schedule and golden trophy belt, inscribed with a large “W” for Western Washington University — or for “winner,” but that’s up to the victor to decide. He flashes the belt over his head for all the judges to see, revealing it only to the competitors after their first round of presentations. 

The Presentations

In the first round, three competitors stood out from the get-go. Hazel Seagrave, Mae Bray, and Maité De La Cruz came out strong with a large number of sample strategies. Digitally distributed coupons and ‘meal deals’ stood out as a creative way of using affordability to make the Mother Cruncher more popular.

“We’re working on different integrated social media campaigns and doing budget breakdowns to see how it would actually affect their sales,” said De La Cruz. “We’re all creative marketing people, so we really struggled with the financials. We understand them a little bit more now; we tried to do as much research as we possibly could.”

In the second round, in a small, upstairs lecture hall came Buzz Westhusing, Josef Bedas, and Sammy Reid. They come from business management backgrounds, with Sammy focusing on marketing and Buzz pursuing a minor in international business. Their presentation focused on filming Checker’s and Rally’s advertisements at major events as Coachella, the Indy 500 and the Dallas Pride Parade. While their idea was a major hit with the judges, Westhusing says they could have done a better job of syncing up their ads with their target demographic.

“We could have worked on the attachment to the target demographic we were pursuing. The value sets were not quite an exact replica of the geographic locations of where Checker’s and Rally’s is,” Westhusing said. Still, the group put on a star show, which was reflected in the judges’ comments afterwards, as well as the spirited Q&A that took place after the presentation.

“I’ve had her as a professor before. I was like, ‘lay it on me,’” Westhusing said with a smile about one of the judges who graded the group.

In the third round came a fiery group with bold graphics and a unique story to tell. What happens if Fries breaks up with Burger and runs off with Chicken? Isabelle Cherry, Georgia Willis and Jimmy Bui presented cartoon drawings and quote readings that filled the judges with laughter and applause. Ads containing mukbang videos and a young target demographic kept their words lively and their presentation effortless.

“They really grabbed our attention,” said Glory Burford, who works on the influencer marketing team at New Engen, and is also a WWU marketing alum who has competed in the competition before. “They really had an entertaining factor to their presentation by starting off with a story, and that story stayed as a really strong through line throughout.”

The Finalists

After the first three rounds of general presentations came an hour-long break for networking and lunch, where judges, students and professors met and chatted about their careers and about the day’s events. It was during this lunch that Purdy revealed the championship trophy to the competitors, holding it over his head triumphantly to a thunderous round of applause. At 3:55 p.m., he made no haste in announcing the finalists.

Moving onto the next round was the group of Seagrave, Bray, and De La Cruz, the group of Cherry, Willis and Bui, and two other groups: one with Alyssa Henshaw, Ellie Winkley, and Lana McLaughlin, and a final group containing Brandon Herrera, Alyssa Lai, and Christine Mango. 

While the applause roared after each announcement, there was little time to spare. At 4:01 p.m., the finalists were off to gear up for their final turn in front of the judges — this time with the whole panel grading them. While the groups had time to discuss what they said during their presentations, no slides or material of any kind could be changed before they went on stage one last time. The presentations took place in a similar order to the morning, with Seagrave, Bray, and De La Cruz presenting first, followed by Cherry, Willis and Bui.

After these two presentations came Herrera, Lai, and Mango — all three of them marketing majors, with their presentation reflecting their focus. Arguably packing in the most slides of the day, the group fired off their ideas in rapid succession, with video game streamers as their core influencers to carry their product. The group was all personally impacted by streamer marketing at some point in their career, and Mango herself had previous experience streaming, making a few bucks off of Valorant in her day.

“It’s such a recent blowup that streamers are having with these crazy cultural moments,” said Lai. “The data agreed with us, and we wanted to capitalize on that.”

In the fourth and final group came an undoubtedly crafty crew, that of Henshaw, Winkley, and McLaughlin. All marketing majors with unique minors: business analytics, communications, and finance. Immediately, the judges could tell that this was a group who understood their branding. Checker’s and Rally’s red and white colors are indistinguishable in their patterned form, and so the group made a mascot to match.  

“We call her Chick.” Holding a tray with fries, a chicken sandwich, and a soda was a cartoon graphic of a woman in a red and white polka-dotted dress, a bit resembling a Sonic server on their skates. The group even took it one step further, dressing in red and blue polka-dotted dresses to match Chick and the Checker’s and Rally’s theme.

“We were able to work with an independent artist to develop our mascot,” said Winkley. “Elise Ødegaard, shoutout. She made the beautiful artwork for us that we were able to tweak and design.” The group's energy and vibrant aesthetics made it easy for the judges and audience to stay engaged even late in the evening, and their data analysis work was strong enough to match their style. 

The Winner’s Circle

It was around 7 p.m. when the final presentation wrapped up. Anxious competitors waited in the lunchroom, picking over the last of the carrots and olives, discussing their potential fates. When the judges entered at long last, the announcements came quickly.

For the people’s choice award, it was Henshaw, Winkley, and McLaughlin, and of course, Chick, who took home the prize. Their style and confidence had guided them to a clear path to win over the audience. 

The runner-up position went to Cherry, Willis and Bui for their professionalism and ability to answer difficult questions under pressure — and their meticulously organized budget breakdown certainly didn’t hurt them either. 

And finally, the grand prize went to Seagrave, Bray, and De La Cruz for their creativity and in-house marketing strategy that sought to draw customers in with prices and deals, spending less on advertisements and outreach than other groups.

Before the night was over, of course, there was a recognition for the volunteers. Students who gave their time to handle everything from presentation scheduling, food services, reporting, and assisting judges, and who will all be looking to compete in future years. Without these student volunteers and without the community that makes them feel welcome, an event such as this one could never run.

As the prizes were handed out and the trophy belt was awarded, hugs and cheers echoed throughout the evening as the sun set on Parks Hall. It was a competition for the books, with every single competitor receiving high marks from the judges. As Purdy said before the show began, sometimes showing up is half the battle. It’s safe to say that all of these competitors certainly showed up and put their strongest effort in, and they are leaving with the experience to match. 

Learn more about the Marketing Program in the College of Business and Economics and Journalism Department in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Benjamin Cook is doing a one-year post-baccalaureate in Visual Journalism at Western Washington University. He has over a decade of experience as a professional photographer, covering everything from outdoor sports to political rallies. For five years he worked in digital marketing, combining his creative writing skills and photographic eye to share cultural stories about brands and their legacies. He has lived in many corners of the United States and holds a bachelor's degree in creative media production from the University of Colorado, Boulder.