A team of marketing students from the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business finished second at the 2025 Scotiabank National Marketing Case Competition.

“The team made us very proud,” said Fanshawe marketing professor Liz Gray. “Their solution to a very complex business-to-business case in the finals was pragmatic, intelligent, well thought out and very articulate.”

Fanshawe’s team included students Elise Carlson, Josh Milliard, Zack Lariviere and Jaedyn Laanstra, as well as faculty coaches Stacy Swartz and Liz Gray.

“We worked as one, I think, as you practice, you determine the strengths of each person and what they’re better at and so we kind of go into our own roles,” team member Lariviere said. “For example, I was typically the member of our team that was doing the financials and the [return on investment] aspects, while a different member would do more of the tactics to which we would use to market our solution and strategy.”

The experience of the competition was exhilarating, according to Lariviere.

“I’m very appreciative and grateful that I got to represent Fanshawe College at this national marketing company competition. The team has such good chemistry and I think that truly does make all the difference, especially when competing at that level,” Lariviere said. “You could sense the tension in the air while you’re there but everybody is super friendly, and super social.”

Fanshawe’s silver medal win was well deserved, according to Lariviere.

“We came out of the final presentation and by far that was our best presentation as a team that we’ve ever done,” Lariviere continued. “Winning second place was truly a huge milestone for us. Obviously, we wanted to do our best and come out with the gold medal. However, the silver medal was truly very deserving. It was super nice to see all of our hard work come together.”

The team has been practicing for the competition since the beginning of the winter semester.

“We did a whole bunch of case preps leading up to the marketing competition,” Lariviere explained. “We did about one case per week in January, and two cases a week in February.”

The competing teams had three hours to look over a marketing problem and then form, as well as present, their solutions to a panel of expert judges at Vanier College in Montreal, QC.

“After analyzing the business case, we would just discuss what the case entails, what’s currently going on, the overarching problem with the business and then from there, we would identify the problem. We would come up with objectives to then meet the problem. As well as three different alternatives that we would recommend and then ultimately, we would recommend one final solution,” Lariviere explained.

Twenty-four teams from colleges across Canada competed, with Seneca College taking home the gold medal and St. Clair College taking home bronze. 2,000 students from 50 Canadian Colleges have participated in the competition in the last 20 years.