Third-year business-marketing students from Fanshawe College's Lawrence Kinlin School of Business Administration and Marketing developed winning strategies for Boomerang Recycled Paint in a class-wide contest.

Out of 100 students and 20 projects, Marja Debrouwer, Anuradha Singh, Pablo Tovar, Ankur Malhota and Shobhit Dixit created an extensive report of recommendations for the sustainable paint business. The group looked at various trade shows, business-tobusiness advertising, social media plans and strategic partnerships for Boomerang, which is based out of Quebec.

Boomerang Recycled Paint collects unused, unwanted and discarded paints of any brand and transforms them into high-quality paint made up of 99 per cent postconsumer paints from recycled contents. Their focus on sustainability is what attracted the faculty and students to the business and ended in the creation of the contest.

The company is looking to increase brand and product awareness, and the students were tasked with brainstorming ideas and plans. The student group had some "very long nights," said Singh. They divided up the project among themselves, and after frequent check-ins with each other, came up with the winning report. One of their main strategies was the social media plan, an aspect they found lacking when they visited Boomerang's site.

Most of the group felt they had done their best, but had not expected to win, said Malhorta. However, Tovar joked that he was definitely open in his desire to be the top team.

Steve Blasiak, business development manager for Boomerang, was impressed by the students' efforts. "They had great ideas and gave a fresh perspective. I didn't realize how powerful (social media) was." He added that he was also impressed by how the proposed budget in the report was so realistic.

The contest was a part of the program's course work, explained Mary Pierce, chair of the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business Administration and Marketing. It serves as further practice for developing comprehensive marketing plans, as the students would do over 150 of those projects each year, she said.

The winning group received a $500 award from Boomerang Recycled Paint.