Real world, road rides

Real-life experience: It's something that Gonzaga University classes stress, but how many actually deliver? Marketing's 490 Promotional Project class has for close to 15 years now, and this year the 15 students have teamed up with Diamondback Bicycle Company to put on a promotional event on campus called the Diamondback Challenge.

The students in the class are broken up into five teams: Public relations, marketing research, communications, advertising, and promotions. The event will be held April 10 at 11 a.m., and features three-person teams of students that bike around campus in a relay race. The entry fee is $5.

"It's a huge promotional event and our goal is to increase sales and awareness for Diamondback," senior Kathleen Carter said.

The promotional team has also teamed up with the bike company to give away two brand new mountain bikes worth $500. All participants will receive free pizza, and a neon yellow t-shirt. Bike Hub will host a booth at the event giving out free bike tune-ups. Also, there will be mini-games in front of Crosby to entertain the students that aren't competing at the time.

As the students gain valuable real-world experience, the company is excited about receiving low-cost marketing in an area that values exercise­ — Gonzaga students are ranked as one of the top 25 fittest colleges in the nation, according to Men's Fitness Magazine.

"We are stoked about this event because it shows how dedicated and passionate we are about fitness and working with Diamondback," Project Coordinator of The Diamondback Experience, Scott Ptolemy, said in a press release. "Giving Gonzaga students the opportunity to develop and implement their own promotional event for a local client while having fun is one way Gonzaga prepares students for the real world."

But gaining such important experience isn't easy. Students have to apply to be in the class and Associate Business Professor Peggy Sue Loroz understands that it takes a certain fire for marketing to pull it off while still taking a full course load.

"The class involves a big commitment," she said. "I need students who don't just want to fulfill the requirement for graduation. I need students who want to do the best possible job for their client. Students apply so I can get the cream of the crop. Students who are willing to commit the time and energy to get the job done is who I want, I don't want just anybody."

Loroz has been running this program since 1995, and has dealt with companies such as Honda, Thomas Hammer, and Cannon. She believes that the students do a good job every year, but it has been hard to measure since General Motors terminated the national competition they held during the '90s.

To counter the lack of feedback the students get from an unbiased source, the marketing research team is conducting a post-event survey.

"We have clients across the board who give very positive reviews of the students," Loroz said. "They appreciate what the students can do with a limited budget."

The group gets $1500 from Diamondback to promote and put on the event.

But, more than anything, students in the class are appreciating the fact that they can get experience before being thrust into an entry-level job, where they are likely to lose grasp of some of the education they received at school.

"You have an actual budget, and are working with a real client, that's the best experience you can get while you're still in school," Carter said. "I could write media kits as long as I wanted, but without working with a real client, it doesn't mean anything."