Meet the top scoring marketers who helped fictional brand Moon skyrocket

From being identified in the Marketing Week Top 100 to gaining top grades on the Mini MBA in Brand Management, these marketers are at the top of their game.

An ability to stand out from the crowd is a key asset in the world of marketing – but measuring it can be a tall order.

However, those marketers who were recognised in the Marketing Week Top 100 last year were given just such an opportunity. Each was invited to take part in the Mini MBA in Brand Management run by professor of marketing, and Marketing Week contributor, Mark Ritson.

The invitation was open to both the Top 100 marketers and members of their teams, with more than 40 taking up places. The course sees its students through a dozen modules on everything from the concept of brands and the codes that make them work, to tactical execution and budgeting.

The course culminates with an exercise in simulation. This sees each student become the brand manager of Moon, a fictional – yet realistic – tech brand. Moon has an enigmatic founder, a history of innovation, a small group of loyal users, and several larger competitors.

The marketers were asked to identify and then navigate a number of major challenges for the brand to survive and thrive. Every decision they make is run through a simulator programme that calculates share price movements for Moon over five years. At the start of the exercise the company has a price of 100, with its final price becoming the student’s final grade for the course.

“What better test than how well someone can develop a strategy and then execute it successfully?” asks Ritson.

The highest-scoring students from the process have been shortlisted here, each of them achieving a substantial uplift in the share price of Moon – and some more than doubling it in the five-year test.

“These marketers are doubly impressive. First, they or their manager were recognised by Marketing Week in its annual ranking of the Top 100 most effective marketers. Second, they have gone on to prove themselves in an incredibly difficult simulation against hundreds of marketers from more than 20 countries and some of the world’s best run brands,” adds Ritson.

Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, L’Oréal. Final score: 147

Sandrine Stresser, Britvic Soft Drinks. Final score: 141

Holly Holt, Cancer Research UK. Final score: 172