SMA Case Competition 2026
The Western Washington SMA Case Competition is an immersive, hands-on experience where marketing students work in teams of three to solve a real-world business case. Teams will analyze a case, which reveals a company’s marketing challenge. After which they will conduct research, and develop strategic, actionable solutions. The competition emphasizes critical thinking, collaboration, and professional presentation skills as students pitch their ideas to a panel of industry judges. Participants will receive the case one week prior to the competition, allowing them to prepare their analysis and strategy in advance. This event is happening on February 20, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. in Parks Hall, Lunch and snacks will be provided. For more information please see @SMA_wwu on Instagram
"There are some things a textbook simply can’t capture—like the rush of a live pitch or learning to think on your feet when you're put on the spot. Many of my international colleagues didn’t have access to these kinds of hands-on opportunities, so getting these skills down early gave me a huge head start. Today, the ability to command a room and pitch to leadership is a skill I use daily, and events like this case competition are the perfect place to have fun, mess up, and just get a little bit better each time."
Shannon Gnagey (WWU Alumni)Senior User Experience Researcher at Google
Benefits of the Case Competition
The Marketing Case Competition fosters meaningful collaboration among students while building confidence, leadership, and teamwork skills. Beyond competition, the event offers valuable opportunities to network with industry judges, practice real-world problem-solving, and apply marketing concepts in a high-pressure, collaborative environment. The Marketing Case Competition is an excellent way for students to build hands-on experience, expand their professional network, and strengthen their confidence as they prepare for life after college.
Through the competition, students develop essential career-ready skills, including:
As a marketing professional it is your job to communicate the brands image and message to their target market. By having good communication skills you can ensure to communicate the value of the brand whether that be through writing and social media or through client meetings and presentations.
The benefit to working in teams is the vast difference in backgrounds and experiences everyone brings to the table. Be learning how to collaborate effectively teams can more efficiently generate strategic and creative solutions. Being a team player is a paramount skill when it comes to working with large groups of people in corporations and small businesses alike.
Marketing is an ever growing and changing field, as things change we have to adapt and change with them. This means being able to think on your feet and learn as you go.
Someone's public speaking has the ability to change peoples perspectives and impressions a lot. Good public speaking can help establish creditability and can be an effective way of sharing ideas to others. By having good communications skills and being able to connect with people while still being knowledgeable in the topic you can make a lot of impact.
What Competitors Say
“Participating in the Case Comp was such a great experience. I’ve never done anything like it before, so it was a really great challenge for me and I gained so much confidence and experience. The networking was also a plus, and it was so great to meet alumni and other professionals!!”
“After presenting our pitch we were able to receive great input that highlighted our creative ideas and allowed us to get new perspectives seeing areas of weakness that we can work on in the future. In the end, I was very proud of myself and my team, managing to balance having enough quality time for this case while also doing school full time. I could not have done it with out them!”
Competition Schedule
Students will sign up in teams of 3 people, only ope person has to fill out the sign up form.
Sign up opens up on January 21st 2026. SMA students get first priority in the sign up process. Later access will be given to other marketing students, and the registration will be open until all event seats are filled.
This meeting will happen February 11th, 2026, 6:30-7:30pm (during regular SMA hours). At least one team member is required to attend this meeting.
The case will be out to all participants by February 13th 2026.
The case competition will happen February 20th 2026, from 9am-7pm in Parks Hall. Snacks and food will be provided for competitors.
Competition Details
The criteria being judged will be the following:
- Quality of Presentation: How well the team present
- Quality of Ideas: How well the team addresses the problem in the case
- Performance During Q & A: How well does the team answer questions and how knowledgeable they are about the topic.
There will be four heats for this event. The top team will be chosen from each heat, then they will present a second time to all 22 judges and winners will be chosen!
The prizes for the top four teams are:
- First place: $ 1,200 (split between the three members)
- First runner up: $ 750 (split between the three members)
- Second runner up: $ 450 (split between the three members)
- People's choice award: $ 150 (split between the three members)
ALL subject to change
