Sydney, 21 November 2024: NielsenIQ Australia (NIQ), the world’s leading consumer intelligence company, is pleased to announce the winners of a case challenge co-developed with Macquarie Business School (MQBS) and sponsored by NIQ. Students from Macquarie University’s B2B Marketing unit demonstrated excellence and innovative thinking throughout the competition.
The ’Future of Market Research’ case challenge was designed to encourage students to think creatively and develop innovative ideas for new products and platforms that market research companies should pursue in the future.
The competition, which took place over several weeks, saw students from MQBS presenting high-quality submissions that showcased their strategic thinking.
A team comprising Alexis Petitcuenot, Amisha Piplani, Ishan Bakshi, and Sneha Agarwal emerged as the Case Challenge Champions after a rigorous evaluation process. Their innovative pitch impressed judges with a multi-sided platform centred on consumer health informatics.
The platform would create value for consumers by offering personalized health coaching in exchange for sharing their data. Businesses would then develop curated product and service innovations based on AI-driven insights derived from this data.
Alex Mironov, Sales Director at NIQ, provided the case brief, which included industry insights and typical challenges faced by market research companies. Mironov also helped mentor the students throughout the competition alongside lecturer and unit coordinator Dr Manjunath Padigar.
“The success of this case challenge highlights the exceptional talent and dedication of MQBS students,” Mironov said.
“It also underscores the value of industry collaboration in providing students with real-world experience and insights. Congratulations to the champions and all participants for their outstanding efforts!”
As part of the competition, the winning team received a co-branded Certificate of Achievement from MQBS and NIQ, along with a price reward for each member of the team.
Alexis Petitcuenot, from the winning team, said the class had been one of his favorites during his business school journey.
“Studying directly from Alex, Sales Director of a major marketing research company like NielsenIQ, has offered us the best of both worlds,” he said. “The competition between groups and classes pushed us to invest even more energy and creativity into our assignment and strengthened our team spirit!”
The runner-up team, consisting of Ami Nguyen, Anh Nguyen, Maycee Sugarol, Mia Luong, and Sab Macaraeg, also delivered an impressive pitch. They focused on synthetic data as a game-changing idea for the fashion retail industry, addressing the challenge of creating more purposeful initiatives with limited data.
“The B2B Case Challenge was both a rewarding and challenging experience for our group. It pushed us beyond our usual coursework, offering insights into real-world business scenarios, teamwork, and problem-solving under pressure,” a team spokesperson said.
“The support from Alex and Dr. Manjunath was crucial; they provided detailed answers to our questions and guided us whenever we felt lost. Although we did not win the case, we really enjoyed the process and the result that we got!”
About NIQ
NielsenIQ (NIQ) is the world’s leading consumer intelligence company, delivering the most complete understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to growth. NIQ combined with GfK in 2023, bringing together the two industry leaders with unparalleled global reach. Today NIQ has operations in more than 95 countries covering 97% of GDP. With a holistic retail read and the most comprehensive consumer insights—delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms—NIQ delivers the Full View™.