Top Young Marketers Win at 32nd Agora Youth Awards

The country’s top young marketers were honored at the 32nd Agora Youth Awards, with Mark Cruz of San Beda University named the Best Marketing Student of the Year.

Launched in 1991 by the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA), the Agora Youth Awards is an annual competition recognizing excellence in academic performance, extracurricular achievements, and marketing plan creation. The latest iteration, organized with the Philippine Junior Marketing Association (PJMA), was recently held at The Westin Manila, Ortigas, Pasig City. The awards include categories for individual students and Junior Marketing Associations (JMA), or school-based marketing organizations.

This year, students were challenged to integrate sustainability and artificial intelligence (AI) into their marketing plans. Individual contestants localized marketing strategies for existing international products, highlighting the values that are important to Philippine culture, while school-based organizations for the JMA category developed marketing plans to help SMEs scale globally in terms of marketing.

Mark Enriquez Cruz from San Beda University was named class valedictorian and Best Marketing Student of the Year. The other students who ranked in the top ten for the individual category were Prince Olie Cacho from Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Mike Ivan Siga from Mindanao State University, Kristalyn Agustin from Central Luzon State University, Franco Gabriele Delatina from Our Lady of Fatima University, Kaye Liwag from Batangas State University, Raymart Mariano Jr. and Maica Stephamae Orenda from Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Rayan Camid from Xavier University, and Xyrill Baltazar from National University Fairview.

In the JMA category, Xavier University Junior Marketing Association won first place, followed by San Beda University and Silliman University.