Market Maven

About the Competition

Market Maven is the flagship annual marketing competition organized by MARCOM – The Marketing & Communications Cell of Delhi School of Economics.

This year, every team gets the same fictional brand and the same fictional crisis. There is no real brand and no textbook answer. Teams must read the situation, choose what to do, work within a budget, and defend their plan in front of judges.

Your challenge: Take the crisis, make the hard calls, and convince the judges that your plan is the right one.

There are three rounds: a quiz, a crisis response, and a live final. The winner is crowned the Market Maven. The other five finalists are called Mavens.

Competition Structure

Round 1: The Quiz

• A 30-minute online quiz of about 25 scenario-based questions.
• All teams take the quiz in the same time slot.
• Questions are shuffled. Negative marking applies to wrong answers.
• If two teams tie, the team that finishes faster ranks higher.
• The quiz is marked automatically.

Who moves on: the top 50 teams go to Round 2.

Round 2: The Crisis Response

Every team in Round 2 gets the same fictional brand and the same crisis. Teams have 4 days to read the situation, make choices and build a response within the limits given.

The Briefing

• Day 1: each team receives a crisis dossier with a one-page brand fact sheet, the crisis story, a data pack, people with different demands, a fixed crisis budget, one spokesperson, and a first public statement due within 24 hours of the crisis breaking, in the scenario.
• Day 2: the first twist (Inject A). Teams are told in advance when it will arrive.
• Day 4: submit a deck of no more than 5 slides. No video.

The 5-Slide Challenge

• Facts vs Claims: what is true, and what is only being claimed.
• Strategic Choices: three A-or-B decisions, with the reason for each.
• The First 24 Hours: the immediate plan, with the exact words of the first public statement.
• 30-Day Recovery Plan: a plan within budget, with the numbers and what the team will not
• Responding to Inject A: what changed, and what stays the same.

Submission: Upload your deck (PDF) on Unstop before the deadline.

Generic answers (a broad apology, a promise to be open, or an influencer campaign with no reasoning specific to the crisis) will score poorly.

Picking the final 6: the six highest-scoring Round 2 entries move to the final.

Round 3: The Live Final

The final 6 teams face the judges live. Each team gets a second twist (Inject B) that goes against something in its earlier plan.

• Announcement day, evening: the final 6 are announced. They get the final brief and Inject B.
• Two days later: each team submits its final deck. Judges read all six decks before the live session. Teams also upload a 5-minute recording of their pitch.
• Live session, the next day: all six teams present to the judges one after another. The order is decided by a draw of lots.

The Live Showdown

Each team gets a 15-minute slot:

• A 5-minute pitch.
• 8 to 10 minutes of live questions from the judges.
• A surprise "What if?" question about Inject B.

The 5-minute recording is a backup only. Judges do not watch it unless a team's connection fails during its slot.

Live session rules: the session runs on a video-call link shared with the finalists. All team members must attend with their cameras on and a stable internet connection. A team that does not join within 5 minutes of its slot is marked as a no-show.

Rules & Guidelines

• Team size: 1–3 members (college students only; cross-college and cross-year teams allowed). One person can join only one team. Teams may be asked for a valid college ID before any prize is paid.
• Fictional case: the brand, the crisis and every person in them are made up. They are not linked to any real brand.
• AI use: AI tools may be used for research and drafting. The work must be the team's own, and every team must be able to explain and defend it, including in the live round. Copied or generic output is marked down.
• Originality: no plagiarism and no copying from other teams. Copied work leads to disqualification.
• Deadlines: all teams must follow the exact dates and times shown on the Unstop page for each round. Late submissions lose 10% of their marks for each hour, for up to 2 hours. After that they are not accepted.
• Round 2: a maximum of 5 slides, no video. Teams must work within the budget and all other limits in the dossier. The exact words of the first public statement must be in the deck.
• Final: finalists must submit the final deck and the 5-minute recording on time, and be ready for live questions, including the surprise "What if?" question about Inject B.
• Language: submissions are in English.
• Do not share the dossier or your answers with other teams or outside the competition until the final results are announced.
• Participants agree that MARCOM may record the live final and share the recordings and winning entries on its official pages. Teams keep their ideas.
• Queries and appeals: contact the organizers through the Unstop event page. Appeals are accepted for 24 hours after results are announced.
• The decision of the MARCOM organizing committee and the judges will be final and binding.