In the climax of the Times Online and BT Business Apprentice Challenge two students went head to head to demonstrate their entrepreneurial skills and win a laptop.

Nick Adie and Zoe Andrews spent last week in London devising a campaign to increase the online presence of healthy food delivery company, The Pure Package.

At the end of the week of intense research and brainstorming, they pitched their ideas to the company’s founder, Jennifer Irvine who had the difficult choice of choosing a winner.

In the end, Irvine awarded first prize to Nick Adie a Business and Marketing Management student from Oxford Brookes University. Nick is currently on a sandwich year working in the marketing department of car manufacturer, Renault.

According to Irvine, it was his initiative in going out to meet online PR agencies and other potential marketing partners for The Pure Package that won him the the laptop and free broadband for the rest of his degree.

“Nick explored lots of different areas in quite serious depth. I was very impressed,”

“But Zoe did very well, especially for someone who doesn’t have as much experience,” she said.

Irvine is planning to start implementing the winning campaign almost immediately.

“We are going to put it into play and act on pretty much all the information that has been suggested,” she said.

Irvine started the home delivery company from her home kitchen in 2003. She employs chefs and nutritionists who create an entire daily menu of healthy food designed to help customers wanting to lose weight or control allergies, all delivered to their front door.

The company caters to a luxury market and Irvine was keen for the students to understand the people they were aiming their campaigns at.

“A very important part of the brief was for them to go out and absorb some of the culture of these people…because they are students and most of our clients earn over £100,000 a year,” Irvine explained.

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