Charles Sturt University (CSU) students have won an unprecedented 11^th annual national marketing communications competition.

After pitches and eliminations earlier in October, two teams – Kajulu Red and Kajulu Blue – from the CSU School of Communication and Creative Industries competed against each other and three teams from other universities at the finals of the 2016 International Advertising Association (IAA) 'Big Idea' Challenge in Sydney on Monday 31 October.

The IAA 'Big Idea' is the annual inter-university competition, and is open to all Australian tertiary institutions with marketing communications or 'marcoms' programs.

This is the seventh consecutive year that the two CSU Kajulu teams were selected as finalists by the panel of advertising industry experts and the 11^th year that CSU has won, with the Kajulu Red team (pictured) claiming the 2016 'National Champions' title.

Each year the IAA selects a different not-for-profit charity for all the student teams to develop integrated marketing communications campaigns for, and in 2016 the not-for-profit charity is United Way Australia. The brief for all teams was to help raise funds from high net worth individuals for the charity.

CSU advertising lecturer Ms Anne Llewellynn said, "I am enormously proud of the Kajulu Red team's achievement, and equally proud of the presentation by Kajulu Blue. To win again, and against such strong competition, is a huge achievement.

"The judging panel of high-profile and extremely experienced industry people congratulated the students on the absolute 'industry standard' of their presentation and the innovativeness and professionalism of their recommendations.

"Kajulu Red identified a real breakthrough insight that led to them coming up with the winning 'Big Idea', which was to ask National Rugby League players to donate their earnings from one game to United Way Australia.

"The students' work is very much a reflection of the University's practice-based learning model through our on-campus student marcoms agency, Kajulu Communications.

"My congratulations to Kajulu Red students Meg Green, Pascale Greenberg, Larissa Harris, Lachie Reid, Richie Robey and Adam Stacey, and also to Tara Guempel-Crothers, the graphic design student from Wagga Wagga, who was very much part of the winning entry."

The CSU Kajulu teams are comprised of students studying the Bachelor of Communication (Advertising), the Bachelor of Communication (Advertising) / Bachelor of Business (Marketing), the Bachelor of Communication (Public Relations), and the Bachelor of Creative Arts and Design (Graphic Design).