MSU’s AMA wins International Chapter of the Year

MSU’s chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) brought home top honors from the 2025 International Collegiate Conference (ICC) in New Orleans, clinching the coveted Chapter of the Year title and taking first place in both the Digital Marketing Competition and the Chapter T-Shirt Design Contest.

The AMA is an organizatoin for aspiring and current marketing professionals. The organization has a collegiate branch made up of university chapters all over the world, including MSU, according to its website. 

AMA MSU’s performance at the 2025 ICC marked a historic milestone. In addition to the two first-place finishes, AMA MSU earned multiple top-five finishes across various competitions, capping off a record-setting year that included over $50,000 in fundraising and a successful Regional Conference hosted on campus from Feb. 27 to March 1.

The ICC is an annual conference hosted by the AMA that includes three days of events to help students through competitions, career prep programming, networking opportunities and chapter activities, according to AMA’s website. This year’s conference was held in New Orleans. According to the President of AMA MSU Aleshia Dutton, 37 members attended.

“When we showed up to this ICC, we showed up big,” Dutton said. The collegiate branch of AMA is made up of approximately 320 chapters worldwide. By sending 37 members to the ICC, MSU boasted one of the largest student contingents at the conference, according to AMA MSU Faculty Advisor and associate professor of marketing Eric Van Steenburg.

Although this is AMA MSU’s first year winning the Chapter of the Year, it has been ranked in the top 10 chapters internationally for the last five years. “Each year we’ve been building,” Van Steenburg said. “This year’s success is a testament to all of the previous years’ hard work.” 

The Chapter of the Year award is determined by evaluating a chapter's outstanding leadership, membership, programming, finance and communications achievements over the academic year, according to the AMA website. 

To perform well in these metrics, AMA MSU fundraised over $50,000 this year, compared to last year’s $34,000. The chapter also introduced a Networking Dinner on Nov. 6, where students were matched up with professionals in their desired area of study. 

The AMA MSU’s Regional Conference in February also exceeded expectations, attracting 400 total attendees. “It was on a different level,” Van Steenburg said. “Every little bit, from the first meeting in September to the ICC — they maintained an unprecedented level of effort.” 

Although winning Chapter of the Year was the highlight for Dutton and Van Steenburg, the chapter also placed first in two other competitions. Radley Robertson, a senior and two-year AMA MSU member, designed the winning t-shirt for the ICC’s Chapter T-Shirt Design competition. 

“What made it stand out, I think, was that it was two colors — blue and gold — but it had a really strong focal point and it had a lot of humor. It was simple, bold and humorous,” Robertson said. 

Robertson, a graphic design major, explained that attending general AMA MSU meetings prepared him for the competition.

 “The $45 I invested to join AMA was the best $45 I've ever invested in anything,” he said. “It's really set me up for my future and my professional career.” 

The chapter also placed first in the Digital Marketing Competition, a new contest offered at this year’s ICC. “We went in basically completely blind, but there were a lot of great individuals who created a fantastic project,” Dutton said. “It was really cool to see how all that came together.” 

Besides the first place awards, the chapter received the following accolades at ICC: third place in the Intercollegiate Case Competition, third place in the Marketing Strategy Competition, third place in the EBSCO Scholar Award, fourth place in the Diversity Leadership Scholarship, top five finalist for the Undergraduate Research Competition and an honorable mention in the Perfect Pitch Competition. 

With MSU's chapter win this year, they are ineligible to win Chapter of the Year in 2026. 

“It’s just stunning,” Van Steenburg said as he reflected on MSU AMA’s ICC performance. “I am so proud of this year’s leadership team and what the chapter has accomplished over the last 10 years.”

To learn more about AMA MSU, go to https://www.amamontanastate.org/.