STUKENT + DECA

Social Media Marketing Challenge Guidelines

October 15 - December 1, 2025

The Stukent Social Media Marketing Challenge provides participants the opportunity to compete in the world’s first social media marketing simulation used by top institutions around the world. Participants will test their social media marketing skills by managing a weekly budget in simulated ad dollars for a simulated, global bag company. The strategy will include marketing on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Both advisors and their students must register.

Complete Advisor Registration

Challenge Guidelines

  • Each participant must be a registered DECA member in a high school chapter at the time of registration.
  • Both advisors and their students must register.
  • After DECA advisors complete their registration, they will be directed to a web page with instructions on how students can register.
  • Students must register with their school email address.
  • After students complete their registration, they will be directed to a web page with instructions on how to join the challenge.
  • DECA membership will be verified for all winners. Incomplete submissions or students without active DECA membership will be disqualified.
  • Students must complete all rounds of the simulation to remain eligible.
  • Cheating in any form will result in disqualification. This includes, but is not limited to:
    • Using more than one account
    • Submitting plagiarized work
    • Collaborating with others (including group work under one account)
    • Posting identical or near-identical content repeatedly
  • Students may not redo rounds. Rounds may only be reset if the student can demonstrate that a technical issue occurred during the round.
Download Guidelines PDF

Awards

The top 3 qualified individuals with the highest scores in the Simternship will be recognized by Stukent and DECA and receive the following monetary awards:

  • 1st Place: $1,500 cash prize
  • 2nd Place: $1,000 cash prize
  • 3rd Place: $500 cash prize

Timeline

The Stukent Social Media Marketing Challenge will begin Wednesday, October 15, 2025 and end Monday, December 1, 2025. Participants may register anytime during these dates, but must finish their simulation rounds no later than December 1, 2025, at 12:00 AM Mountain Time.

Knowledge and Skills

Upon completion of the challenge, students will be able to:

  • Write targeted social media ads
  • Perform demographic targeting
  • Learn social media content promotion strategies
  • Measure key performance indicators
  • Budget ads
  • Schedule Content

Participants Will:

  • Learn and test different promotional strategies to create compelling social media ads across various social media network platforms 
  • Gain experience writing ad copy that increases engagement and conversions 
  • Analyze which types of content on which social platforms resonate best amongst different demographics 
  • Learn the difference between earned, owned, and paid social media marketing promotion strategies 
  • Analyze various forms of media and different strategies to achieve the greatest reach 
  • Measure and improve marketing efforts by analyzing the performance of key indicators 
  • Manage a weekly social media marketing budget, while placing competitive bids to drive clicks, shares, likes, comments, etc. 
  • Schedule their marketing content to post and go live at optimal times
Complete Advisor Registration

For any questions or concerns regarding the challenge, please contact Abe Larsen at abe.larsen@stukent.com. 

Office Closure | Winter Break

Please note that our offices will be closed for a Winter Break Wednesday December 24, 2025 through Thursday January 1, 2026.  

During the break Stukent Support will be monitoring incoming emails for urgent requests.  We will resume normal business hours and respond to all emails and voicemails in the order received  beginning Friday, January 2, 2026, at 6:00 AM MT. 

Office Closure | Thanksgiving

Please note that our offices will be closed on Thursday, November 27th, and Friday, November 28th, in observance of Thanksgiving Day.

We will resume normal business hours beginning Saturday November 30th, at 10:00 AM MT.

Office Closure | Labor Day

Please note that our offices will be closed on Monday September 1, 2025  in observance of Labor Day.

We will resume normal business hours and respond to all emails and voicemails beginning Tuesday, September 2nd, at 6:00 AM MT.