While half of their team was marching at the Kentucky Derby, two Franklin Regional High School students finished in first place at an Interscholastic Marketing Competition.

The April 30 competition at the University of Pittsburgh College of Business Administration was sponsored by the Cultural Communications Alliance.

The four-member team spent 25 hours together preparing for the event. But at the last minute, the Franklin Regional band was honored with an invitation to march in a parade two days before the Derby in Louisville, leaving the marketing team two members short.

Juniors Amanda Holcombe and Brianne Holland did what any successful marketing executives would have done. They put on their best business suits, prepared well, sold themselves and won the deal.

"Amanda and Brianne were polished, confident and exceptionally well prepared," said Debbie Wills, a teacher at Franklin Regional who is familiar with the students who competed. "Both girls are involved in theater arts. I've seen them perform so I knew they would do well. They have exceptional presentation skills."

"They are very poised girls. Just natural performers," said Bonnie Thomas, of Harrison City, a Spanish teacher at Franklin Regional. "Both of them participate in the dramatic activities here at school and are wonderful and enthusiastic speakers. Their presentation was just a joy to watch."

Brianne, 16, of Murrysville, said: "When I first agreed to do the Bayer competition, I didn't realize the amount of work that went into it. Our mission was to market multivitamins to South African women. We had to make every decision, down to the last detail, to sell our product.

"We had to pick what color to make the label, choose a South African song for our commercial and research the number of cholera outbreaks due to the bad water supply. Everything had to fit into a 10-minute time frame."

Amanda, 17, of Murrysville, said: "I feel it is important to learn about other cultures. Kids my age forget that and live too much in the now.

"We learned that South African women do not like to take pills. They find it difficult to disassociate pills from being sick.

"We didn't want these women to associate the vitamins with death, so we made ours bright and cheery."

Their teacher, Ms. Wills, said: "The charge to the team was to put together a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation to market One A Day women's vitamins in South Africa.

"To help sell their product, the team created a TV commercial, a radio ad, T-shirts, packaging for their product and a slogan: 'Share the Vitality.'

"Even though band members Laura Brennan and Ricky Bevington were unable to attend the presentation, it certainly was a group effort. All four team members worked together on the presentation and the visuals," she said.

The team created a 45-second TV commercial featuring Amanda, Laura and Brianne "sharing the vitality." Ricky edited the film.

"We used marketing strategies, such as encouraging Bayer to sponsor the 2010 World Cup and promoting a program similar to Bayer's 'Making Science Makes Sense' program," Brianne said.

"I think what I got most out of the competition is the value of teamwork. Without everyone's 100 percent dedication, we probably wouldn't have won."

The Cultural Communications Alliance is a business-to-education community outreach partnership. Its mission is to prepare future work forces to deal with an expanding global marketplace through programs that stimulate international business and promote the acquisition of world language skills and cultural understanding.

It was formed in 1998 as a result of a roundtable discussion among language teachers who belong to the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association and Bayer, Heinz and Sony.

The teachers wanted to find ways to better prepare students for the workplace, and out of the discussion came the Cultural Communications Alliance. They decided that one of the ways they could work together was in the annual marketing competition.

Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association is a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to the teaching and learning of languages and cultures from kindergarten through university levels. It provides support for professional development, education issues and teachers in Pennsylvania.

Marketing teams from eight high schools participated in the competition, which was judged by a panel of Bayer executives and professors from Pitt.

Two of the judges were citizens of South Africa. Executives from Heinz and MEDRAD also were on panel.

The four team members received a $100 gift certificate and a foreign language dictionary. The school language department received a $100 donation.

A first-place trophy has been added to the school showcase, engraved with the team members' names.

For more information on the Cultural Communications Alliance, go to www.culturalcommunications.net/About%20CCA.html.

For more information on the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association, go to www.associationsdirectory.org/Directory/Education/Language/1987/PSMLA.