‘We believe co-creativity with our consumers in the design and fashion industry is strongly linked to our brand,’ says Dorene Wharton, marketing director at Beam Global Spirits & Wine, which owns the Sourz brand.

Wharton is explaining why Sourz recently invited students in the fashion, advertising and design programs at Toronto’s George Brown and Humber Colleges to compete in the brand’s first-ever Sourz Design School Challenge. In January, teams at each school were tasked with creating all-new brand platforms for Sourz that included everything from POS and collateral materials to marketing strategies and ideas, as well as new drink recipes and designs for branded bar-staff clothing.

On Friday, Sourz announced the winners of its creative ideas competition. Judged by a panel comprising media and marketing execs from Beam, brand distributor Maxxium Canada, ad agency Publicis Canada and strategy exec editor Mary Maddever, the results were as follows:

First Place went to Don Connell and Naeem Walji from Humber College, who impressed the judges with their ownable brand concept, ‘So Urz.’ Second Place went to Karina Kornacka, Paul De La Merced and Neil Domingues for their ‘Pucker Up’ concept, and Third Place went to the team of Joel Buckborough, Braden Laverty and Adam Strickland for their ‘Sweet & Sour Come Together’ concept. Kornacka, De La Merced and Domingues also took home the Sourz People’s Choice Award, voted in an online poll.

The winning promotional, marketing and design ideas will be incorporated into the new Sourz brand platform, which will roll out over the course of 2008 and beyond.