Firefighters will run head-on into a burning building to save a stranger. They don’t welcome the danger, and they don’t back down either. 

While sponsoring a collegiate sales competition isn’t quite the same as running into a burning building, the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board saved the day for more than 30 students across the nation. 

Literally. 

“The student competition at NAMA is a critical component in helping to grow the next round of marketers and agribusiness professionals,” said Doug Monson, sr. director of marketing and communications for WSMB. “The Marketing Board saw a unique opportunity to promote the soy checkoff and SoyFoam while sticking to its mission of fostering the future of the soy industry by ensuring the competition continued this year.” 

The National Agri-Marketing Association’s sales competition is held the day before its marketing competition. In the sales competition preliminary round, students had to pitch SoyFoamTM TF1122 to the Wisconsin State Fire Marshal and try to secure a meeting with decision makers from the city of Janesville, Wis. 

“It’s really evident for me that SoyFoam is a really good replacement for a lot of other firefighting foams,” said Olivia Hanson, Iowa State University, who finished third. “Just being able to really compare and really show why it has so many advantages, whether it’s the health advantages or being more eco-friendly, I think all those are really important and a really good way to sell the product.” 

‘A wonderful experience’ 

The initial investment for SoyFoam came from a soy checkoff investment by the United Soybean Board. Nancy Kavazanjian, who farms near Beaver Dam, Wis., and is a USB director, was excited when she learned about WSMB’s support of the competition. 

“Soy-based firefighting foam is an extraordinary success story that highlights the great worth of our national soybean checkoff program,” Kavazanjian said. “What started out as a small, experimental product to make use of excess soybean meal has turned into a proven product that helps make firefighting safer for both the environment and the firefighters. It’s this kind of investment that makes me proud to be a U.S. soybean farmer.” 

Six finalists secured meetings with the Janesville decision makers, with Cal State Fresno’s Mallory Sutherland claiming the top prize, Landon Hackney (University of North Carolina) took home second. 

“I actually didn’t know a lot about the regular firefighting foam and how dangerous it actually is,” Sutherland said. “When I researched and found out It was developed in the 1960s it was super shocking that we haven’t come up with a solution since and that more places aren’t using products like SoyFoam.” 

The University of Wisconsin-Madison, and UW-Platteville competed in the marketing competition. UW-Madison finished fourth. 

The developers of SoyFoam, Cross Plains Solutions, participated in the development and planning of the sales scenarios. 

“It was a wonderful experience. I was very happy to be a part of this,” said Cross Plains’ Maria Garlie. “It was very interesting to hear all the students do their sales pitch. Everyone had a unique way of doing it. They did a fantastic job.”