Arkansas DECA · 2026–2027
Chapter Marketing Packet
Two parts: how to market and grow your chapter, and how to compete in the Marketing cluster. Every requirement, deadline and point value below was pulled from the DECA Guide 2026-27, deca.org, or DECA Direct and checked against the live source.
38 slides · 2 parts
Campaigns due 12.1.26
Advocacy due 3.1.27
Part A
Marketing Your Chapter
Recruiting, promoting, and the five campaigns DECA will actually give you hardware for.
Start here
Don’t do promotion as a chore. Do it as a campaign.
DECA already publishes five Chapter Campaigns with defined requirements, a deadline, and awards attached. If your chapter is going to promote itself anyway, run it through a campaign and get recognized for it.
- Four campaigns are due December 1, 2026. Advocacy is due March 1, 2027.
- Activity window for the fall four: “from the beginning of your school year through DECA Month” (November).
- Advocacy activities run during “Career and Technical Education Month® in February.”
Source note: deca.org/campaigns still heads its section “2025-2026 Chapter Campaigns” while listing 2026-27 dates underneath. Treat DECA Guide 2026-2027, printed page 21 as authoritative.
DECA Guide 2026-27, p. 21
The five campaigns, exactly as written
| Campaign | What it takes | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Membership | 20 more students than last year OR 20 alumni OR 20 professionals | 12.1.26 |
| Promotional | 3 school outreach activities + 3 success stories of alumni + 3 community outreach activities. Adobe Express must be used in the creation of one outreach activity. | 12.1.26 |
| Community Service | 1 or more community service activities + 75% or more participation of your DECA members + 1 form of publicity or promotion using Adobe Express | 12.1.26 |
| Innovations + Entrepreneurship | 1 innovations activity with 75% participation + 3 interviews and profiles of local businesses + 1 local entrepreneur guest speaker | 12.1.26 |
| Advocacy | 3 school outreach activities + 3 public policy makers outreach + 3 community outreach activities | 3.1.27 |
New requirement
The Adobe Express rule, stated precisely
The use of Adobe Express as part of the chapter campaigns submissions is required. For the promotional campaign, Adobe Express must be used for one outreach activity. For the community service campaign, Adobe Express must be used for the form of publicity or promotion. Adobe Express for Education is available to all DECA chapters.
DECA Inc., May 6, 2026 — verbatim
Campaigns affected2
Deliverables1 each
CostFree
It is exactly two campaigns, one deliverable each. Adobe Express is not required for Membership, Innovations + Entrepreneurship, or Advocacy. Adobe Express for Education is free to all DECA chapters.
DECA has published no spec for the deliverable — no file format, dimensions, size cap, or rule on whether a shared link or an exported file is acceptable. And for Promotional, DECA does not say which of the three outreach activities must use it. Read literally, any one qualifies.
What you win
Achievement and Thrive
Membership track
- Achievement — meet the requirements in any one category (students, alumni or professionals). Pennant and certificate.
- Thrive — any two categories. Pennant, plaque, flag, and two allocations to Thrive Academy at ICDC.
DECA Month track
Promotional · Community Service · Innovations + Entrepreneurship
- Achievement — any one of the three. Pennant and certificate.
- Thrive — all requirements in any two. Pennant, plaque, flag, two Thrive Academy allocations.
They stack. Earn Thrive in both tracks and your chapter can send up to four members to Thrive Academy at ICDC.
Advocacy earns a pennant, a special plaque, and a letter of recognition sent to your school administrator and government officials.
Read this before December
How submission actually works
- Portal for Community Service, Innovations, Promotional and Advocacy: campaign.decaregistration.com — advisor username and password, same credentials as the membership system.
- Membership Campaign has no upload at all. Recognition is determined from the membership already submitted in the online membership system.
- Students cannot submit. DECA’s own FAQ: “advisors must complete the online submission process. Do not provide your advisor username and password to students.”
- Submission is irreversible — “After submitting, you will no longer be able to add or delete attachments or make any changes.”
- Community Service requires an attestation click that 75% of members participated, and has a dedicated slot for the publicity file — that is where the Adobe Express asset goes.
- Promotional requires alumni photos as attachments, one per alumnus with the name in the description. Outreach attachments are optional.
- Advocacy has a step where you enter contact information for people who should receive a letter recognizing your chapter — that is the mechanism that gets administrators and elected officials contacted by DECA.
Plan backward from these
Dates campaign work depends on
| Date | What |
|---|---|
| Sep 30 | Activate Your Chapter incentive deadline |
| Oct 28 | AR DECA Fall Leadership Conference — Little Rock |
| November | #DECAMONTH — the activity window closes here |
| Nov 15 | Initial membership dues deadline |
| Dec 1 | Four chapter campaigns due |
| Feb 8–9 | Arkansas SCDC — Hot Springs Convention Center |
| February | #CTEMONTH — Advocacy activity window |
| Feb 15 | ICDC competitors’ final membership eligibility |
| Mar 1 | Advocacy Campaign due |
| Apr 17–20 | ICDC — Anaheim, CA. Thrive Academy allocations are redeemed here. |
Part A · Brand
What You May and May Not Do With the Logo
One binding document: Branding Guidelines: Including Use of DECA Logos, Emblems and Insignia. Assets live at deca.org/brand.
Pre-approved — no permission needed
38 uses you can just do
Printed materials and websites only. Includes:
Digital
- Chapter social media profiles
- Chapter websites
- PowerPoint presentations
- Flyers, letterhead, business cards
- Certificates, handbooks
- Stickers and labels
In school
- Classroom posters and signage
- School marquees, walls, yearbooks
- Banners, bulletin boards, store kiosks
The list closes with a catch-all: “All other uses require permission from DECA Inc.”
Incorrect usage — verbatim
The nine don’ts
Governing rule: “Don’t alter, stretch, distort, add or remove elements or rotate in any way. This also includes adding unattractive text elements and changing the color or typeface.”
- Do not alter approved colors.
- Do not stretch or distort the logo.
- Do not alter, add or remove logo elements.
- Do not place other elements on the logo.
- Do not combine the logo with existing elements.
- Do not rotate the logo.
- Do not redraw or change the logo typeface.
- Do not place elements in the logo clear space.
- Do not place in white box when on a dark background.
Number five is illustrated in the guidelines by the diamond substituted for the 0 in a year — the classic chapter t-shirt violation. If someone on your team is designing a “2027” shirt with the diamond as the zero, stop them.
Stricter than print
Apparel and merch need permission first
In order to use DECA logos and the DECA name on promotional items, such as accessories and clothing, prior permission must be obtained from DECA Inc.
Branding Guidelines, Promotional Items & Awards
- Default suppliers are Shop DECA and Awards Unlimited, DECA’s licensed awards provider.
- Using a local screen printer requires a waiver, granted on only three grounds: another supplier is cheaper; another supplier can provide something Shop DECA and Awards Unlimited cannot; or the supplier is donating the item in kind.
- “The waiver will only be valid for the specific one-time use of the logo.” It does not roll over to next year’s shirt.
File these early
Two forms, two lead times
| Form | What it gets you | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Official Logo Agreement deca.formstack.com/forms/logo_agreement | Your chapter’s customized school-name lockup. Needs your role, official school name, and division. | Up to 2 weeks |
| Outside Vendor Request deca.formstack.com/forms/outside_vendor_request | Waiver to use a non-Shop-DECA vendor. Needs supplier name, address, website, quantity, unit price, set-up price and shipping — so get the quote first. | 5 business days |
Logo questions → [email protected]. Promotional items → [email protected].
File the logo agreement about a month before you need artwork. Two weeks of processing plus design time is most of September.
One hour, once
Build the Adobe Express Brand Kit
Your publicity officer does this once in August. Every member graphic afterward is automatically on brand — and it satisfies the campaign requirement at the same time.
- Download official assets from deca.org/brand.
- Open Adobe Express → Brand Kits.
- Upload the chapter logo and the official DECA branding.
- Add the approved colors.
- Add the fonts.
- Save. Share the kit with everyone who posts.
The deca.org/brand toolkit also carries a DECA logo PNG, PowerPoint and letterhead templates, a fact sheet, and Adobe Express content-calendar and social-media-audit templates. Photo library: flickr.com/photos/decainc/albums
Part A · Reading
The DECA Direct Articles Worth Your Time
Every link below was opened and checked. What each one is actually good for is in the right column.
Branding and promotion
Five articles on looking like a real organization
| Article | Do this with it |
|---|---|
| The Not-So-Secret Branding Tool Your Chapter Needs This Year McQuillan, Aug 2026 | The six-step Brand Kit build on the previous slide. Double-weighted this year because Adobe Express is now mandatory in two campaigns. |
| Scroll-Stopping Chapter Branding: How to Win on Social Media West, Oct 2025 | Lift its five headings into a semester social plan. Best line: “Social media is a conversation, not a billboard.” |
| 4 Strategies to Elevate Your DECA Association or Chapter Brand Arrighi, Aug 2025 | Audit your website, socials and event materials for consistency. Launch a chapter hashtag. Post video — “Video has 2x the engagement on Instagram and Facebook.” |
| The Power of Marketing and Branding at Reedy High School Khan, Jan 2025 | A real benchmark: ~1,000 Instagram followers, 400+ members. Their three principles — frequency, flexibility, quality. |
| Maximize Your Chapter’s Marketing with New Audiences Pitlyk, Jan 2021 | The only one about marketing upward and outward — to administrators and the chamber of commerce. That’s where sponsorship money comes from. |
All at decadirect.org/articles/ + the article slug. Browse paths that actually work: deca.org/category/chapter-strategy and decadirect.org/subcategories/membership-recruitment.
Recruitment
Four articles on getting members in the door
| Article | Do this with it |
|---|---|
| Get the Edge with Membership: 5 Ways to Recruit Members Motter, Sep 2022 | Copy the five tactics straight into recruitment week. Most actionable list on the site. |
| A How-to for Membership Recruitment Ellsworth, Jul 2023 | Plan recruitment in summer. Step one is assessing whether your school prioritizes athletics, academics or career readiness — then tailoring the pitch to that. |
| How to Maximize Your Chapter’s Recruitment Chitrao, Jul 2021 | Stop broad-advertising; pick a target pool. Warns about the classic failure — chasing freshmen while veterans drift away. “It is the returning members that make or break a chapter.” |
| Tips for Small Chapter Growth Lam, Feb 2026 | For a small or rebuilding chapter: recruit the leadership team first, then set short-term objectives and a chapter identity. |
Meetings and retention
Four articles on keeping them
| Article | Do this with it |
|---|---|
| Kickstarting Success: Planning Your First Chapter Meeting Huston, Aug 2023 | Run its eight-part agenda as-is, with time allocations and a designated leader per section. |
| 4 Tips to Elevate Your Chapter Meetings Sonny, Sep 2024 | Fixes “they signed up but stopped showing up.” Cap the intro presentation at four things. Add raffles and Kahoot. Put ICDC qualifiers on stage. |
| Here Are 5 Themes for Your Next Chapter Meeting Phan, Sep 2025 | Five drop-in meeting formats that each teach real content — performance indicators via Blooket, how to introduce yourself to a judge, and so on. |
| An Innovative Way to Increase Member Engagement Barnett, Sep 2022 | Blueprint for one flagship “DECA Day” assembly: student-led, officers introduced by video, branded incentives, a tie-tying contest. |
Skip “Chapter Campaigns: Ideas for Involvement” (2023) for requirements — it still lists the fifth campaign as “Ethical Leadership” and carries 2023-24 deadlines. Fine for activity ideas only.
Part A · Plays
What To Actually Do, By Month
Every item below traces to one of the articles on the previous three slides.
Summer and August
The work that has to happen before school starts
- Plan recruitment over the summer, not in the first week of school.
- Read your school’s culture — athletics, academics or career readiness — and write the pitch to match it.
- Build the Adobe Express Brand Kit once. One hour.
- Submit the Official Logo Agreement — up to two weeks to process.
- Schedule the Promotional Campaign’s nine items now: three school outreach, three community outreach, three alumni success stories. They are due December 1 and they do not happen by accident.
First month
Placements to hit
- Activity fair booth staffed by your most energetic members, with a signup sheet and a way to contact prospects — then actually follow up by phone, text or email.
- Bulletin boards and social both, showing member activity, aimed at students already in marketing and business classes.
- Daily announcements, assemblies, sports games, and all school promotional materials.
- Co-host with student council, NHS and Key Club to borrow their audiences.
- Free food. Pizza, ice cream, donuts, coffee. It is in the official advice and it works.
- Bring-a-friend challenge — track it, and reward the top recruiter at the end of the year.
- One flagship “DECA Day” assembly: student-led, officers introduced by video, stickers and pins, a tie-tying contest.
Where chapters lose the numbers back
Retention
- Keep the first meeting short. Four things only: major conferences, competitive event clusters, DECA’s mission and values, chapter events. Do not information-overload new members.
- Make meetings interactive — raffles, Kahoot, social competitions, Q&A sessions and polls.
- Put members on stage. ICDC qualifiers, stand-out leaders. “People don’t connect with logos. They connect with people.”
- Spend real effort on returning members — pool parties, movie nights. They are the ones who make or break the chapter.
- Run regular practice sessions with role-plays and case studies, and use judge feedback after every conference.
Where the money and the support are
Marketing upward and outward
To administrators
- Have your top competitors tell administrators how “DECA events and activities helped them define their college and career plans.”
- Tie competitive events to career clusters and growing job fields.
- Write up chapter successes and send them to administrators and local media.
To business
- Present at chamber of commerce meetings.
- Supply local businesses with newsletter and social content.
- Trade marketing services for sponsorship — social media advice, free promotion in your chapter newsletter — in exchange for donations.
This is the most under-used play in the packet. Chapters market sideways to students constantly and almost never market upward, which is exactly where budget and permission live.
Posting rhythm
Cadence
- Post on a scheduled and frequent basis. Use hashtags and tags.
- Build the calendar around chapter meetings and events plus key DECA dates, with recurring slots like Member Monday and Throwback Thursday.
- Align posts to the school calendar and DECA milestones.
- Reply to comments. It is a conversation, not a billboard.
- Be where the audience is: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts.
- Adapt fast — “what’s trending can change instantly.”
Part B
Marketing Cluster Competitive Events
Twenty events carry the Marketing tag for 2026-2027. Here is all of them, and the full spec for the one most chapters get wrong.
All 20, by format
The Marketing cluster at a glance
| Format | # | Events |
|---|---|---|
| Principles | 1 | Principles of Marketing |
| Individual Series | 7 | Apparel and Accessories · Automotive Services · Business Services · Food Marketing · Marketing Communications · Retail Merchandising · Sports and Entertainment Marketing |
| Team Decision Making | 3 | Buying and Merchandising · Marketing Management · Sports and Entertainment Marketing |
| Operations Research | 2 | Buying and Merchandising · Sports and Entertainment Marketing |
| Integrated Marketing Campaign | 3 | Event · Product · Service |
| Professional Selling | 1 | Professional Selling |
| Virtual Business Challenge | 3 | Fashion · Retail · Sports |
Entry level
Principles of Marketing
Participants1
Prep10 min
Interview10 min
CodePMK
- One role-play at preliminary, a second for finalists.
- Exam is the Business Administration Core exam — not the Marketing Cluster exam. Everything else in this cluster uses the cluster exam.
- No annual topic.
DECA’s Principles events are conventionally restricted to first-year members, but the 2026-27 event page does not state it. Confirm before assigning members.
Role-play · solo
Individual Series — the seven
Participants1
Exam100 q
Role-plays2
Each10 + 10
Two role-plays at preliminary or district, a third for finalists. Ten minutes prep and ten minutes with the judge, per role-play. 100-question Marketing Cluster Exam. No annual topic.
| Event | Code | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Apparel and Accessories Marketing | AAM | Clothing and personal adornment — retail, wholesale, manufacturing |
| Automotive Services Marketing | ASM | Dealers, service stations, parts stores |
| Business Services Marketing | BSM | B2B and agency work — frequently left off chapter lists |
| Food Marketing | FMS | Sale of food; market planning and customer relations |
| Marketing Communications | MCS | Advertising and promotion. Best fit for your social media people. |
| Retail Merchandising | RMS | Any retail establishment |
| Sports and Entertainment Marketing | SEM | Sports, events, recreation, hobby and cultural products. Scope explicitly excludes vehicles. |
Case study · two people
Team Decision Making — the three
Participants2
Exam, each100 q
Prep30 min
Present15 min
2026-27 change: case studies now include only five performance indicators, down from seven. Each one is worth proportionally more — missing one costs a fifth of your content.
- Buying and Merchandising (BTDM) — forecasting, planning, buying, displaying, selling.
- Marketing Management (MTDM) — explicitly a non-retail marketing environment. This trips up teams that default to store answers.
- Sports and Entertainment Marketing (STDM).
Prepared · written + presentation
Operations Research — the two
Participants1–3
Page limit20
Present15 min
Total200
Written document 100 points + oral presentation 100 points. Body limited to 20 numbered pages including appendix, excluding title page and table of contents. All participants must present. No cluster exam.
The 2026-2027 topic for each career category is for participants to collaborate with a local business or organization to research what drives customer loyalty and repeat engagement. Using the research findings, participants will develop a strategic plan to strengthen customer retention through loyalty programs, personalized experiences or relationship-building initiatives.
DECA Guide 2026-27, p. 63 — verbatim
Buying and Merchandising (BMOR) — any retail or wholesale business providing consumer goods. Sports and Entertainment Marketing (SEOR) — teams, theaters, waterparks, venues, festivals, tournaments, summer camps.
Prepared · the one chapters get wrong
Integrated Marketing Campaign is a pitch deck
There is no page limit, because there is no written entry. The prepared component is a pitch deck, and there is no Written Entry Evaluation Form for IMC. Anyone looking for a “page limit” is working from an outdated model of this event.
Participants1–3
Slide cap20
Present15 min
Campaign45 days
- “The pitch deck must be limited to 20 slides, including the appendix.” Cover, title, table of contents, all body sections, bibliography and appendix all count.
- Cover slide need not be numbered; title slide is “2,” table of contents is “3” and must be one slide, body begins at “4.”
- The Statement of Assurances is a separate document and is not numbered.
- Set up time is included in the 15 minutes. No power or internet supplied.
- All participants must present and all must respond to questions.
- Presentation is worth 100 points and is weighted twice the exam score. The exam carries forward into finals.
- You are account managers at a marketing agency; the judge is a client assessing proposals.
- No annual topic — you pick a real event, product or service.
IMC · 2026-27
The ten required sections
Every section must be titled, including the bibliography and appendix.
| § | Section | What it must contain |
|---|---|---|
| I | Overview | One slide. The campaign and the business opportunity it addresses. |
| II | Description | The event, product or service and its company |
| III | Campaign Objectives | |
| IV | Campaign Target Market | |
| V | Research, Insights, Connection to the Campaign — NEW | Cultural, social, economic and technological influences plus media consumption patterns; and how the findings inform strategy, activities and schedule. |
| VI | Strategy, Activities and Schedule | No more than 45 days, with timelines, channels, and creative samples. |
| VII | Proposed Budget | Detailed cost projections, key expenses, financial viability |
| VIII | Impact and Measurement | KPIs that will measure the campaign’s success |
| IX | Bibliography | Required. |
| X | Appendix | Optional. Still counts toward the 20 slides. |
IMC · Presentation Evaluation Form
Where the 100 points sit
| # | Criterion | Max |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Knowledge of Industry/Brand | 5 |
| 2 | Business Opportunity | 5 |
| 3 | Research, Insights and Connection to Campaign | 15 |
| 4 | Campaign Strategy | 15 |
| 5 | Campaign Activities and Schedule | 15 |
| 6 | Proposed Budget | 10 |
| 7 | Impact and Measurement | 10 |
| 8–12 | Presentation Technique — Organization, Effectiveness, Delivery, Presentation Design, Overall Impression (5 each) | 25 |
| Total | 100 |
45 of 100 points sit in rows 3, 4 and 5 — Research, Strategy, and Activities & Schedule. Industry knowledge and Business Opportunity are worth 5 each. Allocate slides accordingly.
Judged on Novice / Developing / Proficient / Exemplary. The 75/25 content-to-technique split is arithmetic from the printed row maximums — DECA prints only per-row bands and the 100-point total.
If anyone reuses last year’s deck
What changed in IMC for 2026-27
Unchanged
- 20-slide cap
- 1–3 participants
- 15-minute presentation
- 45-day campaign
- 100-point presentation, 2× exam weighting
Changed
- Outline grew from nine sections to ten
- New Section V — Research, Insights, Connection
- Budget renamed Proposed Budget
- Key Metrics renamed Impact and Measurement
- Rubric rewritten: 13 rows → 12, new four-level scale
A team reusing last year’s outline loses the entire 15-point Research row and misnames two sections.
Prepared · solo, no written entry
Professional Selling
Participants1
Written entryNone
Present15 min
Weighting2× exam
The only Marketing prepared event a single member can do alone with no written document. You research an actual company you represent, a real product or service, and the target customer. Notes permitted; hand-carried visual aids only; no power or internet supplied.
Scoring, 15 points each: Opening/Engagement · Assessing Needs · Positioning Value · Solution Recommendation · Closing and Follow-up. 5 each: Organization · Effectiveness · Delivery · Presentation Design · Overall Impression.
For 2026-2027, you will assume the role of a sales representative for a company that offers an integrated platform combining AI-powered customer service tools and retail analytics. A regional retail chain owner has scheduled a meeting to learn how your solution can reduce response times, lower staffing costs, optimize inventory, and improve the overall customer experience both in-store and online.
DECA Guide 2026-27, p. 109 — verbatim
Online simulation
Virtual Business Challenge — the three
Runs online from the classroom. Lets you compete members who cannot travel to districts.
- Fashion (VBCFA) — run a fashion design business: trend spotting, design, buying, pricing, markdowns, social promotion, window display. Read the Income Statement and the Instatrend report.
- Retail (VBCRT) — pricing, purchasing and promotion within a convenience store.
- Sports (VBCSP) — ticket pricing, media planning and sponsorships within a football franchise.
2026-2027 round dates are not published on the event pages. Check the calendar of events in the DECA Guide.
Fix these misconceptions
Scope corrections worth saying out loud
- “Marketing Communications” is an Individual Series role-play event (MCS). There is no separate Marketing Communications prepared event.
- “Buying and Merchandising” is two different events in two different categories — BTDM (Team Decision Making) and BMOR (Operations Research).
- Business Services Marketing Series is an active Marketing event that gets left off chapter lists constantly.
- Sales Project is not Marketing. It sits in Business Management and Administration. No Project Management event falls in the Marketing cluster.
- Principles of Marketing uses the Business Administration Core exam, not the Marketing Cluster exam.
Before this is printed or posted
Open items
- Arkansas association rules were not surveyed. Chapters answer to Arkansas DECA as well as DECA Inc. Check for an Arkansas brand guide, Arkansas campaign deadlines, and the ICDC eligibility policy.
- Thrive Academy allocations are conditional. Guide p. 21: “Eligibility to attend ICDC is determined by the chartered associations.” A chapter can earn an allocation and still be blocked.
- No Adobe Express enforcement mechanism is documented. All four submission-instruction PDFs on deca.org are still the 2025 editions and none contains an Adobe Express step.
- Membership Campaign’s “20 more than last year” baseline is undefined in every source. Confirm before a chapter plans a number.
- The Chapter Campaign Guidebook linked from deca.org resolves to the 2021-22 edition. Use it for activity ideas only.
- Gotham licensing is unaddressed. It is a commercial typeface; the guidelines name no free fallback.
- There is no standalone diamond-mark rule — no published authorization to use the diamond alone as an icon or avatar, and no published prohibition either.
- Do not print the diamond-symbolism claim. The story that its four angles represent four principles does not appear in the official guidelines.
- Sports and Entertainment Marketing TDM sponsor is unverified. Leave it blank or confirm it.
Arkansas DECA
Questions?
Ask your state advisor first, then Arkansas DECA.
