Marketing students targeting a repeat of Brandstorm success
Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:09:00 BST
For the second year running, Marketing students at the University of Huddersfield, Department of Strategy and Marketing, are through to the national finals of the L’Oreal International Brandstorm competition. Out of the 16 universities that entered the competition in the UK, 8 teams have been short listed for the finals, 4 of which are from Huddersfield University. This is an outstanding achievement as only 6 teams from Huddersfield submitted entries this year. This rides on the success of last year, the first year in which the University entered, when team Envision won the national final and went on to compete in the international final in Paris.
In this year’s competition, the challenge for the students was to look at the brands from the L’Oreal Paris range and develop one of the lines to launch in the ASEAN market. As finalists, they will be developing their ideas further before the final on 30th April by travelling to London to work with one of L’Oreal’s advertising agencies on their product innovations and digital marketing strategies.
Nikki Taylor from team Insight said, “Brandstorm has opened so many doors for us. I can’t believe we’re working with the biggest beauty brand on the globe. The long hours and late nights were completely worth it and we’re becoming very passionate about a Huddersfield team getting to the international final. We have already learnt so much and hope we can do Huddersfield proud. It still hasn’t sunk in.”
Josh Gollings, team Keynote, said, “From day one of entering the Brandstorm competition, I and my team said we wanted to get to the London final, so to get there is so very pleasing and makes all the hard work worthwhile. I don’t think any of us would be there without the help from our lecturers and the library’s research resources.”
The competition is part of the final year module, Creative Brand Management, formulated and delivered by Carol Cloughton and Mohammed Mirza. Carol said, “The standard of work and their commitment this year has been exceptional; we have such talented and creative students. We are delighted that L’Oreal have recognised this again, and we’re looking forward to the final.”
L’Oreal Brandstorm, now in it’s 21st year, is at the core of their graduate recruitment programme. Jack Taylor, one of the winners from team Envision last year, was recruited by The Body Shop as a result and is employed as a CRM assistant at their headquarters near Brighton. Jack said of the competition “I met people I would never have had the chance of meeting. I definitely got the job on my own merit but the interviews came as of a direct result of meeting key people from L'Oreal and The Body Shop through the competition." The teams selected from this year’s entries are:
Team Insight: Jessica Demba, Hollie Moss, Nikki Taylor
Team Keynote: Sanda Condratiuc, Zac Chetwynd, Josh Gollings
Team Pupa: Lauren Clayton, Egle Gudiskyte, Diana Purel
Team Revolution: Zarina Farooq, Sumaiyah Raja, Fuzel Bulbulia
