Students learn from the experiences of marketers

Bangladesh University of Professionals Business and Communication Club (BUP BCC) once again launched their ‘CreADive 2017’, a marketing and advertisement making competition, on October 20 this year. Within the five years of its inception, this challenging tournament has been going strong with exponential participation growth that has successfully earned them a considerable spot in the business competition of Bangladesh. From starting out as a mere intra-university ad making competition, it has now become a formidable marketing-based and ad making tournament with three successful, consecutive inter-university editions under its belt.

This time the competition received over 230 initial submissions. The online case round took place on one of the many products of Unilever Bangladesh Limited, which was Clear Shampoo. The participating teams were asked to promote its use as a preventive measure for dandruff all year round. Only 48 teams went through to the second round where they were divided into six groups, each consisting of eight teams. Each group was assigned with a designated brand of Unilever Bangladesh Limited and was asked to come up with a 360-degree marketing campaign. Even though the task seemed pretty straightforward, it was designed with twists and turns known as the ‘Curveball’ to test every aspect of the teams. In terms of Curveball it may be anything given at any point of the task of the competition.  For this specific round, the participating teams were asked to make a radio commercial at the very last minute. Only 18 teams made it to the third round- the activation round. The participating teams were asked to design a below the line (BTL) activation for Rexona along with digital activation for educating people on the usage of antiperspirant. From this round only six teams are walking the carpet on the eve of the finale which is scheduled to be held in Le Meridien Dhaka.

 A 360-degree marketing campaign requires communicating a brand identity to the customers through making it visible, attracting them and to retain them. But the question remained on how to achieve this within the constraints of budget, lack of awareness and the constant dynamism of the communication mediums. With these challenges in mind, CreADive’s journey allows the students to experience what marketers of this era are facing regularly in the practical field.

To make this year’s CreADive possible, Unilever Bangladesh Limited’s Rexona has sponsored the venture of BUP BCC along with the partners - the digital media partner Analyzen, radio partner being Radio Foorti 88.0 FM, print media partner the Financial Express and the hospitality partner Le Meridien Dhaka.

The champion team will not only be taking home the glorious title but will be bagging a prize money Tk 1.5 lac. The first and second runners-up will also be taking home a prize money of Tk 90 thousand and Tk 60 thousand  respectively.

BUP BCC is wholeheartedly looking forward to the finale set to be held on 20 December 20, 2017.

The writer is currently studying in third year of BBA programme at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP). She can be reached at [email protected]