Commercial and social impacts on branding solutions

On  April 12, 2019, Team Bangladesh, consisting of Afrida Ibnat Audri, Malisa Nusrat Huda and Scionara Shehry, clinched the first runner-up title at Unilever Future Leaders' League (FLL) 2019. After winning the national round of this competition earlier in November 2018, they set out to London to represent Bangladesh in the global stage.

The Unilever Future Leaders League, at its core, is all about drawing the youth with a sense of purpose and passion for helping build a better business for a better world. This marketing competition brings teams from around the globe to share their insights and thoughts. It provides students with the opportunity to show their skills and be exposed to the leaders of today. Unilever FLL is a dynamic platform that aims to inspire young people, by showing them the real influence and impact they can have in the business globally.

Initially teams, consisting of three members each, compete in national rounds in their respective countries. The winning teams go onto representing their countries in the global round, to contest for the trophy of Unilever FLL. The Unilever FLL winners earn an invitation to One Young World, a global forum that assembles the brightest young talent from every country and sector, working to accelerate social impact.

Unilever FLL 2019

Twenty-seven teams attended the global competition held in London, UK from April 10 to 12, 2019. These 27 teams came from over 58,000 participants from all over the globe. The 81 finalists joined the three-day event to present their creative ideas on Unilever's brand, Rexona, and show their potential of becoming a leader of tomorrow.

On the first day, the participants went on a walking tour all over London and listened to some of the most inspiring leaders of Unilever. The second day followed with speeches both at the Hilton Tower Bridge and at Unilever House in Blackfriars, discussing everything from brand purpose to marketing approaches to data techniques. On the third and final day, the presentation rounds were held.

The teams had to work on two different challenges for the two presentation rounds, i.e. the semi-finals and the finals. Both the cases were based on Rexona, researching new ways to bring sustainability to the brand messaging. For the semi-final, the 27 teams had to work on "How can Rexona inspire parents to move more, in every geography?" After judging the teams based on social impact, and potential for a global rollout, ten teams were selected to advance to the grand finale.

For the grand finale, the task was quite thought provoking. The challenge was "How can Rexona be the leader on sweat and odour protection with a positive impact on the planet?" For this round, the judging criteria were different. The teams were judged on disruptiveness, positive impact and brand relevance. After much deliberation, the judges declared the much-awaited result. Team Bangladesh and Team Nigeria won the first and second runner-up position respectively. Team Indonesia won the title of Unilever FLL 2019.

Experiences of Team Bangladesh

The members of Team Bangladesh are fresh graduates from Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP). When asked about the differences between the national and global round, Scionara Shehry said, "The global round was more challenging. All three of us are very detail-oriented and left no stone unturned, fixing every problem and making sure our idea has a perfect backbone in terms of feasibility and execution, which worked very well for our national round. However, in the global arena, we were expected to come up with ideas that would generate more walkability, in essence, more of an out-of-the-box idea than the execution. Whereas, Indonesia, the winning team, had a great out-of-the-box and excellent concept."

Afrida Ibnat Audri shared her reflection of the grand finale. She said, "The finale surprisingly was comfortable, as we had full faith in our idea and all the hard work we have put in. However, most importantly, it opened up my mind to how differently people from different parts of the world think. It was a great opportunity to explore and witness the perception of life in their respective regions, and how they have used those to come up with great solutions." The ladies of Team Bangladesh were quite at ease on the stage as they felt more like themselves; as they were well prepared and comfortable in their shoes by wearing sarees.

Certainly, Unilever FLL 2019 was an enriching and inspiring experience for the participants. Malisa Nusrat Huda adds, "We worked for the trophy, although we did not get the trophy. It taught me that hard work always pays off, and I'm going to use that to build my career."

Lastly, all three of them unanimously agreed that an essential takeaway from this experience was a more comprehensive view of the world, a group of friends from different corners of the world and the realisation that we should all dare to think outside our limitations.

The writer is a fresh graduate from BRAC University, with a dual major in Economics and Finance. She can be reached at [email protected]