News
Wednesday 24 May 2006
Nottingham Trent University wins L'Oréal Brandstorm award
Nottingham Trent University has seen off stiff competition to take first and second places in the UK finals of the L'Oréal Brandstorm competition. The La Floraison and Team Chrysalis teams competed with six other groups of undergraduates to devise an innovative marketing campaign for a new product within the Lancôme Bodycare range. La Floraison came out top with Team Chrysalis a close second.
L'Oréal Brandstorm, now in its 14th year, is a dynamic marketing competition which allows students throughout the world to put themselves in the place of a L'Oréal International Brand Manager. Over a period of five months, the teams had the opportunity of working with L'Oréal and its advertising agency Publicis to devise a new packing and communication campaign for their product.
Laura Birch, Katie Potter and Peter Hygate from La Floraison and Laura Howsham, Rachel Jones and Sherri Lewis from Team Chrysalis dazzled the jury, which was chaired by the Managing Director of Luxury Products Division UK. The panel of judges also included David Wells - Director of Sales Strategy; Helena Sampson - General Manager of Kerastase; Montserrat Passolas - Axe Director and CRM; Fabiola Pizzigallo - Director of Training and Development; and Grant Duncan - Chief Executive of Publicis UK.
In addition to the jury, the teams also had the opportunity of impressing L'Oréal employees with their creativity, analysis and understanding of the brand's values during an open forum. The winners were announced at a reception held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
L'Oréal Brandstorm provides the Company with a unique opportunity to recruit international talent. Since its founding in 1991, the competition has attracted 14,300 students, allowing L'Oréal Marketing Managers and Human Resources recruiters to identify the business stars of the future by seeing them in action. In 2005 alone, 3 competitors were offered positions in the UK.
Sandra McNabb, Senior Lecturer for Fashion Marketing, said: "We have a fantastic record in this competition as we have only entered it twice and won both times! It's great that we've also won the second prize and the People's Choice award as well this year, all of which is a real tribute to the talent and commitment of our students."
Geoff Skingsley, Director of Human Resources at L'Oréal, said: "At L'Oréal we have a true passion for our business and L'Oréal Brandstorm is an opportunity for us to transmit that passion and inspire a new group of marketing students to choose the L'Oréal school of marketing. It's a valuable experience for both sides: we are inspired by their fresh insights into our business, and they can use their own creativity to great effect and get a preview of what it's like to be brand managers of an international company."
Laura, Katie and Peter will now go on to represent the UK in the International final to be held in Paris on 15 June 2006. Here they will be given the opportunity to present in front of a jury chaired by L'Oréal's CEO, Jean-Paul Agon. They will join over 90 national winners to compete for the world title, new job opportunities, and a tour of the globe.
ENDS
