Ad Maker engages youths in a creative contest

March 21, 2018 marked the grand finale of 'Olila Glassware presents Ad Maker Bangladesh' powered by Daraz.com.bd and silver sponsored by Dhaka Bank. It was held at North South University (NSU). The event closed its curtains after a journey of one month, where students were given the platform to showcase their marketing skills spread over several rounds of case solving, presenting, ad making, activation phases and campaigns. This served the purpose of the event in the first place; educating the participants and giving them the platform to learn the core concepts of marketing and develop their skills in the fight to become champions of the most prominent marketing event in the country.

With more than 430 teams taking part from over 50 different universities across the country, the biggest marketing competition of Bangladesh started its journey on February 19 with many roadshows across the country, where students got a first-hand experience into the phenomenon known as ‘Ad Maker’. The roadshows were conducted by the organisers of Ad Maker Bangladesh, NSU YES! which is known as the Business Club of North South University. It all started back in 2011 when a group of individuals wanted to create a revolution in the marketing sector of the country and help the students across the nation propel their marketing talents. All of these came to fruition by the hard work, dedication and determination the organisers of Ad Maker Bangladesh, NSU YES!

NSU YES! dates back to 1994, being one of the oldest clubs in North South history. With a rich tradition and history, NSU YES! has been dedicated to organising multiple events throughout the year focusing on every core aspect of the corporate world and giving the young minds of not only in North South University but also all the inquisitive minds across the country.

The club has been organising multiple events in North South University every year but is well known for hosting two national events each year named 'Masters of Ideation' and 'Ad Maker Bangladesh'. Ad Maker Bangladesh, known as the flagship event of the club, started in 2011 with the purpose of bringing a change to the business competition circuit where students will not only work on solving business cases but role play as brand ambassadors in helping a product get enriched as a whole through marketing campaigns and strategies.

The workshop was conducted by Ayman Sadiq, founder and CEO of 10 Minute School and Muhammad Risalat Siddique, former senior brand manager at Unilever and currently leading a top digital agency in the country-- Analyzen Bangladesh Limited-- where they interacted and engaged themselves in understanding their objectives spread over four rounds including the grand finale.

The first round presented the students with an online case solving phase which tested the participants' abilities to identify, analyse and solve business cases with particular emphasis on marketing. The selected teams were then divided into two portions where they were given cases for Olila and Daraz respectively where they presented their findings and analytics in front of an esteemed panel of judges from various leading corporate industries on the second round.

The teams which were selected for the third round went through a grueling activation phase where all the teams had to conduct both digital and physical marketing campaigns for their respective brands Olila Glassware or Daraz.com.bd and present in front of another panel of judges from the corporate fields. The top eight teams were chosen for the grand finale which was held in North South plaza area on March 21. Abdus Salam Murshedy, managing director of Envoy Group was the chief guest of the evening. Mr. Murshedy is also the senior vice president of BFF, president of EAB and former president of BGMEA.

With each passing year, NSU YES!'s sole focus has been to make their flagship event Ad Maker Bangladesh bigger and better with the aspiration to go above and beyond and this year has been no different. Ad Maker Bangladesh closed its curtains with team 'Crime Master Gogo' from North South University clinching the title of champions of Ad Maker Bangladesh 2018, along with Team 'Elmo' from Bangladesh University of Professionals being the first runner-up, and team 'Backbenchers' from North South University finishing as the second runner-up, receiving Tk 2,00,000, Tk 1,20,000 and Tk 80,000 respectively.

The writer is a student of the BBA Programme at North South University (NSU). He can be reached at [email protected]