by Oliver Bayani
MANILA — A three-man student team from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman will be flying to Paris this June to represent the country in the 2015 L’Oreal Brandstorm Challenge international finals.
Team Storm Surge, composed of Business Administration students Peter Avila, Mirella Galang and Caitlin Gregorio, will be pitted against 45 teams who will play the role of international brand managers for one of L’Oreal’s brands.
This year’s featured brand is French luxury perfume and cosmetics icon Lancome but instead of focusing on product development like in previous Brandstorms, student teams worked on travel retail for the first time.
Another first for the 23-year old publication is the introduction of teams from non-partner schools as Wildcard entrants. Team Wildestcard, made up of BA Integrated Marketing Communication students Jeano Cruz, Celina Dayacap and Bravewelle Madera, from the University of Asia & the Pacific (UA&P) won this last spot in the national finals via a grueling popularity poll online.
During the national leg, the seven teams in the Philippines have undergone a mentorship program with L’Oreal’s agency-of-record McCann Ericsson to polish their ideas, adobo can reveal.
All 45 national finalists will be presenting their retail strategies for Lancome in front of a panel of judges made up of top L’Oreal executives in the City of Lights.
Brandstorm is widely advertised as the ultimate global student marketing competition in the beauty industry with a generous prize of 10,000 Euros in cash and a trip around world at stake – in addition to bragging rights for the victors and their schools.
Started in 1992, the contest has been running the Philippines for the last seven years and brought home the top prize once so far during Brandstorm 2012 – a draw between Team Brand Up from the University of Chile and Team Eves also from the University of the Philippines.
A downpour of talent
“Students could have an idea what retail is but travel retail is a completely different animal,” Tina Ampil, L’Oreal Philippines general manager for human resources, shared with adobo.
“This gives a great opportunity for the teams to learn a lot from such a unique case and also a chance for L’Oreal to witness brilliant young minds shine,” she adds.
Brandstorm is part CSR for students and part recruitment program tapping into valuable marketing talent now in immense demand. This year, the competition got 2,506 entries, with a record 117 coming from the Philippines.
Rowel Vijandre, L’Oreal Philippines managing director, said that he had seen how competition became pivotal in forming young talents for the brand and the whole beauty industry.
“It is with great pride for me to say that among the key drivers of business growth in L’Oreal Philippines are young marketers who all started as Brandstorm Finalists.”
Among the people Vijandre was referring to is Brandstorm competition manager Wacky Narciso, who was a member of the national champion Team BMW from 2014, also from UP Diliman.
“We are a beauty company who believes in investing in potential and, for seven years, Brandstorm has been a true testament to that,” he adds.
In a 2013 statement, L’Oreal Philippines mentioned that they recruit between 150 to 200 students from the competition.
