TWO ATENEO teams bagged top awards in the national finals of the annual Unilever Future Leaders League (UFLL) marketing competition held at The Raven Boutique Club, Taguig on December 5.
Team Regina, which was composed of management engineering senior Angela Andaya and management seniors Gillian Pua and Nicole Ty, emerged as champions.
On the other hand, Team Pulse, comprised of communication senior Emmanuel Hilao, communications technology management senior Gio Tiongson and management engineering senior Jerika Vilan, landed in second place.
UFLL is a competition that engages students in the formulation and conception of an integrated marketing communications campaign (IMCC), a marketing strategy that integrates different methods and tools, aimed towards promoting one of Unilever’s product lines.
For this year, participating student teams from the Ateneo, University of the Philippines-Diliman, De La Salle University and University of Asia and the Pacific were tasked to develop an IMCC that will convince Filipino men to use Unilever’s deodorant brand, Rexona Men, everyday.
This year’s winning campaign was titled “#ConquerEveryday Man up to the unexpected” and was focused on maximizing what men can achieve through their increased usage of Rexona.
Ty said that she wanted her team to ensure that their target market “would see the everyday as a challenge” and would remain competitive, despite inevitably sweating, in conquering the unexpected challenges such as body sweat and odor.
The said campaign features a three-step phase known as “Control, Overcome and Pursue,” with each phase featuring its own unique digital and media marketing strategies.
For Team Pulse’s “Do: More Mornings” campaign, Tiongson said it was hinged on the idea of “making Rexona Men own the morning” through their main execution, the Rexona 21-Day Challenge.
He explained that the said challenge is a crowdsourced fitness program which calls on men to build a habit of getting the most out of their mornings by being active.
“We wanted to position Rexona Men as the top-of-mind brand that links back to the morning because jumpstarting your day with Rexona Men allows you to do more,” Tiongson added.
At the onset of the competition, student teams who wanted to join were tasked to submit a paper detailing their proposed marketing campaigns and strategies.
Out of hundreds of aspiring teams who submitted their proposals, only the top eight teams from each of the four schools were selected to present their paper in front of a board of judges from Unilever Philippines.
In the national finals, only the top two teams from the top eight entries per school were selected to present a 15-minute closed-door pitch in front of a panel from Unilever.
Team Regina and Team Pulse were awarded with trophies and Apple gadgets; the former will represent Unilever Philippines in the global leg of the UFLL to be held on March 2015 in London, United Kingdom.
