WeSchool Winners!

How Welingkarites seized the opportunity to be pitted against the best MBA Talent from China and Korea in Hyundai Global Youth Marketing Camp 2013. Hyundai Global Youth Marketing Camp saw participation of 70 students from China and Korea in 2012 .In keeping with the spirit of innovation and recognition of talent, Hyundai had invited students from select premium Indian MBA campuses to compete with best of the best on a global platform of peers this year. Shruthi Suresh(PGDM RM , 2012-14 ),Nidhi Rathi ( PGDM, 2012-14) and Nikhil Kuchroo (Marketing, MMS, 2011-13) share their story as preparations begin in full swing to take off to Seoul on 23RD FEB participate in Hyundai Global Youth Marketing Camp 2013. Nidhi Rathi speaks about her journey so far... As I am writing these words, my heart takes me down the memory lane , to the very first day of the foundation program at WeSchool, when we were told “ Opportunities will be many.You just have to grab them! ” Today, I feel really lucky and privileged to have got an opportunity to fly to South Korea and represent India at a global competition along with two extremely talented welingkarites, Shruthi and Nikhil as my team mates. How many MBA Students can really boast of being given such as an opportunity? Today, I feel proud that not only have I been given this opportunity but I have been encouraged and provided with the best support so that I could perform to best of my capabilities in the Hyundai contest . It all started with an internal round at WeSchool campus wherein we were given a topic each at random and asked to give an extempore presentation on the same. My topic for this round was ‘Factors that influence consumer buying behaviour’. The 21 students shortlisted in this round waited with bated breaths as the day for the final selection round with the HYUNDAI MOTORS drew near. Who would be the two bravehearts from WeSchool who would represent India at Seoul at the marketing contest? Day 1 The Big Day was Feb 4, and it started with the shortlisted students going thru a round of personal introductions followed by a group discussion. The students were divided in a team of 10 and 11 for the group discussion, the topic -‘SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING -A BOON OR A BANE? ‘. After the GD was over, we were given the next task, the real life challenge , that of designing a 360 degree youth marketing campaign for HYUNDAI, with clear cut objective of brand amplification and not sales driven. Day 2 As each one of us worked feverishly burning the midnight oil, our idea began to take the shapes of campaigns and plans. With each presentation lasting for about 15 mins, the HMIL judges made sure that they gave us valuable feedbacks and told us what was practical or not. Also they made it clear that the COST element has to be considered and reach of the campaign should be as wide as possible. Me and my team decided to target SOCIAL MEDIA. As we were briefed that our campaigns need not be sales driven, the idea was to do brand amplification, we selected a cost effective way and made sure that the reach of our campaigns was widespread. The flow of our ideas was as follows: 1)HYUNDAI FOR KIDS : A novel concept wherein we instilled the naem of the brand in minds on young kids through edutainment.2)PRINT AD: A complete print ad with a flip book depicting Hyundai’ s happy moments 3)TVC:Fact-o-pedia:Facts about driving safe and thus associating the brand with spreading awareness amongst youth 4)RACE-A-THON: Nation wide online virtual race wherein the winner gets a chance to fly to korea to meet the korean superstar PSY and do the GANGNAM with him. The feedback we got was that ours was the only team that considered all mediums of communications and the HYUNDAI KIDS and Flip book idea was Bang-on according to the judges. Nikhil Kuchroo adds... Armed with the dossier from Hyundai, me and my team consisting of Priyank Indulkar and Amruta Pawar began to kick up a storm of ideas.We were to put ourselves in the shoes of a Manager for Youth Marketing and build an overall brand campaign for Hyundai in 2013. HMIL had given us the mandate to focus on Effective ways to target youth and suggest different activities, highlight ONE activity to be carried out in 2013 and explain how this would create awareness and engage the youth with the outcomes predicted with clear-cut precision. We needed to develop a crystal clear message and deliver it through the ATL and BTL activities. We thought up of a bouquet of six activities that communicated the idea of “Discover the New you”

1. CAR-A-OKE - Sing with Hyundai
2. sMILES- A drive for a smile
3. Fluidic Graffiti- ”Let it flow”
4. Online game –CARSVILLE
5. Stunt show – SPEEDRUN
6. MEGA EVENT – Hyundai Encore – Battle of DJs, biggest open air face-off

Finalizing the above six programs was no simple task. We were given two days to prepare the presentation. The first half of the first day was spent in Idea generation where we listed ideas and researched them on the internet. Some of them had to be scratched off and a select few made it to the drawing board. We are really grateful to our professors like Aditya Bhat ,Rajendra Bhatt and Ravi Vaidee for all the brainstorming ,encouraging and pushing us beyond limits to go and give our best shot in the contest. Using the event ‘Hyundai Encore’ as an example, we went on to cover points related to branding, and 360 degree communication on Print, TV, Digital and OOH. We explained the pre-event build-up and the entire timeline of events until the mega event. The financials needed to conduct the event were also worked out in the last slide. The main point we focused on was to attract the youth in large numbers and give them a night to enjoy without paying a single rupee. The RoI was measured by the basis of like generated during the event through RF-ID wristbands. Further we ensured that all the visitors managed to get a touch and feel of the Hyundai cars. The touch and feel was achieved by playing music through car infotainment systems over regular loudspeakers.The judges cross questioned my team extensively and delved deep to understand the reasons for choices portrayed in the ppt. Moreover they provided valuable and constructive criticism to enable us to do a much-better job in the future. WOW....The judges were so impressed by the presentations made by WeSchool students that instead of the customary 2, they selected 3 winners to go to Korea. They commented that the WeSchool team was the only team that understood what the challenge was and planned the entire campaign in organized stages.The competition on the whole was truly insightful. Take off to Seoul on Feb 23 ... Global Youth Marketing Camp 2013 extends the opportunity for students of the participating campuses to represent India in South Korea in a cross cultural and multi faceted marketing camp. The program aims at not just familiarizing participants with the global automobile industry but provides the opportunity for the students to learn, share, explore, and imbibe in themselves global best practices, while providing a platform for global exposure at the developing stage in their careers. Hyundai Global Youth Marketing Camp will be a 4-day program beginning on the 25th of February 2013 in South Korea, and will see the participation of 80 select students from premier institutes across Asia. South Korea is a high-income developed country and the most industrialized member country of the OECD; it will be a tremendous opportunity for the WeSchool team to be pitted against the best talent from MBA schools in China and Japan. Korea is one of the fastest-growing developed countries in the 2000s, along with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, the other three Asian Tigers.The South Korean economy is heavily dependent on international trade, and in 2010 South Korea was the sixth largest exporter and tenth largest importer in the world. With Hyundai, Samsung and LG firmly settled inIndian subcontinent, we see this as an excellent opportunity to observe, understand and learn about the diverse global economy that will set us well on our career paths.  

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