Representatives from beauty company L’Oreal visited the third-year Marketing Research students on 11 February 2016.

Ms Funeka Sogoni and Ms Erin Hopkins shared the exciting Brandstorm competition with the students. Brandstorm is an annual contest where students from across the world compete for a spot in the international finals in Paris, France. Brandstorm, which has been running since 1992, includes students from 45 countries and last year featured more than 13 000 players.  

Brandstorm requires student teams of three to develop innovative communication strategies to market a cutting-edge new brand. The competition enables students to apply what they learn in theory, in practice as they create a unique customer experience with a new brand. The brand for this year’s competition is La Roche-Posay, a skincare range. The brand is due to be launched in South Africa later this year.

In 2014, three UP Marketing Management student teams qualified for the competition’s national finals, with one group taking third place nationally –the only university team to get this far. First and second place was taken by AAA School of Advertising. Each team was given four days to prepare and 20 minutes to present its creative and innovative ideas in front of a jury, consisting of the Managing Director from Paris, directors, as well as L’Oreal employees.

We hope that student teams take up the 2016 L’Oreal Brandstorm challenge, and we wish them the best of luck!