L’Oreal Brandstorm

What’s been keeping me busy for the past six months is L’Oreal Brandstorm.

Known as the biggest marketing competition in the world, a representative group from each country will be sent to Paris to battle it out for a 10,000 euro prize. This year, we were tasked to come up with a service that would attract men to salons, along with an associated line of products.

My teammates, Lolo and Marga, and I joined on a whim – we had only taken around one marketing class each and had no idea what we were getting into. But after months of tedious work, we made it to the national finals, where we were to duke it out against 5 other teams from across the country.

It was intimidating, no doubt – we were utter novices competing with the Philippines’ brightest and most accomplished students. Neither was it easy. We were stuck with a category that was impossible to work with – haircuts! How do you improve a haircut when it is dependent purely on expertise, not tools or products? We were, what I like to call, stuck in a pickle.

Ultimately, our lack of experience got the better of us and we didn’t win, but do I regret joining Brandstorm?

No way!

It was definitely worth losing sleep for about 6 months, putting my social and academic life on a standstill and practically living and breathing L’Oreal. The reason? Brandstorm was such an amazing experience. Not too many college students get the privilege of having graphic designers at McCann at their disposal, getting immersed in L’Oreal’s working environment, gaining access to top-secret market research and learning the ropes about marketing and brand management first-hand. Experience, I’ve always believed, is the best teacher, and I’m so fortunate to have had a taste of the corporate world even before I began my majors.

So thank you, L’Oreal, especially Michael Mendoza and Impy Eusebio, for giving me this opportunity. I loved meeting such talented, fun people and learning not just about marketing, but how to go beyond what I knew myself to be capable of.

If you’re a student and plan to try out for Brandstorm, I highly recommend it!

Here are some highlights from my entire L’Oreal Brandstorm experience. Muchas gracias to Gelo Avendano for some of the photos.

National Finals Awarding Party at Republiq

Team Nomad: Marga, Lolo and I. So proud of these two.

All the national finalists on stage before we presented: Extreme, Absolute, Wade, Cargo, MRF and Nomad

The night’s winners Team Extreme (Austin, Pixie and Elise) looking cute as they ate their dinner. I hadn’t met any of them before Brandstorm, but I’m so glad I did. They are such genuinely nice people and their presentation knocked the socks off us all. Go do the DLSU and the Philippines proud!

Team Nomad with our graphic designers, the very talented Kc Catabas and Ma’am Rhojie Anne Bautista. )

Meg photoshoot at the Meg headquarters

Team Nomad in pastel colors: a rare sight since we all like wearing black but I’d like to think we pulled the “sweet” look off

Champions Elise, Austin and Pixie in their whites and browns

Chinito twins! Lolo and his doppelganger, Little Lolo aka Leigh from Team Wade

The Ladies of Brandstorm 2011 minus Pixie, Gliza and Sam

Philippine Star Shoot outside Titan Barbershop

Me, Lolo, Leigh and Mian posing outside the barbershop. Team Wade took home the second runner up prize to Boracay and floored everyone with their presentation skills and beautiful visuals. Good job, guys.

The final picture, as featured in the paper. Marga had class so she couldn’t make it, but we missed her!