Kathmandu, April 23, 2017: The 4-member team of MBA students from Uniglobe College, namely Aastha Dahal, Romi Shrestha, Pramila Nepal, and Sreeya Dhital, have just been declared the winner in the ‘WAR of the WITS’, a national level ad-making competition. The competition was a rigorous 2-days long brainstorming and creative session and ran from April 21-22. With this victory, the team has also been awarded a trophy and cash prize of whopping Rs. 55,000.
On the sidelines of the award ceremony, Basanta Kumar Dhakal from Glocal Khabar had a tête-à-tête with the winning team. Excerpts:
Basanta: How did you get into the competition? Is this the first time you’re into such a competition, or you had also participated in a similar competition prior to this too?
IKONICS: A team from Ideas & Solutions had been to our college to orient us about the programme, and gave insights about the event.
Though we had been engaged in various activities in our internal college events previously, it was the first time we have participated the Inter-college programme of this kind.
How did you form the group that could mutually collaborate like this, and work on the common goal?
While forming the team, we ensured that we would have a variety of talents/creativity in the team so that each of the team members contributes making the ad in a unique way. Thus, our team constitutes students from different batches.
How did you name your team IKONICS?
We had earlier named ourselves as Team Uniglobe, but as we are in such a competition where marketing and brand image is essential, we came up with the name IKONICS to make and sound like icons of ourselves. 🙂
How did you come up with the concept of the ad that you made as part of this competition?
We made an ad of The Horror House in the round one that was held on Friday. Similarly, in the round 2 that was held on Saturday, we made an ad of K3 Bakery. Both were MAD ADs, the dramatized versions of ad which we had to perform on our own on the podium.
Talking about the concept of the ad, it has already been ten-long-years The Horror House is running in Kathmandu Mall. But, most of the people still don’t have any idea about it. Thus, we worked on making an ad that will enable it to get well-promoted to its target clients. In this ad, we have come up with a concept to bring new suspense every new month so that the customers come visit the house every other month and break the current limit.
What do you think it is that made you the winners of this competition?
In the case of The Horror House, it’s the calendaring concept that we think made us beat other teams. Meanwhile, in the case of K3 Bakery, it’s the emotional appeal. We also showed a concept of LIVE videos in social media from the Horror House, whereas we showed how we would be relating hygiene to the K3 Bakery .
This is what we think made us stand apart from other teams, and be the champions in the competition.
How important is creativity in the ad-industry in the context of Nepal?
We feel it’s even more important in the case of Nepal in comparison to other countries. Many of the ads that air on Nepali Television channels are either produced in India, and later dubbed Nepali, or are simply too dull to watch. Nepali ad-industry is lagging behind in terms of creativity.
We can watch Indian-ads as the way they give information is too innovative and appealing, but we have the habit of switching the channel after ads start to appear in Nepali TV channels. The quality of ads would make the case different, and change the behavior of Nepali audiences. Added to this, we think that competitions like this are sure to promote the innovation in the advertising industry here.
How has the competition motivated you for the upcoming days?
All of our team members are from the finance major. Winning this competition has made us realize our true potential, and has shown us a hope that we also can do good in marketing segment.
You have won Rs. 55,000. What will you use it for?
We have not thought about it yet. 😀 😀
It was great talking to you. Thank you for your time.
Pleasure is all ours. 🙂
