A team of business QUT students is on their way to Paris to take part in the international L’Oreal Brandstorm competition against student teams from around the world.
The team, Atlas Consulting, is one of the five QUT teams which made it to Australian finals of the bodycare multinational’s annual international competition in Sydney last week.
“QUT entered eight teams and five of our teams got into the national finals - it was a stunning result,” QUT Business School’s Professor Larry Neale said.
“Their business task was to develop a digital innovation to engage customers around the world in a dermatologist-approved skin product range called La Roche-Posay, one of L'Oreal's newer brands in the Australian market.”
For Madeleine Semit, one of the Atlas Consulting team, the chance to go to Paris offers many opportunities.
“It’s incredibly exciting to be going to L’Oreal's Headquarters in Paris, one of the biggest brands in the world, to present our marketing campaign to L'Oreal executives and compete against teams from 48 other countries.
“It’s a huge opportunity to network with people from all around the world, and of course there’s Paris.”
Thomas Hunn, Atlas Consulting team member, said their winning pitch used virtual and augmented reality in a global marketing campaign to highlight the product’s benefits.
“Consumers would use the Blippar app on their mobile to scan the product for an immersive augmented reality experience describing its benefits,” Thomas said.
Team member Jack Nolan said the team presented a social media strategy that combined engaging visuals with information about the product.
“Customers could access this either instore or online via various social media platforms,” Jack said.
Professor Neale said the judges commented that all of the national finalists' presentations were professional and engaging, and offered realistic and well-analysed recommendations.
“L’Oreal were delighted with the quality of the presentations, and are excited that QUT will represent the Australian arm of the multi-national in Paris,” he said.
The latest win follows QUT students taking out top place in two international university business case competitions this year.
“They defeated 19 other teams at the University of Florida and 23 teams at the Concordia University (Canada),” Professor Neale said.
“These recent wins are the culmination of eight years of growing a vibrant case competition culture for students in the QUT Business School by providing opportunities to test their skills against and learn from some of the best students internationally.
“QUT has become known as one of the best credentialed schools in the world over this past five-year period, I think it is fair to say that .
“In our last 50 competitions our teams have had a podium finish on 24 times including 10 wins against regular competitors, many of whom are top-ranked in their country such as Wharton Business School, Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore, HKUST, Copenhagen Business School, University of British Columbia, Melbourne, Auckland and Maastricht universities.”
Media contact:
Niki Widdowson, QUT Media, 07 3138 2999 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au
After hours: Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901 or media@qut.edu.au
