ASIA-PACIFIC – SINGAPORE, JUNE 2011 – Can a 10-year gap do the trick? Wunderman’s Z Academy Marketer of the Year 2021 competition yielded two remarkable sets of winners: Sybil Mulokwa and Brandon Viney of VCU Brandcenter in Virginia, and Alvin Wee and Liat Beng Neo of Nanyang Tech University in Singapore. The quartet will travel to this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity — and again in 2021, courtesy of Wunderman’s Z Academy. The winners will join its Cannes Lions delegation and be provided with round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations, entry to the Cannes Lions Festival and attendance at the Wunderman Global Creative Meeting.
The Z Academy Marketer of the Year competition was open to undergraduate-level students. Wunderman asked contestants to imagine that the year is 2021, and they’ve just been named Marketer of the Year. Contestants submitted acceptance speeches, videos and campaign ideas, and told the story of how and what they did to make themselves so successful. Some contestants chose to create new products and approaches to marketing, others to revive old ones.
Winners Sybil Mulokwa and Brandon Viney of Team Cardinal Collection were inspired (or should we say, frustrated) by the concept of working on losing a new business pitch. “It would be nice to redirect that energy for greater good,” said Sybil and Brandon. The result is pairing the non-winning pitches produced by agencies with small business, non-profit and educational institutions that would not otherwise be able to afford the executions. The result? A philanthropic opportunity for the advertising industry that focused on creativity.
Singapore’s Team Marketyr duo (pictured), Alvin Wee and Liat Beng Neo based their idea on the ability of Social Networking Platforms (SNPs) to offer consumers instant feedback and multiple opinions. Their “Friends-with-Benefits” entry is a hybrid of viral marketing and buzz marketing. Their idea asks marketers to tag their existing webpage to the products on the shelf. When a purchase is made, the information is shared among the purchaser’s friends, creating buzz within a community. The information will contain links to the product information, including details, price, availability and existing promotions. If consumers make a cashless purchase using a smart device, information will be automatically shared similarly on SNPs.
Stephane Faggianelli, President of Wunderman Asia Pacific expressed, “It is refreshing to witness the innovative works that these young stars have produced. Certainly in Asia Pacific region, we need to cultivate more young talents to lead the industry. Big congratulations to the winning teams!”
A total of eleven schools from the U.S., U.K. and Singapore participated in this year’s program.
