All the members of WIN would like to make a very special shout out and thank you to Katia - the manager of the Nandos resturant we visited to celebrate. She was a wonderful host and we thank her from the bottom of our empty pockets!
Archive for February, 2007
Hey you guys. Just thought everyone is leaving a post so might as well get involved. Today we won the marketing challenge. an area which i felt quite strong about. Unlike yesterday this required more skill and less luck. The team worked really well together. It’s almost as if each of our weaknesses, are another member’s strength.
To me personally i felt i really achieved. Not only within the challenge and the team but for myself, having created the strap lines which the judges complimented as one of our strongest stengths. Everything which i wanted to be good at, i shined. As did all the team.
The marketing challenge really stretched not only me but also Daniel as we argued over the best approach. In the end we decided to use both, not even combining them. Side by side these 2 ideas really made the campaign as strong as it was. Finally a chance to put 3 years of a degree into pratice. Although the campaign would have been nothing without Matt and Judith’s extensive research and Cos’s creative input, Daniel was the star of the day in my opinion. He really shined and surprised us all with his confidence, ideas and his ability to answer questions set to test the quality of the project .
The team is undoubtably the best
D’you know what’s really cool? Being told that you’ve won the marketing challenge to a unanimous vote and hearing everyone gasp because - let’s face it - here’s this university based in a city that no one else has never heard of kicking the crap out of specialist entrepreneurial societies. It’s just lovely to hear the resentment in those voices.
That is all.
Cos xxx
Hi All
As the team leader I though I better make a blog on this site!! Currently I am sat in the wonderous facilities at our hostel, the ‘Generator’ sipping a pint of beer (classy).
Today was really exciting to say the least!! As a team our strengths really shined through!! Today proved to me how much complimentary skills we all possess as a team. The challenge set for us this morning was to create a marketing campaign for Orange’s new package for SOHO (Small Office, Home Office) customers. The package was called ‘Triple Play’ for which we had to come up with a suitable campaign to target this segment in the market.
As team leader I delegated for Dan & Cos to focus on the billboards, as their strengths lay with creativity and design using photoshop, while Paul focused on the presentation. Myself and Judith researched in-depth, Orange’s philsophy and aims for the company.
The presentation that we had to pitch to the Markeing executives of Orange went really well, for which we won our heat!! This meant that we had scored the highest points, out of the four teams we were competing against in our heat. There were two heats, for which we won heat 1 and Bristol University won the second heat.
In the final, ourselves and Bristol had to re-pitch our ideas to a full board of judges, which was quite scary, but we performed exceptionally well, under the pressure. Subsequently after the judges had decided whose idea/presentation was the best, we had full support from our close team mates, Kingston and Strathclyde!! These two teams have been the most ‘down to earth’ and friendly teams that we have met, for which we are really chuffed to have met!!
The overall winner of this challenge was us!!! Woo Hoo!! The judges announced that the decison was unanimous and our idea was the best by far!!
So I would like to thank my team mates for putting 110% into this challenge and also for not beating me up for being so bossy!! lol!!
Speak to you soon
Matt Leavesley
Today I am happy to report that WIN have won our first challenge.
We were given the task of creating a marketing campaign for an Orange business tariff including broadband, mobile internet and mobile telephone. Although there was a lot of disagreement between some unnamed members of the team (all of us) we were able to come to a compromise which not only included all the elements we each wanted to put forward, but worked as a whole far better than any of the individual ideas alone.
I’m not going to go into details about our idea just yet (because we can’t yet upload the billboard adverts we created) but I will reveal that it was centered around the concept of a tree!
I think we made some very good friends today - big shout out to the teams from Kingston and Strathclyde who we are getting on with very well.
That’s all for now, I’m off to get pissed!!!
So it appears that Daniel invaded the EPOCH blog last night and delighted you all with our tales of adventure. Needless to say, I won’t be letting that scoundrel any where near the place ever again. Ever.
On saying that, this is not going to be a full entry; we’ve just been given the marketing assignment and need to get cracking with that. We knew it was going to be based around Orange, but as always this competition has shocked us into uncertain territory. Without going into it too deeply, I’ll just say that we have to design 3 ad campaigns based around a business package that we are charged with creating, and then present this in stages - we’re against 3 other teams at first, and only if we get 1st or 2nd place in that contest do we go on to give the presentation to the main judges. Should be a right laugh, yeah.
Right, so I’m signing off now. I’m slightly hungover and my hair is looking ridiculous.
Cos xxx
Hello one and all, Daniel here. It’s getting close to 1AM and I’m SHATTERED!!!
We woke at around 7:30 - rushed downstairs for some breakfast (cereal, toast and tea) then rushed out to reception to meet the guys from EPOCH who were meant to be meeting us at 8:30 to escort us to the first challenge… At 9:50 we were still waiting for them! We were just about to leave to make our own way there (as we were meant to be at the first challenge for 9:00) only for them to finally turn up and ask us to wait for everyone else they were meant to be escorting. We left our accommodation (more this the infamous The Generator party hostel soon) at around 9:05, got to the first challenge at 9:30, and were told off for being late (of course our glorious leader, Matt, stood up for us, saying we were all ready to go at the assigned time, but it fell on deaf ears).
The first challenge was sales. We were given 27 x 250g bags of ground Mosso coffee to sell, and sent off on to the streets of London. We split into three teams: Paul and I, who were set to target Independent Cafes in Carnaby Street - Judith and Cos, who were targeting art houses and museums (to fit in with the Mosso idea of coffee and art) - and Matt, working alone trying to get contract sales via the telephone.
The day was long, and hard on our feet, but we were able to sell 18 bags - alas, no contract sales however.
I would like to make a shout out to Mathew at Sacred Cafe. He didn’t buy any coffee himself (he says he hires ‘coffee geeks’ to make their own special blend), but gave us a lot of insight into the coffee market.
The evening was full of pizza and alcohol at Pizza Express in Holborn, before a drunken stagger back to the hostel.
A quick word about The Generator - we feel that prisoners have it better. That’s not to say it’s bad - it’s no doubt good value for money, but I think the team feels let down by this being their first stay in London, and they wanted something a bit more classy.
Anyway - I’m tired - so I’m going to bed, ready for another fresh start at 7:30. Please come back each day this week for updates on our adventures, and next week for photos and video journals.
Hello, hello… it’s Cos here, just writing a quick one before we all head down to the London School of Economics this Sunday.
For those of you not in the know, there are five WINners heading down to take part in this year’s challenge - Matt, Paul, Daniel, Judith, and myself. The challenge itself is set over 4 days, Monday to Thursday, and this year will see WIN face such competition as the Birmingham, York, Kingston, Royal Holloway, New York and Stockholm university teams. Challenges put to the teams will include Marketing, Sales, Social Enterprise and Strategy.
We kicked arse at the regionals in Birmingham, where we were charged with negotiating the cheapest price for a list of items including a laptop bag, a bottle of champagne and a mobile phone with £10 credit. London’s going to be a bit different, to say the least, but it’s something I’m looking forward to, as is the rest of the team. This year the challenge is being sponsored by Innocent Smoothies and Orange, so it should be fun to see what they’re going to make us do.
Right, this is a lot longer than I anticipated the post to be, and I’ve probably told you everything you already know anyway… so I’ll sign off. Hopefully we’ll be updating the blog every night we’re down in the capital, which should keep you suitably entertained…
And that’s your lot. Wish us luck!
Hi guys,
sorry for the late post of the last minutes (had troubble with login).
Anyway, attached are the minuted from last meeting. Feel free to download it.
Tonia x
Attachments:
minutes_150207.doc