Middle East
L’oréal Announces Winners of Brandstorm 2018 India Finals
NMIMS & SPJIMR win the India national title, all set to compete with the global teams in Paris this May
Mumbai, 19 March 2018 – Six incredible teams gathered at L'Oréal India HQ to compete at the national finals of Brandstorm 2018. Team StormTroopers from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management studies (NMIMS) Mumbai emerged as the winners, first Runners Up were Team Marketrons of S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) and second runners up were Team Insight Hawks of Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM). NMIMS & SPJIMR will represent India at the global finals on May 17th in Paris.
Brandstorm is L'Oréal's Global innovation competition with over 60 countries competing since 1992. The competition gives teams of three students the chance to tackle a real business case and innovate new ideas for L'Oréal's 34 international brands. The theme of this year's challenge was to 'Invent the Professional Salon experience of the future' for L'Oréal Professional.
Jean-Christophe Letellier, Managing Director, L'Oréal India said "It is overwhelming to see how these young minds are reinventing the future. In comparison to previous years, it was marvelous to see how teams are using technology to transform the beauty industry. Many teams have used digital tools like Augmented Reality, 3D, etc. to revolutionize the salon industry in India and thereby enhance customer experience. In the growing digital connected world, human touch plays a pivotal role in the salon industry. The winning idea was an amalgamation of technology and human touch."
With over 3000 registrations from students across 58+ campuses, the competition has intensified over the years. Having commenced in 1992, this was Brandstorm's 26th year globally and 12th year in India. A key differentiator this year is that L'Oréal encouraged students to factor in the aspect of environmental footprint in their innovative idea. Brandstorm and L'Oréal Professional Products Division invited students to work on a challenge where they had to exhibit a Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C) model. The innovation had to respect both types of the professional industry customers: hairdressers and end-consumers. The competition focuses on upskilling students on the business of beauty and digitization through Facebook lives, webinars and a specially designed e-learning platform.
Roshni Wadhwa, HR Director, L'Oréal India said "As these students are about to embark on their professional journey, competitions like Brandstorm help them channelize their minds to come up with differentiated and out-of-the-box ideas to drive business growth. Apart from innovation, through this platform we aim to entrench students into aspects like long-term feasibility of an idea, scalability across locations, practicality of implementation and cost effectiveness for profitability. Brandstorm is also integrated into L'Oréal's talent acquisition strategy and serves as an innovative recruitment tool for scouting the best marketing talent."
Expressing their excitement over winning the national finalists from NMIMS College, Anirudh Mittal, Kushal Gupta and Visakha Agarwal, said, "L'Oréal has offered us a GRANDSTORM opportunity at the start of our careers in form of Brandstorm. We are all really happy to have won. This is a dream come true for us after having spent three months of continuous hard work. We want to take this opportunity to thank L'Oréal to offer us this platform and being part of our journey. We look forward to the finals and hope to make everyone proud."
About L'Oréal India
L'Oréal India has been present in the country as a wholly owned subsidiary of L'Oréal S.A. since 1994. Today L'Oréal India is present in all distribution channels with 14 brands, available in mass market channels (L'Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New-York, NYX Professional Makeup); in hair and beauty salons (L'Oréal Professionnel, Matrix, Kérastase, Cheryl's Cosmeceuticals, Decleor); in selective distribution (Kiehl's, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Diesel).
L'Oréal India employs over 1,600 people across four regional offices, including at its two manufacturing facilities in Chakan (Pune) and in Baddi (Himachal Pradesh), its Research and Innovation facilities, and at the headquarters in Mumbai.
About Brandstorm:
One of the world's major competitions for students, Brandstorm has won several awards in the Human Resources sector. The competition has attracted more than 95,000 participants from 60 countries in 26 years. It supports the L'Oréal Group's Employer Brand reputation by letting young talents discover the company, its challenges and its culture "from the inside" and developing participants' employability with educational resources.
Each year Brandstorm helps to recruit 150 to 200 profiles to the Group's entry-level programs. In 2017, Brandstorm is repositioning itself and becoming an innovation incubator for talents and their projects.
Media contacts:
L’Oréal India
Snehhal Chitneni
+91-9820158358
Genesis Burson – Marsteller
Kanak Mohta
+91 7506136843