Feature

Project D-Youth:
Put your heads together


Nazia Ahmed

From an impressive 773 teams vying for the coveted goal of becoming Brand Ambassadors for Djuice, 10 teams have survived the challenges so far.

As we take a look back at the race so far, we see how the teams were really put to the grind with some difficult tasks to complete. One such task was the fundraising challenge. The participants had to collect funds for the Acid Survivors' Foundation (ASF). Together, the teams raised around Tk 3 lakh.

The next challenge measured their creative mettle as they teamed up with the ad agency Bitopi to create ads for Djuice. As the harrowing process of elimination went on, teams that could not come up with satisfactory performance were eliminated. No doubt they took with them some good memories and a new perspective. Here's what some of the eliminated teams had to say:

“We were very disappointed when we were eliminated as we all gave in a lot of effort and stamina in this project. We expected to be in it till the end, but the experience is nonetheless worth it!” Hitoyshi Chakma- Goblin Corp.

“In our ad, we focused on variety of youth in a cluster. Even though we couldn't get through to the next round, the judges really liked our ads, and we got to learn a lot from it.” Tasnia Huque- Fest “the pioneers”

“In my opinion the criteria of elimination should have been more flexible as we had our classes and exams while the contest was going on.” Anwar H. Chowdhuri Bijoy. The last week's iamhungry challenge, started off with the remaining 15 teams divided into three groups, whose three main components were research, digital designing and implementation. They did a good job in showing their ability to collaborate with a large group of people and proved their aptitude to rise up in the face of adversities. Check out the pictures of the three groups in trade fair giving their level best to attract the public! According to the judges' report, Team A's advertisement did justice to the food and technology themes of iamhungry.com. Team B put in some extra effort by making two ads instead of just one, and Team C brought in a fresh change with a style that deviates from the site itself.

In the research level, all three teams impressed with their analytical skills, providing valuable feedback, which the imhungrybd.com team took into consideration for the second iteration of the site. Team A went into the heart of the site and marked its flaws, and proposed innovative base designs. Team B's research was also well laid out.

Team C covered many of the same points as Team A and B, which was quite commendable. They proposed animations and more glamorous images to catch the viewer's eye. Their research respondents comprising nearly 9000 people, compared to Team A's 300 and Team B's 1000, was pretty impressive. For spreading awareness, Team A was given a problem that the other teams did not have to deal with: Christmas, which meant that universities, schools and businesses were closed. They worked around the problem by visiting a church, and advertising at the airport, targeting the huge winter homecoming crowd. Although they didn't advertise as broadly as the other teams, their resourceful approach to their obstacles certainly deserved bonus point.

Team B's unique idea was a group of fourteen people wearing t-shirts that spelled out "imhungrybd.com" when they stand next to each other they grabbed a lot of attention in a crowded place. Team C had interesting ideas such as the lottery, badminton tournament and SMS contest. After the teams went through the iamhungry challenge's elimination process, Team B was eliminated and 10 teams remained. They are:

Laal, Sobyoshachi, Resurgence, Lynching Mob, Lobdhi, Rapid Soul Movement, BuetBugs, MAAS Mailing Solution, Upgrade Level, Deshi Jewels

These are the teams who will be facing the toughest challenges coming ahead. This week will see the elimination of four more teams, leaving six to battle it out.

The next challenge is to approach the garments sector, The Mohammadi Fashion sweaters limited, where the teams will be asked to design a flow layout to improve the existing operation of the factory. Then they will be creating an improved machine layout and cargo movement system, keeping in mind the HR and quality process.

Find out next week which teams survive this difficult task, and their modus operandi.

Also Check out project D-youth's website for more info.www.projectdyouth.com.