Spotlight

Promologic 2007-
“Battle with imagination, win with logic”


Air of excitement, tinge of tension , battle of logic, factual analysis of creative imagination, mocking rebuttals, and a grand dinner - Voila! That's what Inter University Promologic 2007 was all about. Starting from November 4 lasting up to November 25,2007- it kept NSU campus buzzing with participants, judges, sponsors, and spectators, which created a festive exciting environment, of course, keeping us - NSU students right on our toes all through.

“Promologic ” unifies two terms- promotion and logic. Promologic is basically a concept of incorporating advertising and passion of logic. It's a platform to express the creative soul, to let the imagination sparkle within the framework of reality. Basically Promologic is a competition giving an opportunity to talented creative individuals to show their skills and products in decent categories and defend their ideas with substantial logic. The concept was like a lightbulb sparkle from the legends of North South University Debate Club- Zunaed Rabbani, Safwan Ahsan & Sarajit Baral with an intention to discover and bring into limelight the rising gurus of advertising in the forthcoming years. Promologic was first held in 2006, and it managed to capture the focus of potential creative thrivers on such a large scale that it led to organize Promologic 2007-yet in a more comprehensive and unique way.

Promologic 2007 was jointly organized by North South University Debate Club and The Advertising Club, Dhaka, with special support from The Katalyst. Although it was a huge responsibility for the organizing committee of the North South Debate Club, it actually took a jump start on 4th of November, and finally made a smooth closing on November 25,2007. Promologic 2007 was a successful event, the executive body of North South Debate Club worked hard literally to make this event possible (and miss a couple of mid-terms too!). With the necessary instructions and guidelines from Afreen Hossain Barsha( President NSUDC) ,all the members were in a "get set go" position for working. The programme coordinator Shatadru Ahmed (General Secretary of NSUDC) & Mahamud Haque (Vice President- Corporate Management) deserve a huge round of applause for pulling off the event in a most professional and organised manner. Nayeem Kashem (VP-Debate & Workshop) organised successful workshops for the promologic, which made the participants' performance even better. Tawsif Alam (TreasurerNSUDC) actually spent the whole time preparing the budget analysis (thanks to the strict accounting classes that actually made him bound to learn) ; Also Farha Deeba (VP Human Resource Management) did a marvelous job keeping all the members on tight schedule and ensured accomplishment of their respective duties( thanks to her infamous "jharis"). Most importantly the entire event carried a combination of responsibility and excitement. A lot was to be done, but that simply didn't bring anyone's enthusiastic energy level(!) down. Soon enough, after the graphical illustration of the posters and flyers were made (all the credits goes to our hard-working creative mind- Oliver Simon Haider) NSUDC members were seen snooping over each walls and corners of NSU campus (round of applause for those members who went home with a back ache), pasting them in catchy ways, and they actually did a pretty good job in notifying, the clear proof of which we got through overwhelming response from the participants.

Promologic was conducted in two rounds- At first the competition was conducted among intra-university teams, finally the qualifying teams made it to the inter-university round , fighting tougher competitors, challenging their creativity at each level. The competition was initiated with 30 teams from NSU for the “inter” round on the 5th of November, 2007, within the premises of North South University. The participating teams had to advertise and promote a single clear lemonade beverage by Akij food and beverages, entitled “Clemon”. Through rigorous judgment of our respectful faculties who managed time out of their tedious schedule to judge the teams, 7 teams from NSU made it to the inter university competition.

The journey of Inter University Promologic 2007 officially began on the 10th of November, 2007. Eleven teams from various universities participated in the competition. A workshop was held for all the participating teams to provide them with a guideline, and side by side help them design their products in an unique way. “The first challenge lies in establishing a viable differentiation strategy” were the words of Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed. As the Chief Executive officer of Adcomm, Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed enlightened the participants with his intimate knowledge of marketing and advertising. The workshop conducted by Mr. Ahmed provided a guideline to teams from different respected Universities, namely IBA, IUB, NSU, EWU, UIU and Jahangirnagar University on how to further enhance their aptitude in this field. After a stimulating workshop by Mr. Ahmed ,Muntasir Alam, associate GM Interspeed, divided the teams into four respective groups, assigning each group with a unique product.

The competition was getting tougher; the countdown to the finals had already started. The participating teams started getting more focused and competitive, and so they came up with a wide spectrum of creativity with their remarkable presentations. One of them was a presentation of team Cloud9 on a resort at Sylhet. With a pinch of humor and a touch of criticism, the experts of this field judged the participants on mainly five criterions- consumer insight, strategic thinking, power of the idea, media communication and rebuttal. After a much difficult and competitive presentation session, the finalists were selected.

The most creative 8 final teams were “Team Zero” (Product : Fast Food), “The Incredibles” (Product :Benaroshi Saree) - from North South University (NSU); “High Flyers” (Product :Footwear) , “Team Ajaira” (Service: Tour Operator) , “Streetwise” (Product: Flower) & “Underscore (Product: Leather products) from Institute Of Business & Administration ( IBA); “Thumb Print” (Service: Beauty Salon) from Independent University Bangladesh( IUB) ; and “Heartqauke” (Boutique Shop) from East West University (EWU).

After a much exciting session on 16th, the competing teams met at All Community Club, Gulshan, on the 17th of November for a workshop conducted by Shahriar Amin - Manager Motherbrand Grameen Phone, Awrup Sanyal, Creative Director- Bitopi and Gousul Alam, general manager, creative and strategy, GREY. The experts then provided them with an outline on branding, marketing strategy, and creative thinking, the aim of which was to help participants recognize and evaluate trends and opportunities of the advertising industry.

Similar but a much comprehensive workshop was again conducted on the 18th, November 2007 at the same venue. The participants were instructed on many issues, some of which were new media choice and media strategy. The eight final teams were then assigned their respected small and medium enterprise products on which to present their advertising thoughts by our esteemed sponsor KATALYST. Affiliated with these eight teams were the venerated advertising agencies: Paper Rhyme, Dhanshiri, Carrotcomm, Benchmark, Head Office, A Positive, Mindshare and Roop Communications. Three weeks after starting its Journey, Inter University Promologic 2007, successfully organised the grand finale and closing ceremony of the gala event on 25th November, 2007 at Ballroom located at level 4 of Hotel Sarina, Banani. It all seemed like an eventful night with - all participants, organising committee members and volunteers following the formal dress code.

With the arrival of the respected panel of judges, Sumaiya Huq and Nayeem Kashem anchored the opening ceremony and finally the final round of presentation began. Judged by Mr. Aly Zaker - MD Asiatic Ltd., Mr. Mushtaq Ahmed- CEO Adcomm, Sarawat Ahmed- Joint convener, Adcomm and Nazim Farhan Chowdhury - MD Adcomm and Joint Convener, Adclub, the finalists exhibited a magnificent presentation session. Spotlights on the presenters, eyes focused on slides, pin-drop silence throughout the presentation - all gave the teams a platform of business world competition, and it reflected clearly they were confident and all prepared to step into it.

With their radical innovations -whether it be for the creatively funny “do it fast” fast food shop , the “flower shop” with a touch of emotion, the hitchhiking “Pothchola” tourism, the stylish “Maanja” consultancy saloon or dynamic ideas of as customized shoes based on season and personality, the eight teams presented a new dimension of creativity which overwhelmed the judges and the huge audience. After each presentation, 5 minutes of rebuttal was held for each team. And then it began-the results were being calculated; be it the judges wondering who was the best, be it the participants waiting with faster paced heart-beats, be it the organizers busy tabbing the points and ballots, be it the volunteers gathering here and there gossiping about the participants or be it the audience keeping their fingers crossed for their favorite teams- everyone present was engulfed in a mind-set with curiosity, excitement and rising tension.

After a much heated and absolutely electrifying competition the results were announced by the North South University Debate Club President Afreen Hossain Barsha, with the trophies being handed over to the winning team and the participants by Dr. S.A.M. Khairul Bashar the Pro-VC of North South University. In spite of an extremely close competition, the last smile was for the last team of the night, High Flyers from IBA, who completely enthralled the judges with their creatively presented innovative ideas and was announced the winning team of Inter University Promologic 2007. Participants Of the winning team were: Rafia Afrin,Rubaiya Islam, Asfia Mahin and Syeda Bushra Sania Faiz. Following them on a close trail with a difference of only two points were the runners up, Team zero from Nsu, with their product “Billoo's Fast food”. The participants of the runner-up team was : Naweed Shahriar, Zannatul Ferdous Mou, Monirul Islam Shishir, & Tahidul Haq Arnob.

The event was further graced by the presence of Mr. Ramendu Majumder-President Advertising agency association Bangladesh, the representatives of various advertising agencies and the sponsor - Katalyst. Moreover, 50 SME workers who could realte their real life experiences with the finalists' ideas were also present. The presentation session and the award giving ceremony was soon followed by a magnificent dinner ceremony. The dinner party was in literal sense “Food For Thought” for all of us. And it didn't stop there, the dinner party was followed by live performance by immensely popular band “Yaatri.” Performing all the hit chart songs, Topu Bhai made the entire audience swing with the vibe of melodies.

THE INTER UNIVERSITY PROMOLOGIC 2007 was a huge success. Combined effort of our respected faculties, the executive body of NSUDC, general members, sponsors made the event achieve a sparkling dimension. We all are looking forward to Promologic 2008 to "Battle with imagination & Win with logic" and make a true difference.