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Competition

Ad Maker Bangladesh: Creative Minds Compete

Promiti Prova Chowdhury
Photos: NSU YES

November 23, 2011 was a special day for the young creative thinkers across the nation. After all, staging your own TVC (television commercials) in front of the heads of multinational corporations and esteemed media houses is not just any usual occurrence! Clear Ad Maker Bangladesh 2011 -- a TVC making competition brought together around 500 undergraduate students from all over the country to bring out the best young TVC makers.

It all started on the October 20, 2011. For 11 days NSU YES! (North South University Young Entrepreneur's Society), executed a road show reaching eight universities of Dhaka and Chittagong. Universities situated in other districts were approached through emails. The on-spot registration was done at the university premises.

The winning team of Ad Maker 2011.

A workshop, considered as 'life changing' by many of the participants, was conducted on November 3 at NSU. Luminaries like Nafis Anwar, Product Group Manager, Unilever, Shakib Chowdhury, Creative Director, Asiatec JWT, Amitabh Reza, Director, Half Stop Down, Piplu R Khan, Director, Applebox Films, Prithwi Raj, Musician and Rashed Zaman, Cinematographer were the moderators.

Syeda Tasmia Billah, a participant, says, “I am a student of Media Studies. This workshop proved to be a feather on the cap. Now I know that while making a TVC I have to have justification for every shot that I use. Both creative and technical aspects of a TVC were broken into minute details during the workshop.”

While Nafis Anwar explained what a client or a brand manager wants from an advertising agency, Shakib Chowdhury delineated how an agency plans to work after getting the contract. Showing some popular TVCs like Banglalink's 'Dinbodol', Grameenphone's 'Apon', Rashed Zaman and Amitabh Reza discussed the different shots that were used there.

Participants were mailed the product briefings on November 13. The products on which they made TVCs were Fair & Lovely Multivitamin Cream, Rin, Lux, Radio Foorti, Vaseline, Close Up, Ponds, Pepsodent, Fair & Lovely Body Fairness Milk and Lifebuoy. On November 23 they staged their TVCs at the North Academic Building of NSU in front of the judges who were from Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, Asiatec JWT, Radio Foorti and Prothom Alo Jobs.

While presentations were scrutinised, some ideas and taglines impressed the judges. Attention grabbing, interesting storyline and a properly rendered key message -- these were the three criteria that the judges looked for.

Another participant, Ananta Yusuf exclaims, “I have made TVCs for the 'Advertising' course at my university. But that was within my comfort zone. Here competing with several other talented students from all over Bangladesh, that even with 'real' products, I could evaluate myself. Also it is a great honour to meet such eminent personalities. I have learned a lot from their feedbacks.”

“Clear Anti-Dandruff Shampoo for Men” was the product on which the 10 finalist teams prepared TVCs along with a full-fledged media plan. Daniel Afzalur Rahman, Piplu R. Khan, Tahmina Ferdousi, Senior Brand Manager of Clear, Unilever, and Asef Hassan, Lecturer, NSU chaired the event as judges.

The teams came up with some original, youthful and pulsating TVCs. Within the given 8 minutes they presented their story idea, research methodology, campaign planning; including budget, on-airing time frames and mediums, along with showing the TVC.

The chief guest of the session was MD Shajahan, Chairman, NSU while the special guest was Aly Zaker, CEO, Asiatic JWT. Sara Zaker, Deputy Managing Director, Asiatic JWT and Professor Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, Dean, School of Business, NSU graced the event as Guests of Honour. Professor Abdul Hannan Chowdhury congratulated NSU YES! for organising the event successfully for the second time on a row.

Team 'Cheap Monks' and team 'The Fabricators' from NSU stood as the 2nd and 1st runners up respectively. The Champion team named 'Victoria's Secret' was from IBA, University of Dhaka. The proud leader of the team, Azhar Chowdhury shares, “We are always engaged in out-of-the-box thinking. But this competition helped me to narrow them down and get linked with the brand. You can say, our creativity was channelled into a particular path through AD Maker 2011.”

Powered by Radio Foorti, with associate partner Innovi, web partner Prothom Alo Jobs and the technical Advisor Asiatic JWT, this whole initiative by NSU YES! brought together all the creative minds under one roof. Chief Guest, Aly Zaker, convened all the participants to connect to the plight of mass people of the country as much as possible, to bring out extraordinary productions and changes in society.