The winner and the first two runners-up of the country’s first-ever Walton Presents Marketing Olympiad Powered by American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), in Association with The Daily Star, were declared through a gala final comprising 3 exciting rounds at AIUB on May 27.
Nadia Hossain from North South University created history by becoming the winner of the Olympiad. Following her, Shirsha Rohan Roy and Mohtasim Bin Habib from Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka become the first and second runner-ups, respectively.
Champion Nadia received a Prize money of BDT 100,000. Following him/her, the first and second runner-ups, Shirsha and Mohtasim got prize money of BDT 75,000 and 50,000, respectively. Additionally, the rest of the top 10 finalists received exciting gifts.
Prominent media professional Ferdous Bappy presided over the grand finale as the Master of the Ceremony.
Initiated by Marketing Society of Bangladesh and organised by Bangladesh Brand Forum, the olympiad was conducted in different stages and rounds to examine the knowledge and potential of emerging marketers.
The olympiad received a tremendous response from students of different institutions. It witnessed around 13,456 registrations between May 8 to May 14. Among these, 9,437 students took part in the Olympiad.
10 participants made it to the final, which was divided into 3 rounds. In the initial Rapid Fire round, each participant was given 90 seconds to answer a maximum of 15 questions, with a value of 1 point per correct answer. The top 7 points holder advanced to the Topic Based Questions round. In this round, participants were given 7 broad topics to choose from for answering. Each participant faced 5 questions with a value of 10 points for each. 2 More participants were eliminated in this round. In the ultimate Buzzer Round, the top 5 finalists competed with each other to gain a maximum of 35 points from 35 questions.
The first round of the olympiad took place between May 15-17. The top 500 participants were shortlisted for the second round of the competition. In the second round, held on May 20, the top 103 participants were shortlisted. Additionally, the participants also got an opportunity to attend Marketing Olympiad’s day-long Bootcamp on May 23.
The top 103 participants attended round 3. They were given a business case to solve immediately after the bootcamp with a deadline till May 24. Finally, The top 10 Participants went through a gala round where the Winners were declared.
Shariful Islam, Founder and Managing Director of Bangladesh Brand Forum, regarding the first-ever marketing olympiad, said, “Students need to practice and exercise marketing in addition to their academic knowledge. This initiative will set a new trend and allow emerging marketers to think critically and adopt more sustainable solutions to any problem.”
Walton Presents Marketing Olympiad Powered by American International University – Bangladesh (AIUB), in Association with The Daily Star is an initiative of Marketing Society of Bangladesh (MSB). Organised by Bangladesh Brand Forum, Marketing Olympiad is held in Partnership with Asia Marketing Federation (AMF) & International Advertising Association – Bangladesh. Event Partner – Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd.; Strategic Partner – Marketers’ Institute of Bangladesh (MIB); Broadcast Partner – Deepto TV; Technology Partner – aamra Technologies Limited and PR partner – Backpage PR.
