Inspiring innovation and creativity in marketing communication, Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF) and The Daily Star in association with Cannes Lions organized Lions Edit Competition Bangladesh 2015 on June 12, 2015 at the Daily Star Centre. The endeavor was supported by Roaring Lions as the strategic partner.

The Lion Edit Competition is an annual hunt for the most creative and competitive young professional of the country. The competition is designed to push the young generation of advertisers who will bring new revolutions to the marketing industry to attain a different height. Agencies sent a team of their talented young professionals to participate. In this competition, young marketing professional are given a real life challenge and asked to develop a campaign to overcome the challenges in a given time frame.    

The Lions Edit Competition Bangladesh 2015 started off at 9 am with the opening speech of Tabita Zahur Iqbal, Brand Manager and Managing Editor, Bangladesh brand Forum Publication. She welcomed all the sixteen competitors in eight teams from different agencies and shed light on the core objective and aim of the competition. Then she handed over the campaign brief to the participants and clarified and answered the queries of the competition.

This year the competition was based on print media campaign. Youths had to come up with innovative print campaign ideas to inspire men in supporting women to achieve leadership positions in their career. The target audience of the campaign was the urban male of 18 years and above. The deadline of the campaign submission was 5 p.m.

In the meantime, there were showcasing of the award winning campaigns from Cannes Lions 2014 and video seminar. Among all the campaigns showcased, the Trojan Mailing Campaign of DHL Express Ltd was immensely appreciated be the visitors.        

A jury panel of industry experts and marketing professionals evaluated the campaigns developed by the competing teams. Asif Ahmed, Head of Marketing of Bkash; Sania Mahmood, Head of Marketing of Perfetti Van Melle Bangladesh; and Shamarukh Fakhruddin, Marketing Director of Lafarge Surma Cement were the honorable judges. 

Each team did a 7 minutes presentation of their campaigns with 3 minutes for question answer session. The teams are given code names to conceal their identity and keep the judgment procedure bias free.

Each team had to undergo critical observations of the juries with emphasis on target audience and creative strategy used. One design used hijab to show the suppression of women in society with a message to give her freedom. The juries found the ad sensitizing religious beliefs and off-track. Another ad showed Dr Yunus as a brand ambassador of women empowerment and encouraged all men to be like him. “But Dr Yunus empowered women at the grass-root level, not the urban corporate women”, corrected Sania Mahmood. The juries pointed that understanding the brief was a very critical and major step in designing a winning campaign.

Finally, after much analysis and discussion, The Daily Star Team, comprising of Strategic Planner Shuvashish Roy and Graphic Designer Iftakhar Hossain, conquered the title of Champion with their “WOWman” campaign. Wowman campaign regarded a man with this title to appreciate his support for women leadership at the corporate sector, thus inspiring men to support women.

Team Analyzen of Nazia Zebin and Mashfique Khalid was the runner-up with their comprehensive ad campaign raising consciousness of a brother, a father, a husband, a male colleague respectively to choose the best options for his sister, daughter, wife and male colleague.

Nazia Zebin emphasized on the importance of such competition saying, “Any kind of competition provides motivation to achieve a goal; demonstrate determination, creativity and perseverance, overcome challenges; and to understand that hard work and commitment leads to a greater success. And competitions like Lion’s Edit which demands the most creative minds to get through – are perhaps even more challenging.

Shuvashish Roy shared his winning expression, “To be the most creative young professional from this platform of Lions Edit Competition gives me the pride that I can rejoice in my entire life. I was enthralled with joy the moment my team was announced champion. When I was on the stage, I felt the responsibility to uphold the glory at the global stage as I will be attending SPIKES ASIA. Our team is determined to give its best for our country.”

The two winning teams will take part in the Spikes Asia competition in September 2015 in Singapore. Spikes Asia is the region’s oldest award for excellence in the creative communications industries and a three-day Festival of inspiration and celebration. The talented minds will surely bring honor and accolade for Bangladesh and their respective organizations dazzling the participants from all over the world.   

by Iftekharul Dastagir