A total of eight teams, two from CUHK, HKU, HKUST, and PolyU, participated in this year's competition, both the second time Brandstorm, now in its 14th year, has been hosted in Hong Kong as well as CUHK's second time participating. The competition was judged by senior-level executives from L'Oréal.
While the competition was even more intense this year, with a greater number of teams and an increased spirit of creativity and professionalism, Hallas Cheung (Final Year, Professional Accountancy), Albert Lam (Final Year, Integrated BBA), and Gillian Lam (Final Year, Integrated BBA) took away third place for their case study, which focused on a new, two-year international marketing strategy for the Lancome Bodycare line of products. Hallas, Albert, and Gillian have all since gone on to graduate from CUHK in May 2006. Coming in first was HKU, while HKUST took second. CUHK's second team consisted of Jacky Yeung (Year 3, Integrated BBA), Winnie Yeung (Year 3, Integrated BBA), and Fu Cai (Final Year, Quantitative Finance). In last year's Brandstorm Competition, CUHK's team was placed first runner-up.
In the competition, teams of three were invited to "become Lancome experts", Lancome being the luxury cosmetics division of L'Oréal. They were asked to analyze the Lancome Bodycare line of products and its market, and identify the consumers, competitors and trends. They were then given the challenge of creating a long-term marketing strategy for Lancome Bodycare by coming up with a new range of products that would both respect the company's core brand values, while developing its competitive edge. An emphasis was placed on development for the local market while keeping a global context in mind. The teams were also given the chance to work closely for about two months with Publicis, a 4A advertising agency, who gave them professional advice and assistance on everything from preparing storyboards to creating eye-catching artwork.
This is only L'Oréal Brandstorm's second year in Hong Kong, but the competition has had a long history of more than 10 years, with the inaugural contest held in 1993 in France. The creative marketing competition has since attracted more than 14,300 undergraduates from all over the globe, this year from more than 100 universities in 32 different countries. The winning team of the National Finals was given the opportunity to represent Hong Kong in the International Finals, which was held in Paris on 15 June, 2006. The resulting champions of the International Finals were two teams this year, the Korea University and L'institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.
