The 3rd Season of Voice of Business BRANDrill Held

The 3rd season of Voice of Business BRANDrill saw its curtain fall on yet another
amazing edition of one of the most talked about branding competitions of the country,
on November 5, 2020. The grand finale of the “IPDC presents BRANDrill 2020 powered
by Eclectic Education”, took place through zoom platform in front of a large virtual
crowd.

BRANDrill is a branding based competition among the undergraduate students of

Bangladesh. Like the previous years, the competition created much hype this year too
and got a massive response countrywide among the youths. More than 200 teams from
20+ universities took part in BRANDrill 2020. The whole competition was divided into
three different levels along with a workshop incorporating different hurdles of branding.

The competition commenced with online case submission on October 15, where around
750 students participated. Among them, best 40 teams got through to the 2nd round for
their outstanding branding ideas. Before commencing the 2nd round of the competition
an online branding-related workshop was held for the participants with a view to
providing them with a clear perception on Branding and the answered their queries with
expert jury panel. The workshop was followed by OVC making round. After facing a
neck to neck competition, only 8 teams made it to the finale.

After a hairbreadth competition among 8 qualified teams in the finale, “NSY” from
Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) was declared as the Champion and
awarded with BDT 50,000. Team ‘Extra Drill’ from University of Dhaka became the first
runner-up and Team UNDISPUTED from North South University became the 2nd
runner up. Both the teams received BDT 30,000 and 20,000 in prize money respectively
along with certificates and souvenirs.

The contestants were judged by Tareq Islam Shuvo, Head of Company Strategy, Brand
and Corporate Communication, IPDC Finance; Grace Kanta Sarkar, Head of Marketing,
Shohoz, and Md Iftekhar Alam, Head of Brand Strategy & Creative Marketing,
Grameenphone.

Dr. Muhammad Abdul Moyeen, Dean (Acting), Faculty of Business Studies, University
of Dhaka, was present as the Chief Guest; and Solaiman Sarwar, Head of Strategic
Initiatives and Head of MNC and High Value Clients, Corporate Business, IPDC
Finance, was the Special Guest for the Grand Finale
Dr. Muhammad Abdul Moyeen said in his speech, “I really appreciate the organizers of
BRANDrill 2020 for accepting the challenge of organizing a national competition during
the pandemic and participants to show the courage to participate. You all have captured
the essence of action learning, and may that process lead you to self-learning and self-
discovery.”
Mahfuza Rahman Mitu, a participant of the competition- whose team later emerged as
the champion-said, “We appreciate how well each round was enacted which helped us
to gather real experiences with a well-structured case that was different from
conventional competition.
Voice of Business, the largest student run publication and business club from the
Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka is presently in its 13th year. Since its
inception in 2007, VoB has created opportunities for the business students for skill
development and knowledge enhancement through connecting with prominent business
leaders of the time.
Writer
Name: Fouzia Fariha
University: University of Dhaka
Department: Department of Finance