IIMA uses Facebook, Twitter to test marketing skill of Insight participants

For the first time, Insight -  the oldest fair and market research (MR) event in the country - was conducted as a two-day event at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). Also for the first time IIMA used social networking websites and national television channel to promote the extravaganza, held on October 2 and 3.

An online contest - Live! Marketing Strategy for Dare2Compete.com - tested the strategic thinking and marketing capabilities of the participants. The event was aimed at providing students with the latest competitions waiting to happen in India and abroad.

Aviral Jain, media co-ordinator for Insight, said, "Each team promoted their marketing strategy through administrative access of Dare2Compete's Facebook and Twitter accounts. The number of visits, skill to promote ideas and implementation of marketing strategies to lure people fetched teams the required points."

Unnati, Phodoos, Gryffinder, Sanmanniknik, BlackSwanStrategists and Daredevils teams participated in the unique live marketing strategy contest.

The institutes which took up the challenge included GLIM, Chennai; IIFT, Kolkata; IMT, Ghaziabad; IIM Shillong; IIM Kolkata; IIM Indore, MICA; and IIM Ahmedabad. Each team was provided two days' time to promote and implement its marketing strategy. Winners are yet to be declared by the judges.

Pankaj Singh, secretary for Insight '10, said, "On the first day, we received overwhelming response to the seminar on requirement and role of MR in PSU banks. S Sridhar, chairman and MD of Central Bank of India, Prof Jayant Verma and Prof Arindam Banerjee of IIMA highlighted positions of both public and private sector banks in our country; how MR can help these banks change over time; and considering MR as a career option. Over 180 students from institutes like XLRI, FMS, IIT-Delhi, MICA, IIM-Shillong, IBS, colleges from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi Universities attended the seminar."

PSU seminar was followed by Nielson company's workshop. After an overview on the MR industry globally as well as in India with special focus on how various businesses can benefit from it, a workshop on various tools and best practices followed in the industry was held. "Post workshop, audience were divided into ten groups and each group was given a real-life MR case and the winners were declared by the end of the day," Singh said.

Parallel to this event was 'Bone of Contention', which was a pan-India invitational marketing debate competition. This event witnessed eight teams reaching the finals.

IIM-K emerged winner after beating a tough IIM-C team. IIMA had roped in national television channel to broadcast the event. While more than 500 students took part on Day 1, close to 3,000 participated on Day 2.