NEWS

Awards were given at the 8th "bizz@campus" competition, where junior and senior undergraduate/graduate students developed marketing ideas for the popular brands of Yıldız Holding's snack company pladis.

This year university students used their imagination to create marketing strategies for "Ülker Oneo" in the bizz@campus competition. Jury members pladis HR Vice President Faruk Gözleveli, pladis Chocolate, Chewing Gum, and Candy Production Vice President Kadir Kamadan, Brand Consultant Güven Borça, pladis Türkiye Marketing Leader Aslı Özen Turhan, Ülker Chocolate Marketing Director Tuba Akyüz, pladis R&D Vice President Ali Sertakan, pladis Supply Chain Vice President Nazmi Civil, and Yıldız Holding Corporate Communications Director Mehmet Uçan evaluated the students’ project ideas based on innovation, design, packaging, slogan, strategy and communication plans.

Internship and job opportunities at pladis

This year, 2,314 students on more than a thousand teams from 157 different universities participated in the competition, and the Aurora team, consisting of senior undergraduate students Mukadder Acarer and Ahmet Oğuzhan Ergüden from the Department of Advertising Design and Communication at Yeditepe University, won first place. Second prize was given to the Littlest Things team from Ege University, and third prize went to the Master Stajyer team from Istanbul Aydın University. In addition to awarding prizes of TL 20.000, TL 15,000, and TL 10,000 respectively to the top 3 teams, long-term internships and employment opportunities at pladis are also provided.

Ali Ülker: Young peoples’ ideas are very important to us

Yıldız Holding's Vice Chairman Ali Ülker stated that digital transformation has changed global marketing trends, and that they need young peoples’ ideas more in such a world:
“Most of our bizz@campus applications this year were full of details that excited us. In this period we live in, we need the powerful ideas of young people because they are reshaping the world through digital transformation, which Yıldız Holding and the rest of the world is experiencing. Companies like us need to monitor this change carefully and be a part of it.
All the students who participated in our contest shared a common success, regardless of their final standings. The most important thing is showing the courage to participate in the competition and working as a team. Of course, we had to select the top three teams, but all of our students won today. Once again, we would like to thank the young people who came here and shared their work and ideas with us. The inspiration we get from these young people will guide us while creating our brand strategy in the future.”

The competition had a record number of applications

Pladis Human Resources Vice President Faruk Gözleveli also stated that there had been a 23% increase in applications to the competition this year. Gözleveli said, "So far, 9,693 teams comprised of 28,596 students have presented their ideas at the competition. We received applications from 150 different departments of 157 universities, which shows the importance of taking advantage of different disciplines and versatile ideas when creating marketing strategies. Starting from the first day of applications, through the period where the project objectives were given, and up to the final day where the presentations were made, the whole process was a mutual exchange of information between us and the students as ideas were developed. We learned a lot from these ideas, and I think that all of our applicants have benefited from their experiences during the competition."