Eminent jury members of Nissan Student Brand Manager (NSBM) 2012, Mr. Prahlad Kakkar - Ad Guru - Genesis Films, Mr. Nitish Tipnis – Director, Sales &Marketing – Hover Automotive India, Mr. Josy Paul - National Creative Director – BBDO/Proximity India, Mr. V.G. Ramakrishnan – Vice President – South Asia & MENA, Automotive Practice, Frost & Sullivan, Mr. Harish Bijoor - CEO - Harish Bijoor Consults, Ms. Renuka Kirpalani – Editor – Autocar Show (Bloomberg UTV), Dr. Nirmalya Kumar – Faculty – London Business School and Ms. Mini Menon – Executive Editor – Bloomberg UTV. The jury members played an important role in selecting the 19 NSBMs this year.
National winner of NSBM 2012 Mr. Siva Sankar from Calicut with runners-up Ms. Neha Damle and Mr. Tushar Sehgal from Ahmedabad.
EDITOR SYNOPSIS:
- Global Indian thought leader Dr. Nirmalya Kumar of London Business School amongst the jury panel this year
- Nissan Student Brand Manager 2012 returned 2467 student applications from 590 colleges across 25 cities
- Selected Student Brand Managers to play a key role in bringing brand Nissan closer to the student community and the public at large
- Siva Sankar from Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode was adjudged the National winner of NSBM 2012
Mumbai, July 10, 2012: Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. (NMIPL) today announced the selection of 19 young management students from across India as Nissan Student Brand Managers (NSBM) 2012. The third season of the NSBM program garnered a whopping 2,467 registrations from 590 colleges across 25 Indian cities, showcasing the growing popularity of this unique student initiative to promote the Nissan’s brand identity in India.
This year, the program received an overwhelming response from all centres – Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Mumbai had the maximum number of registrations with 880 students, followed by New Delhi with 618 student applications. Chennai with 445 and Bengaluru with 362 applications were the other two centres with a large number of applicants for the NSBM 2012 program.
The panelists this year consisted of eminent personalities from diverse fields. Dr. Nirmalya Kumar – Marketing Guru & Faculty - London Business School, Mr. Prahlad Kakkar - Ad Film Director - Genesis Films, Mr. Harish Bijoor - CEO - Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, Mr. Josy Paul - National Creative Director - BBDO India and Mr. Nitish Tipnis - Director – Sales & Marketing - Hover Automotive India played an important role in short listing the final entries from every region, with the final round held in Mumbai comprising of 41 students. The entries were judged on several aspects including Uniqueness of the Idea, Relevance to the Automobile Industry, Clarity or Communication of Ideas, Innovative Thinking and Feasibility, while executing the Ideas.
Addressing the final shortlisted students, Mr. Nitish Tipnis said, “The third season of NSBM has brought more innovation and creativity to the fore. The overwhelming response that we have received this year justifies the fact that India has a large pool of entrepreneurial talent which thrives on creative excellence. Through this initiative, we will tap this potential and propel it further to achieve meaningful results.”
Ecstatic at the response to the program, Dr. Nirmalya Kumar said, “It is very gratifying to see the talent that India has and it is encouraging to see a brand like Nissan taking them to the next level with a program such as NSBM. The program reflects the serious intent of Nissan to identify and nurture future talent and there is no doubt about the fact that it has created a benchmark for companies to follow.”
To add to the overall experience of the program, Dr. Nirmalya Kumar will be presenting a book titled ‘Marketing as strategy’ to all the finalists competing in the Grand Finale.
The range of activities for the NSBM’s this year will vary from creating unique events of their own from setting up test-drive days at their respective colleges to creating buzz about brand Nissan among student community. This year, the campaign was open to second year management students across the country, including the Eastern part of the country, where it was not thrown open last year. Some of the short-listed Brand Managers are from reputed B-School institutes such as IIM Bengaluru, IIM Kolkata, IIM Chennai, FMS, MDI, IIT Bengaluru and IIT Chennai.
Nissan Student Brand Manager Program is currently active on social networking website Facebook, and has grabbed the interest of numerous individuals. Since fan base is an integral part of any event, the third edition of Nissan’s program has received more than 37,000 hits.
Apart from that, the program will also be telecast in a 30 minutes format on Bloomberg UTV in 6 episodes, which includes five regional rounds and one grand finale. The details of the telecast are as follows:
| Region | Date |
| Bengaluru | July 28, 2012 |
| Chennai | August 4, 2012 |
| Mumbai | August 11, 2012 |
| Delhi | August 18, 2012 |
| Kolkata | August 25, 2012 |
| Grand Finale | September 1, 2012 |
The Nissan Student Brand Managers for 2012 are as follows:
| Sr.No. | Name of the Nissan
Student Brand Manager | City | Institute |
| 1 | Siva Sankar
(National Winner) | Calicu | Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode |
| 2 | Tushar Sehgal
(First Runner-up) | Ahmedabad | Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad |
| 3 | Neha Damle
(Second Runner-up) | Ahmedabad | Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad |
| 4 | Garvita Kumar | Lucknow | Indian Institute of Management |
| 5 | Gopinath Ganesan | Tiruchirappalli | Bharathidasan Institute of Management |
| 6 | Ishan Singh | Mumbai | K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research |
| 7 | Krishan Kant Issar | Delhi | MIB - Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi |
| 8 | Chirag Jain | Chennai | IIT Madras -DoMS |
| 9 | Nikhil Malhotra | Bengaluru | Symbiosis Institute of Business Management |
| 10 | Piyush Gupta | Kolkata | Eastern Institute For Integrated Learning In Management |
| 11 | Raman Gupta | Manipal | TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal |
| 12 | Rashmi R | Bhubaneswar | Xavier's Institute of Management Bhubhaneswar |
| 13 | Sachidhanandham
Lokanathan | Coimbatore | Amrita Business School |
| 14 | Amit Garg | Gurgaon | Management Development Institute |
| 15 | Sourabh Kothari | Delhi | Faculty of Management Studies |
| 16 | Sudeep Singh | Mumbai | NMIMS University |
| 17 | Anuj Nagpal | Pune | The Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA) |
| 18 | Veena Wadhwa | Bengaluru | TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal |
| 19 | Vivek Bhaskaran | Cochin | Rajagiri Centre for Business Studies |
About the Nissan Student Brand Manager Program
The Nissan Student Brand Manager Program was started in 2010 with a vision to identify marketing talent in the country. NSBM is a person who will represent the Nissan brands within his peers and get hands on experience of marketing activities while pursuing his studies. NSBM is an honorary position with the company and does not guarantee employment with Nissan. During their tenure, each student brand manager gets INR 10,000 per month for 6 months to help them conceptualise and implement innovative ideas on Nissan brand visibility and sustenance. Apart from that each NSBM will be trained by the Nissan Corporate trainer and get a NSBM Kit (Digital camera, Bag, Books, Visiting Card and T-shirt) which equips them to conduct their initiatives in a professional manner. Also, each NSBM can get a “Nissan Micra” based on their requirements which further help them to understand marketing activities of an automobile brand.
ABOUT NISSAN MOTOR INDIA PVT. LTD.
Nissan Motor India Private Ltd. (NMIPL), a 100% subsidiary of Nissan Motor Limited Japan, was incorporated in 2005 with a vision of ‘Enriching People’s Lives’ through latest Nissan Technology and products. In February 2008, Nissan together with its global alliance partner Renault signed a MoU with Government of Tamil Nadu to set up a manufacturing plant at Oragadam, near Chennai with an investment of Rs. 4500 crore over a period of 7 years. On March 17, 2010, the Renault-Nissan alliance plant was inaugurated in a record time of 21 months since its groundbreaking ceremony in June 2008. NMIPL has appointed Hover Automotive India (HAI) as their exclusive strategic alliance partner to handle sales and marketing, dealer development, customer relationship management and after sales in India.
For more information on Nissan India products, services and commitment to sustainable mobility, visit our website at http://www.nissan.in/en/web/homepage/index.htm
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Ms. Savita Samuel
Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd.
Mobile: +91-8939684422
Email: savita.samuel@email.nissan.in
Adfactors PR Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Gaurav Bhat / Mr. Mayur Shah
Mobile: +91-9833057592 / 9820149769
Email: gaurav.bhat@adfactorspr.com / mayur.shah@adfactorspr.com
