By Tiffny Rhodius
Last Friday when Scotiabank announced its finalists for the Change-Maker Challenge contest, Roma Singh’s essay proposal was the only one from Guyana that made it to the shortlist and now she’s hoping her marketing platform finds favour with the judges.
After 1,300 marketing visions from 14 countries were submitted for Soctiabank’s new adult-focused programme, Scotiabank Be, ten were selected to move on.
Speaking to Stabroek News, the 25-year-old who is currently pursuing studies in Project Management at the American University of Peace Studies said it wasn’t the US$10,000 prize money that prompted her to enter the competition. Rather it was the challenge of putting her acquired knowledge to use and this she thinks made the job much easier.
“My intuition started to get the best of me [and] with my qualifications and experience within the banking and finance field I decided to take the challenge of assimilating my thoughts and ideas about the marketing of the Scotia Be programme,” Singh said.
The Scotiabank Change-Maker Challenge asked contestants to create a marketing strategy for Scotiabank Be, Scotiabank’s young adult banking platform. The challenge was developed to reflect the importance the bank places on its young customers and their ideas.
When asked how she felt when she learned she had made it to the top ten Singh said, “It was an overwhelming feeling.”
She pointed out that her essay being selected out of 1,300 entries “shows vehemently that the power and onus lies within each individual and that nothing is impossible”.
In Singh’s proposal she themed her campaign ‘What You Do Today Can Impact Your Tomorrow’; she explains, “The Scotia Be programme appeals to individuals between 18-30 years, which I consider to be the years which are most critical since most individuals seek to find his or her sense of identity and independence.”
Singh’s essay proposed an “integrated marketing approach to bridge the gap between the target audience and the product/service under consideration”. This she explains simply means that “the more the public hears about the programme the better our chances of increasing marketing share.”
The ten finalists must now submit a presentation which would be a detailed analysis of what was contained in the essay. To bridge the gap, Singh developed five tactics that she feels will be best for reaching the target population of the bank’s programme. Her tactics are geared towards reaching the target audience through their entertainment spots, local news, shopping, work and games. “I am a firm believer that personal communication via on-the-ground execution excellence is the best approach to market Scotia Bank’s programme,” she said.
Participants were asked ‘As the Marketing Director responsible for the launch of the new Scotiabank Be brand in your country, how would you use your US$100,000 marketing and promotions budget to engage young adults to participate in the Scotiabank Be programme and its services?’
After selecting the ten finalists, summaries of their submissions were put up for peer evaluation on its website, www.changemakerchallenge. com. Since being posted, Singh’s submission has seen the third highest rating and when asked how she felt, the confident young lady replied, “It’s overwhelming!”
She pointed out that she has a link on her Facebook page that takes persons to the site so that they can rate her and the support she is receiving is very impressive.
She said that all the while she was confident that it would have done “pretty well”.
The top three proposals that have the highest ratings are from Belize, Jamaica and Guyana and three finalists will be selected after examination of the peer evaluations and evaluation by the judges. Knowing that she stands a chance of being one of the three is quite a heady feeling for the ambitious Singh but she stated that she does not want to count her chickens before they are hatched.
Commenting on her competition she said, “Overall it was a good effort on their part but I still believe I have the best [submission].”
Participants will be notified of the final three on July 3. The top three will then be flown to Jamaica to personally present their proposals to the judges and for the announcement of the winner on July 17. The judges are senior Scotiabank executives, local academic leaders and media persons and the individual with the most innovative idea will receive US$10,000 while the second and third place recipients will receive US$5,000 and US$3,000 respectively.
Meanwhile, Singh expressed her gratitude to her husband and family for supporting her and encouraging her to enter the contest. Singh describes herself as a fun-loving individual with strong morals, religious and family oriented background with a soft spot for animals.