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Water triumph! UEL students win Thames Water award for efficiency marketing campaign

Wednesday 6 December 2006

Enterprising students at the University of East London (UEL) have created an animated Water Goddess figure – think Lara Croft meets Charlie Dimmock – to help Thames Water spread the word about the importance water efficiency.

On Friday 1 December, teams from the UEL Business School presented a series of marketing plans for proposed water efficiency campaigns to be run in East London next year. The students’ presentations were judged by a panel from Thames Water and a representative of the London Sustainability Exchange, and the winning team was awarded a cheque for £500.

Over 30 students took part in the module, in which they were given an imaginary budget of £50,000 to produce a cost effective, environmentally friendly campaign. Their ideas included targeted campaigns aimed at hospitals, schools, leisure centres and university campuses.

Lynn Launchbury, Water Efficiency Campaign Manager for Thames Water, announced the winners, saying: “It’s been incredibly difficult to choose one winner out of so many exciting and well-presented ideas. This has been a genuine marketing challenge because we urgently need to encourage people to change their behaviour around water use.

"It's been great to see that the students seem even more passionate about water efficiency than I am, and I’m very much looking forward to developing our partnership with UEL in the months and years to come.”

Jane Mulholland, Partnership and Communications Co-ordinator at the London Sustainability Exchange, added: “It’s wonderful to see how enthusiastic the students have been about the campaign. They came up with lots of interesting ideas for everyone to think about, and showed how useful this project can be as a means of encouraging research and creative thinking and preparing students for the demands of life in the commercial sector.”

The winning team was made up of Florian Yemeri (20), of Islington, Sefa Yildrim (23), of Archway, Saff Khan (21) and Ismail Ahmed Ismail (23), both of Walthamstow. Their marketing plan was based on a new youth-orientated image for Thames Water, updating Latis, the Greek Goddess of Water, as a Lara Croft-like figure.

Ismail, a third-year student on UEL's BA (Hons) degree in Business Studies, said: “It’s been great to work on a real-life campaign dealing with real-life issues. Water shortages are a serious problem, and I’ve learnt a great deal from this project, not only about marketing, but also about how to get beneath the surface of a major contemporary dilemma.”

Dr Nnamdi Madichie, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the UEL Business School, said: “This project is one of a number of initiatives run here at UEL to increase the employability of our students and align with the Government's White Paper on Widening Participation. We look forward to developing our collaborative work with Thames Water and other industry partners.”

UEL’s Business School has recently undergone dramatic developments, with the completion of its new home on the waterfront of the Royal Albert Dock marking a defining moment in the School’s progression as both a provider of high-quality business and management education and a major player in the economic regeneration of East London.

For further information about the wide range of programmes available at UEL’s Business School, contact Carole Flanagan on 020 8223 3356 or C.M.Flanagan@uel.ac.uk, or visit www.uel.ac.uk.

For details and pictures contact Patrick Wilson: 020 8223 2061 or 07951 797 975

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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