Winner unveiled at MediaWorks

Of the three, ‘Grow', mentored by Malcolm Hanlon, regional managing partner of Zenith Optimedia, was selected as the winner. The group's strategy to help Standard Chartered build on its sponsorship of Liverpool Football Club centred around developing a ‘passion-driven banking club' for young fans.

The ‘club' would take the form of a co-branded online banking environment offering features specially tailored to the needs of the target demographic, including higher interest rates and guidance and rewards around credit, mortgage and insurance services. By spending, club members are able to gain points translating to Liverpool-related benefits, with the top 30 members being offered an expenses-paid trip to Anfield to watch the final match of the season.

The team declined an offer to link the bank to a separate golf sponsorship - the Chindian Champions Masters Trophy - arguing that the alignment would dilute the bank's higher-profile sponsorship of Liverpool and weaken credibility among generation-Y consumers.

Following the announcement, Hanlon praised the team's synergy and pointed to this as a major contributing factor to its success. "Everyone was comfortable in their role and the team worked in harmony. People had different strengths, but everyone contributed to the end result," he said.

Grow's 10 members included Prajat Khare, senior manager at MediaCom Singapore; Johny Ji and Kelvin Song, respectively media director and associate planning director at Saatchi & Saatchi Great Wall Advertising; Jacqueline Purcell, executive at Mindshare's The Exchange; Xiaomin Han, planning director at Beijing DDB Needham; Lynn Lu, associate director at GroupM China; Shu Ki Chan, executive at Mindshare Hong Kong; Wahyu Dian, planner at Maxus Indonesia; Bindiya Jeram, account manager at Kinetic Worldwide Malaysia; and Putamas Amornvatana, exchange planning supervisor at Mindshare Thailand.

The contest's other finalists included the ‘Spring Rollers', led by Branded co-founder Jasper Donat, and the ‘Arrows', led by Christopher Harrison, regional partner of invention and client leadership for Mindshare. Client representative Nicola Apostolis, senior brand manager, praised the "fantastic ideas, thinking and talent" shown by the participants.

"It's an astonishing achievement to put together presentations like these in just three days," stated Mark Patterson, the event's chairman and regional chief executive of GroupM. "From a mentor's or chairman's perspective, it reminds you what is amazing about our industry. The winning presentation was all about the client's business. It didn't feel like a presentation of a media plan; it was completely different. The ideas, energy and creativity we have seen at MediaWorks really do give you hope for the future."