Toyota invited the students and their faculty advisors to an immersion tour of its plant in Santa Rosa, Laguna where the Vios is being manufactured.

Judith Mae Del Valle, a Marketing Management student from De La Salle College of St. Benilde (DLS-CSB) Antipolo, is one of the students whose teams are vying for a spot in the first ever Toyota Young Marketeers Challenge or TYMC.

The TYMC is a student competition that will recognize the most creative, innovative, and effective marketing campaigns for TMP’s flagship passenger car, the Toyota Vios.

“What we’re doing here is what we’re going to do in the professional world. So, it’s a preview of our future,” said Judith, when asked why her team joined Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP)’s student competition.

Cristina Arevalo, first vice president for brand and product planning of TMP said that TYMC has allowed the car manufacturer to provide college and university students a learning opportunity beyond the classroom.

“We’re giving them a platform to practice their marketing skills and knowledge by creating industry-ready campaigns for an exciting product that young marketeers can develop fun ideas for — which is the Philippine’s best-selling sedan, the Toyota Vios, she said.

To kick off the program, TMP invited the students and their faculty advisors to an immersion tour with TMP’s brand and marketing experts. To get the student teams more familiar with the product, the immersion program started with a tour of TMP’s plant in Santa Rosa, Laguna where the Vios is being manufactured.

The teams were also brought to TMP’s partner marketing and advertising agencies to learn from industry practitioners. Through this part of the immersion tour, they were able to see how campaign strategies are conceptualized and brought to life through different marketing channels.

The participants said the tour helped them develop insights on the Toyota Vios which they were tasked to develop a campaign for.

“The Vios is not a final masterpiece, but a kaizen process, a work in progress,” said DLS-CSB Manila Marketing Management major Ronald Calaingan.

“It’s the best in the market right now but it doesn’t mean that it couldn’t get better. That’s what Toyota is doing right now, it keeps on improving the Vios.”

For her part, Elijah Francois Corea of the University of Santo Tomas Junior Marketing Association said the challenge offers a great opportunity for students to learn and also to share what they’ll be learning from the plant tour and recount their experience of having been a participant at the Toyota competition.

Finalists of the competition will be announced in October and the chosen student teams will face-off in a final pitch day to be judged by automotive and marketing industry luminaries.

The winning teams will receive technology packages and cash grants for their schools. The grand champion will also win a trip to Japan to visit Toyota’s facilities in the brand’s home country.

Aside from these prizes, the winning team will also get the chance to have their winning campaign brought to life by Toyota for their marketing campaigns.

Should their ideas win and be turned into reality, how would they feel?

“It’s an honor for us to showcase our talents and skills and our knowledge, and it’s also one way to honor our school and thank them for something that Benilde has instilled in us,” said Solbi Lee of DLS-CSB Manila.