Kudos to Urban Nature : Manchester Metropolitan University Students win annual L'Oreal Brandstorm competition

Urban nature team: Michael Boyle, Toni Symons and Michael Barker

Congratulations to Michael Boyle, Toni Symons and Michael Barker. Well done indeed!

Bringing natural images and ingredients into an urban setting is the next big idea in marketing hair care products, according to a team of students from Manchester Metropolitan University.

The concept that they call "urban nature" brings images such as basil leaves and cedar wood into an urban setting using images of orbs made from leaves or wood shavings. Read original article.

Wearing co-ordinated forest-design outfits made by one of their grannies, the team has just won L'Oreal Brandstorm, a competition to find new marketing talent.

"The whole point of our product is organics and there's been such a boom in organic consumption," says one team member, Michael Boyle.

"It starts with organic food, but it's filtered down into the mainstream. I think it grows 15-20% annually and we just wanted to exploit this."

Redesigning brands

The team of students take inspiration from comments by the company's chief executive Jean-Paul Agon, who says "2006 marked the group's entry more than ever into the natural market. It is a market in full development in the whole world".

Central to the "urban nature" idea is the use of bright, natural colours in a grey city setting.

"Living in cities can get quite claustrophobic," Mr Boyle says.

"There's lots of pollution, it's very grey and I'm sure you like to escape to the country once in a while just to see a bit of greenery.

"Greenery makes people happy and it's refreshing."

Meet the teams as they design their products

The students' redesign of the Redken for Men brand is centred around new head massage products with ingredients such as basil, the smell of which fills the room.

"We had scented oils on the table. We were going to burn them but we didn't want to try it for health and safety reasons - burning down the place," says Toni Symons, another team member.

It turns out that the "urban nature" idea is close to plans that the company has already set in motion for the brand.

"Some of the items presented have already been started from an international perspective," says head of marketing, Lucia Mizzoni.

"Especially the winning team, they really got the road right."

International final

It was the feasibility of the team's product extension that really endeared them to the judges, according to Hugh Kellett from Publicis, the advertising agency that helped them with their designs and campaigns.

He says that with some of the ideas suggested "there was a lot of praise for originality, but some concerns about the practical implementation of that in a salon context".

"Originality was always high on the agenda so the judges were looking for products that appeared both innovative and realistic and I think that is where the teams that did better scored well."

The winners now have two months to prepare themselves for the international final in Paris on 14 June.

"Before then I have some exams and I need to start revising really soon," Michael Boyle says.

"So I need to let the university know that the exam results may not be as good as they should be, but I'm promoting the university and it's all good."