The hype was real: there was indeed a genuine news item from yesterday’s Marketing Forum, the annual knees up for senior marketers held by the Marketing Association. And the news is the Hyperfactory Handley Future Marketing Scholarship.
Each year for the next ten years Hyperfactory founders Derek and Geoff Handley will fund and host a ten-day US road trip for one marketer to visit the best of breed in digital marketing.
“The scholarship aims to create a powerful alumni of leading lights in the future of marketing and give them unprecedented access to the conversations of the smartest marketers at huge global brands like L’Oreal, Kraft, Nestle and InBev, in a global setting,” Derek Handley told the audience of 100-plus marketing glitterati.
He says the next ten years “will totally transform marketing, consumer behaviour and branding as we know it, far more so than in the past 100 years combined.”
Handley laments the state of New Zealand digital marketing—from the shameful speeds and costs of access, to the paucity of online innovations in marketing.
“We have a number of challenges across our broadband and mobile networks in New Zealand, which limit us from persuading Kiwi consumers to engage at this level. But within these challenges await significant opportunities, and our future marketing leaders need to be best equipped so they can find these solutions. The scholarship is designed to empower that skill base.”
Scholarship recipients will get to meet leading marketers and game changing companies at both ends of spectrum, from corporate to start-up. In addition to understanding how the leading brands engage with their consumers, recipients will be able to ‘take a look under the hood’ at some of the world’s leading marketing, content and digital enablers like Apple, Google, Time Warner and Facebook.
The scholarship will commence in early 2011. To be eligible, those nominated must be brand marketers, under the age of 35 and visionaries for the future. Interested parties will be able to go to www.thehyperfactory.com from January 2011 to find details on how to apply.
After announcing the scholarship the guests clapped enthusiastically, several women threw themselves at the handsome speaker and at least one marketer stood on the table with his underpants on his head.
“We applaud Hyperfactory’s generous scholarship and encourage all marketers to apply for the scholarship. In no way can we condone the table thing,” says Marketing Association chief executive Sue McCarty.
