The G&Ds challenge is part of the OxPrentice line of programming, which is new to Oxford Entrepreneurs in 2009.

When: 9.00am- 5.30pm, Wednesday November 18
Where: Science Oxford, St Clements (see a map)
How to apply:

Similar to the enormously successful iPhone App challenge held earlier this year, this event will also be split into two parts:

1. Coming up with an idea for a new flavour within a given budget.
2. Coming up with a rigorous marketing plan to ensure the new flavour takes off.

Initially, the event will begin with a short talk from David Finch, Founder and CEO of Purple Frog a branding agency working with the likes of Bosch and The Royal Institution of Great Britain. With a long history in the branding, David has a strong understanding of the power of a brand, and will highlight the importance that the teams will need to thinking about it when coming up with a flavour. He will focus on:

• What the teams must think about to really turn this venture into a scalable business.
• Why it’s important to brand a team/organisation/company.
• Examples of effective brands.
• Ways the teams can get their products to complement their brands.
• Examples of this in play.
• Explanation of why some brands are better than others.

This will then be followed by a talk given by Juri from G&D’s, the local Oxford ice cream café, which was started by Oxford graduate, George Stroup. Juri will quickly run through the logistics of ice cream making, detailing the following:

• What current flavours are available and their costs.
• What the most successful flavour is at the moment at G&D’s.
• What the boundaries are within which a contestant can be creative.
• What is feasible, what isn’t (with a £200 budget).
• What the process is for creating an ice cream.
• What the difference is between ice creams and sorbets.
• How long it takes to get a new flavour to market .

The teams will then breakaway into their respective teams and come up with ideas for new flavours given a fictional £200 to spend on ingredients. To ensure the teams stick to their budget, they must investigate their local markets, for example obtaining prices from the Covered Market etc and find the appropriate goods for their flavour at the best prices. They would then be able to know exactly how much of their flavour they can produce with that £200 budget.

After clarifying the details of the new proposed ice cream flavour, the teams will break out for lunch (along with a few cheeky free samples of G&D’s ice cream, and getting some lunch), there will be a talk from marketing experts from global confectioners (and graduate recruiters) Nestlé who will touch on the following topics:

• What makes a good marketing strategy.
• How to best create and present a marketing strategy.
• The best way to create cheap and effective marketing strategies that can be used to promote the brand.
• Explain how to utilise a budget of £100 & the options available to them.
• Examples demonstrating why particular strategies work better than others.

This informative talk would then hopefully inspire the candidates to brainstorm a variety of possible marketing strategies to pursue. Teams will have to take into serious consideration all details of their marketing plan including emphasis on innovatively building their brand from scratch with only a budget of £100.

Once both the ice cream flavour idea and the marketing strategy has been created, at least one representative from each team will be expected to give a 3-5 minute pitch demonstrating why they their idea should be invested in to the panel of judges. Deciding the winners will be the experts themselves. G&D’s, Purple Frog and Nestlé will be judging which team has the most potential and can demonstrate this in their pitch.

The two teams with the best flavour and marketing plan (as decided by our panel of judges) will have their ice cream flavour created and sold in the G&D’s stores around Oxford. The actual production of the ice cream flavours will be filmed and streamed live onto the Oxford Entrepreneurs website, where viewers and those who missed the event can see for themselves how it is actually done.

Daily updates will be available online on our website detailing exactly how each flavour performs that particular day and the overall winner will be decided by the total revenue generated. If the winner exceeds a particular revenue target (as set by G&D’s), they will have their ice cream flavour sold in the shops around Oxford for a period of a year, as their own legacy!

For more information, please contact hayato.maeda@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk, omer.khan@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk