It’s all about opportunity!

As a campus brand manager for Reckitt Benckiser I feel I am well informed about the company and its attributes, such as being fast-paced and highly consumer focussed. In particular, RB pride themselves on the opportunities they provide. Other companies may make promises that in reality they do not keep, however I feel this is not the case with RB. I say this because I had the privilege of experiencing my first RB opportunity during May, when I was asked to accompany employees from the corporate communicate teams on an RB corporate brand marketing workshop in Lisbon, Portugal!

The conference took place just before my last exam; however I could not miss this amazing opportunity. After all how many 18 year olds get this experience. My role involved representing the campus brand manager scheme on an international platform, so to encourage other markets to follow suit and adopt the initiative.

This adventure was a surprising amount of work and I feel that the general preconceptions of business trips as being wasteful are far from the truth. My experience was enjoyable and challenging but one that I would repeat in an instant. For me the hardest part was having to be awake for 5.30am, but seeing the early hours was a worthy compromise.

Upon arrival we, the RB UK team, went straight to the exclusive hotel Tivoli. After a few hours of presentations there it was, my time to shine and tell all about my exploits as a campus brand manager. Dare I say it but I do believe I did a good job. This is based on the fact that all countries taking part, bar one, have since decided to adopt the campus brand manager scheme in their markets and for this I feel complemented. The scheme is strong enough to sell itself but my presence and enthusiasm for the role, I like to think, helped to tip the balance.
The meeting had RB representatives from many different countries and of even more cultures, giving me the opportunity to see how such a diverse company actually works together. I personally got to spend a lot of time with Ricardo, from the Brazilian team and Uwe from Russia. I also really enjoyed experiencing how different countries had diverse approaches to group discussions.

I also met agency staffs whom are of the creative side, who work with RB designing media and work on evolving the digital side of the company. I learnt from one of the agencies why it’s important for a firm to be aware of the importance of going digital.

During the course of the day we split into mixed groups where we worked together with the objective of devising new ideas for raising awareness and enhancing the RB brand. I was given another opportunity and this was to present my groups new ideas. I can proudly say that one of the ideas our group created has been put forward and is set to be implemented into practice, exciting stuff!

All in all I am very glad to have been given this opportunity, to take part in an international conference with unique networking opportunities. This whole experience has certainly inspired me to progress with my role as I now know how much of an impact it has on the company. Did I mention how good dinner was?
So if you are reading this from afar keep an eye out as there is soon to be a campus brand manager coming to a university near you soon!