By Naurine Shahzad (’19)
The Center for MEMES MBA Media and Entertainment Case Competition with Paramount Pictures, as one of few nationwide case competitions sponsored by an entertainment company, brings a great deal of excitement to any student interested in the business side of the industry. With top schools from all over the country competing, and because of the anticipation and demand at Anderson alone, our team had to prepare resumes and an essay that would qualify us as one of two Anderson teams to present to the Paramount judges.
Lucky Team 13, as we called ourselves, included Class of 2019’s Paul Chang, Jennifer Buzalewski, Candace Parker, double Bruin Steven Liu (B.A. ’13) and me. Our professional backgrounds are diverse, with some of us coming from marketing, finance or consulting, but our passion for entertainment united us. We are all student leaders in the Entertainment Management Association, and we felt prepared to take on this challenge.
We were first judged on our essay explaining which current movie we believed would be a good franchise and why. We chose Coco because of its stellar box office performance and critical reception, international appeal, and high potential for ancillary revenue streams such as toys and theme park rides within the existing Disney ecosystem.
We were thrilled to find out we were one of the two teams selected to represent UCLA in the case competition. Implementing new initiatives in entertainment was something we talked about constantly. The case prompt asked what products and platforms Paramount should leverage. We felt the answer to this broad question could go in any direction. Where would we start?
Our first goal was to brainstorm ideas and pitch them to each other so that we could pick them apart. We focused our approach on Paramount’s existing assets — such as the rich movie catalog, strong Hollywood tradition (it’s the last studio still located in Hollywood) and beautiful studio lot — and how we could apply technology to better monetize them. Once we had combed through many ideas, we agreed on one that we were all excited about: implementing an augmented reality element to their existing studio tour.
We spent the week preparing our presentation, asking each other questions we anticipated the judges would ask, and practicing our pitch. Then, the big day arrived. After practicing all morning, we watched the 17 teams of students in suits from 12 schools across the nation check in to compete.
We felt lucky to be the first to present to two VPs. We had 12 short minutes to pitch our idea. The hours afterward were filled variously with relief and anxiety as we waited to hear if we advanced to the finals. Paramount Pictures VP Howard Hsieh (’09) announced which five teams would compete in the finals, and Lucky Team 13 was the last to be named. This time, we would present in front of about a dozen Paramount executives with four other finalists. We concluded our presentation knowing we could feel proud of our pitch.
The next day at the Pulse conference, our team sat together anxiously awaiting the result. Our anticipation at its height, Hsieh announced our team had won.
He recognized that our team understood the key market Paramount was targeting; we were able to apply a realistic solution and we answered key questions well. We felt that the long hours and late-night brainstorming sessions had already been worth it. But now we were even more gratified with a $4,000 check and internships for the whole team to develop our AR idea at Paramount.
We left the conference elated, certain that our passion for entertainment would lead us to exciting careers on paths that, going forward, would be paramount.
wow...great achievement. Congratulations to the whole team.
Posted by: Penova | 03/03/2018 at 10:19 PM