Where all the on-campus activities were suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic, IBA Marketing Club gave its best to continue benefitting the students through its guest speaker sessions.

The year 2020 gave all of us a hard time but we at IBA didn't lose hope and continue to improve. Despite having many challenges, IBA Marketing Club brought industry specialists on board. IMC organized several guest speaker sessions to give industry insights to its students which can help them in their career path. On 29th April 2021, IMC organized its first online session with esteemed guest speakers; Anum Khan, the Senior Brand Manager of Veet at Reckitt and Atiya Zaidi, the Managing Director of BBDO Pakistan. Both the speakers gave their day and night to launch and establish Veet Men's in Pakistan and about 50+ audience joined us to hear their achievement. The discussion was revolving around Men's grooming products and their emerging markets. It was an insightful session and the major takeaways were to identify the latent demand and the ways to capture that market.

IBA Marketing Club kept going like this and successfully conducted their first on-campus guest speaker session on 3rd July 2021 after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. Following all the SOPs, IMC invited Syed Gohar Hassan, the Brand Manager of Lifebuoy at Unilever. The discussion revolved around that how embracing the competition can stand out a brand in its own category. Where all the brands were giving tough competition to its competitors, Gohar Syed broke all the stereotypes and took an initiative to join hands with their rivals in fight against COVID-19. First time in the history, an advertisement was made "Hathon ki Hifazat, Pakistan ki Hifazat" which directed Pakistanis to protect themselves against corona virus and use whatever soap they have of either brand.

Gohar spoke about the endless efforts made behind this iconic campaign and the achievements the brand had in result of that advertisement. Of about 30+ students joined the session and Syed made them learnt that if the competition is embraced mindfully, it can open the doors of success. Though, it was a well-explained and an insightful session.

IBA believes that networking is the key aspect of career growth and thus, IBA Marketing Club will keep inviting such industry specialists who can gave powerful insights to IBA students and can help them in their career development.

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