IBAC is not only one of the many events hosted by the IBA Marketing Club but is also one which defines what this club stands for which is branding and advertising. The second edition of IBA Branding and Advertising Conference (IBAC) fulfilled people's expectations and proved to be a success. With Umar Farooq as the Chairperson, Syed Asad Zaffar as the CEO, and Fakiha Khan as the Founder of IBAC 2.0, the event was well managed, with these people putting in extra efforts to ensure everything goes smoothly.

IBAC 2.0 was held on 25th to 27th March 2016, proving to be bigger and better than its first edition due to the dedication put in by the Host Team and the Management Team for the past 4 months. Owing to its name IBAC was able to attract sponsors that are amongst the best in the country. This included Huawei and PSO as their Corporate Sponsors, Avari being their accommodation partner, media partners included Daily Premium and Aaj tv, Hakimsons, Al Rashid Studio, & Motion Clicks were the official photography partners. IBAC 2.0 also had Deaf Reach as their Social Outreach partner and DPA as academic partner. Beach Luxury was the venue partner and Cocktail was the support partner for the event.

Day 1:

IBAC 2.0 day 1 was successfully conducted on 25th March 2016. The event was held at IBA main campus from 9am to 5pm with fun filled activities and informative guest speaker sessions planned for the participants. After the registration and getting the participants seated, the orientation session was carried out following which the first activity was carried out.

The first activity, 'Brand Yourself,' required the participants to create an innovative tagline and a team logo that would define them. Given the time of 1 hour and provided with all necessary material the teams were put to work and they had to submit the logos they made as soon as the activity ended. This was followed by a small hi-tea set to give the participants a break and provided them with refreshments.

Returning from the hi-tea the teams were faced with a 'Rapid Fire' round. Six teams participated per round with ten questions being asked. 2 members represented each team and had to press the buzzer to answer where each right answer earned them a point however there was negative marking for wrong answers.

After the rapid fire round there was a guest speaker session by the CEO of 14th Street Pizza, Mr. Zurrain Farhan who spoke about Product Development and how his company has evolved over the course of time.

Following the lunch and namaz break another guest speaker session was conducted by Mr. Qadeer Qureshi, the marketing consultant at SHB Pharma who shed light on advertising problems in the pharmaceutical industry. The last activity for the day was 'Launch Away' where participants had to launch a new product for Huawei. Given 2 hours and the details of the upcoming product the teams had to design a campaign to launch the new product being offered by Huawei. Once the period of 2 hours was over participants were expected to submit their campaign ideas via email.

With the end of the conference on day 1 the host team, management team and participants headed towards beach luxury to enjoy the first social event – Illumination (Dance Party at the Sea front BBQ)

Day 2:

On day 2, we started with a guest speaker session by Marketing Manager of McDonalds Pakistan, Jamil Mughal who provided the participants with useful insights about the evolution of McDonalds and the idea behind the establishment of the company. Participants found this session very useful with a lot of questions being raised on topics such as public relations, training and standardization.

Following the guest speaker session was the first activity for the day, 'Brand Wars.' The prize money for this activity was worth PKR.10, 000. Participants were provided with television commercials of two competing brand and were expected to compare the targeting and positioning undertaken by each brand. They were required to understand the different marketing techniques the competing brands had carried out. Each team then had to present their analysis in front of the judges.

After the lunch break a panel discussion was held on the topic 'From products to consumers to Human Spirit'. The panel comprised of 7 renowned brand managers who took out time to share their views with the participants and help increase knowledge bank. The panel guests were Tracy Roque, the Assisstant Brand Manager at HBL, Basma Ejaz the General Manager of Inbox Technologies, Daniah Ishtiaq Manager Planning at Mullenlowe Rauf Group, Bilal Alvi the Brand Manager of Elmore, Sundus Rashid- Cofounder and creative director at Media Republic, Saeed Zaman, Brand Manager at Dunkin Donuts and last but not the least Danial Sheikh the Brand Manager at Interwood.

The panel discussion was followed by the activity 'Speed Networking' which provided the participants with an opportunity to meet and engage in conversations with the brand manager of their choice. The participants asked questions about their areas of interest and the activity gave them an opportunity to enjoy one on one interaction with the brand managers.

The last activity for the day was 'Brand It.' Here each team was given a product through random selection by the team leader only. The participants then had to come up with an innovative brand name and tagline for the product. They were given the time of one and a half hour to plan and carry out the activity with necessary equipment provided to them which helped them showcase and present the product in a unique way. 'Brand it' was judged by Syed Ather Ali, CEO of Jotun Paints and marked the end of IBAC 2.0 day 2.

The participants were then taken to atrium cinemas for the second social event of the conference which was the movie night.

Day 3:

All great things must come to an end, similarly the final day of IBAC 2.0 was held on Sunday 27th March. Even though it was the last day, it was equally challenging and exciting for the participants with fulfilled activities planned for the whole day.

Day 3 began with Amir Haleem's wise words, the first guest speaker of the day. Amir Haleem, the CEO of KUEBALL, shared what he had learnt over his vast career and from his experiences about Traditional Marketing and how it affects a brand. The participants were already excited for how the last day had begun. It was then Danish Ejaz, the second guest speaker, who discussed Digital Marketing and its importance in the current marketing scenarios. He provided the audience with many reasons as to why you should have the perfect blend between all types of marketing and how it is beneficial for the brand and the company.

Following the two informative guest speaker sessions, it was time to test the participants one more time. They were given one of the toughest activities of "Can You Picture It?" and it was based on Huawei's motto of "Make It Possible". The winners of this activity were awarded the prize money of PKR 20,000. It was followed by the most awaited guest speaker session of IBAC 2.0 which was by the Sales Manager of Huawei Pakistan, Mr. Martin.

After lunch on the last day, IBAC participants were faced with another activity, "Advert it!" Here the teams had to come up with advertisements for the products assigned to them which again was done by random selection by their team leader. The last activity of day 3 and of IBAC 2.0 was 'Brand your Experience' which required the teams to brand their time at IBAC 2.0 with a light note.

IBAC 2.0 came to an end with the Awards Night where both the participants and the organizing team were awarded for their efforts and was followed by Formal Dinner which had more to offer than just the food being served. It was a night to bring together everyone and a night everyone would remember for a long time. A night where we bid farewell to IBAC for one more year and hope that it comes back with a bigger bang and outshines its own quality and surpasses the top standards it itself has set.