The final round of the Vietnam Business Innovation Challenge (VBIC) 2025 for high school students has just taken place in Hanoi. This year's competition attracted the participation of 250 teams from 11 countries including: Vietnam, the US, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Qatar, Israel...

The contestants went through two qualifying rounds and only the 10 best teams made it to the finals.

The topic of the final round was to solve a real business problem of a famous dairy company in Vietnam.

The milk brand is looking for a comprehensive strategy to increase awareness and appeal of its new product line with the Gen Z (15-25 years old) customer group.

Candidates are required to propose solutions including: Brand strategy, marketing channels and accompanying services.

The entire competition took place in English before judges who were leading experts in business and marketing, founders, chairmen of the board of directors, and senior managers of many businesses.

That is a big obstacle for candidates who do not study at international schools like 3 students of class 11A1 - Nguyen Du High School for the Gifted, Dak Lak province.

Nguyen Le Bao Thy, Ho Hoang Ngoc Anh and Nguyen Hoang Tu Trinh from class 11A1 of Nguyen Du High School for the Gifted, Dak Lak province, won third prize overall (Photo: Hoang Hong).

Nguyen Le Bao Thy, Ho Hoang Ngoc Anh and Nguyen Hoang Tu Trinh are not majoring in English but are only in a secondary class. Their presentations were somewhat lacking in liveliness due to their limited English skills, especially when placed next to candidates from international schools who use English as a second language.

However, with a different and highly feasible idea, the three female students still surpassed more than 200 competing teams to win third prize overall.

The team from Dak Lak showed serious investment in understanding the behavior and needs of Gen Z customers.

"We divided Gen Z into two groups, tentatively called the "old" Gen Z group born between 1995-2008 and the "young" Gen Z group born between 2009-2013.

Although there is a wide gap in age and difference in financial capacity - one group includes those who are working or have pocket money and the other group is completely dependent on their parents, both groups have similarities in thinking and lifestyle.

From there, we find solutions that can create trends, directly impacting the FOMO (fear of missing out) mentality so that young people know the most about the product in the shortest time," Nguyen Le Bao Thy shared.

The idea of ​​the group of female students was to change the packaging of milk cartons with images of traditional costumes of 4 Vietnamese ethnic groups with the message "For milk, wear the soul of the nation".

Next to it is a QR code with integrated virtual reality (VR) technology. When scanning the code, VR technology will help customers try on real-life ethnic costumes, serving the hobby of taking "virtual life" photos.

Each QR code will also tell a story of that nation.

On each carton of milk there will be only one QR code corresponding to a type of national costume that customers will not know what costume it is until they scan the code.

To wear different types of costumes, customers will have to buy many different cartons of milk. This will promote the purchase of milk to collect enough costumes of 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam.

This sales tactic was inspired by the "blind bag tearing" trend or the recently popular "Baby three" stuffed animal toy.

The judges highly appreciated the group’s unique idea as well as its feasibility. With the third prize, 3 female students received a 40% scholarship for 4 years of bachelor’s program at Fulbright University Vietnam, equivalent to more than 2 billion VND.

The overall first prize winner was the Jesko Absolute team consisting of 3 contestants: Tran Kim Ngan - Foreign Language High School, Dinh Vu Minh Tuan and Do Nhat Minh - Vinschool The Harmony.

The team came up with an idea for a 3-phase communication campaign with the main message being emotional connection, linked to mental health care for the GenZ generation.

Third prize went to the idea of ​​a mobile milk cart and a fresh milk vending machine - where Gen Z will bring their personal water bottles to buy milk - by 3 contestants: Nguyen Hoang Hai An - Olympia High School, Do Phan Truong An and Pham Nguyen Hoang Lan - Dewey School.

Nguyen Hoang Hai An - Olympia High School, Do Phan Truong An and Pham Nguyen Hoang Lan - Dewey School - won first prize in the contest with the idea of ​​connecting emotions and taking care of GenZ's mental health (Photo: Organizing Committee).

The prizes for each team are 60% and 50% scholarships for 4 years of study at Fulbright University Vietnam.

The Vietnam Business Innovation Challenge is jointly organized by Fulbright University Vietnam and Olympia High School. This is a favorite playground for students aged 14-18 who are passionate about business and startups.

With the theme "Creating from tradition", the competition challenges the young generation to reshape traditional business values ​​through creative and innovative thinking.

Based on the principle of human-centeredness, combining a multidisciplinary approach and practical problem solving, the competition presents real-life business challenges, encouraging students to collaborate to find solutions.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/nu-sinh-dak-lak-gianh-hoc-bong-tien-ty-nho-y-tuong-ban-sua-co-mot-khong-hai-20250419213628574.htm