Team Luna: Young innovators for the best malls of tomorrow

MINDS AS BRILLIANT AS THE MOON. Team Luna, Advertising Arts students of the University of San Carlos-Talamban Campus, made it to the top 2 of the recently concluded IDEA’YALA, a national competition by the Ayala Malls that encourages young Filipinos to come up with innovative ideas, design or marketing concepts using an entrepreneurial approach within the context of a shopping mall.(From left) Arjyque Morales, Aurille Joseph Intia, Aiko Arevalo, Marben Kristian Lawas and Karl Adrian Aguro.(CDN photo/Junjie Mendoza)

Five Fine Arts students from the University of San Carlos-Talamban Campus (USC-TC) brought home pride and honor for Cebuanos during the recently concluded IDEA’YALA, a nationwide competition conducted by Ayala Malls which challenges young individuals to come up with fresh, innovative ideas that will pave way for a better shopping experience.

Team Luna, composed of Aiko Arevalo, Arjyque Morales, Karl Adrian Aguro, Aurille Joseph Intia and Marben Kristian Lawas finished second out of 30 teams who represented the different campuses and Ayala Malls in the country. The team proudly waved the flag of Cebu and Visayas during the contest predominantly participated by young innovators hailing from the Luzon region.

Without any experiences in joining competitions, the students, who are majoring in Advertising Arts, were at first apprehensive about joining IDEA’YALA. Before finally resolving to participate, Team Luna had to squeeze in a moment to their hectic schedules just so they could huddle and come up with an original and feasible product. Every idea that was born out of those brainstorms had to be consulted to their advisers first and general ideas were filtered down and leveled off until what remained was the refined and concrete idea.

Each of the five members of the team took on different roles all throughout the competition. The only female in the group, Arevalo was the innovator, Morales the communicator, Aguro the designer, Lawas the business mind while Intia was the project manager. They were required to come up with a genuine concept that will fall under any of the categories namely entertainment, sustainability, innovation, retail and dining. Since Cebu has been encountering various calamities lately, Team Luna zeroed in on the area of innovation and developed a product that will not only sell to the public but will also promote the welfare of the citizens during calamities.

“Since the innovation was about creating something new or developing an existing product, we decided to innovate something that can be useful in times of calamity,” Aguro said. While typhoons and earthquakes frequent the Visayas region, Team Luna decided to innovate a product that is widely used in the community and turned it into a commodity that is cheap, convenient to use and cost-effective.

“[This concept] is easy to implement. People of all ages will also need this because everyone is vulnerable to calamities. We wanted to create something that will aid the people to survive,” Intia added.

Supported by Ayala Center Cebu that shouldered their fare expenses all throughout the contest duration, hotel accommodation and the supplies they needed to come up with their final product, Team Luna had a smooth experience during the tough competition. IDEA’YALA, which encompassed concept development, coaching and pitching of ideas, was staggered in three weeks. There were three different challenges namely innovation, which was about developing their product further; communication, which was about marketing and branding; and feasibility, which was about assessing whether or not the project was executable. Various summits that delved deeper into the particular challenge for the week were also held before the contestants made their pitches for them to have a clearer grasp on the challenge.The final pitch was held at Anvaya Cove in Subic.

Their faith in their idea fueled by their desire to address the needs of their community was the ticket of these young minds to reach the farthest point of the competition. Their simple idea was anchored on wanting to create a solution to a problem which everyone can relate to: A total chance at survival in the midst of calamities.

Although they were outplayed by the Team Barkadayala who represented the U.P. Town Center, being honored for their idea was already their golden trophy. For students like them who were neophytes to such big-time competition, the opportunity provided by the competition to inspire young minds to tap on to their creativity to explore ways to make living more convenient was more than what they asked for.