Last semester, LUISS students from the course in Technology and Innovation Management with Professor Maria Isabella Leone faced an exclusive challenge launched by startup 2045Tech to promote online sales of their first product: Floome, the breathalyzer for smartphones that aims to change the way people drink.
Divided into eleven teams, the fifty master’s students worked to develop marketing and sales plans based on concrete data shared through Innoventually, an Italian open innovation platform that, thanks to partners in Asia and North America, offers clients global coverage. “Usually, university business challenges assign problems that have already been solved by companies,” explains Professor Leone. “In this case, students faced a real problem, with the possibility to distribute a new technology making its debut on the market. The goal of the challenge was to bypass the costs of large-scale distribution and focus on online sales through students’ ideas, being the primary target of the product and the most suitable choice to explore the digital market.”
Each of the eleven groups had a month to develop a marketing plan and a online sales campaign with a specific budget. “They could choose between three different budgets,” elaborated Professor Leone. Those who chose the smallest budget chose to create a campaign using social networks or Google AdWords. Those who chose the highest budget made questionnaires, contests to create beverages with low alcohol content and took advantage of the app’s big data (with who, how and when people go home). The winning group analyzed all Floome’s web metrics through Google to develop an innovative idea.”
The winning team was made up of LUISS students Giuseppe Ambra, Anna Gioia Apreda, Luciano Carnevali, Michele Mattei and Michele Ruotolo. “We conducted a competitive analysis, evaluating elements of differentiation and weakness with respect to their competitors,” say the students. From our research emerged an innovative product, a strong social customer experience and a modern design, but also a scarce understanding of the product. Based on these results, we developed a few marketing strategies, each associated with a different budget. The lowest budget (under €50,000) was for campaigns and initiatives on social networks. The second budget (under €100,000) involved creating a partnership with a carsharing company, supplying their vehicles with Floome and offering discounts to buy the breathalyzer online. The unlimited budget included sponsoring large sporting events such as Euro2016 and the Six Nations 2016.”
Out of the eleven proposals, three were selected as semifinalists to further discuss their proposals in a final interview with 2045Tech. “Floome is a new product. For us it was important to obtain real results,” says Fabio Penzo, cofounder and CEO of 2045Tech. “Compared to other idea competitions, Innoventually allows participants to work with concrete data, facilitating results previously unachievable using conventional methods. The partnership with a university focused on innovation like LUISS guaranteed us a specific submission and quality results.”
In addition to a Floome for each member of the winning group, the challenge also offers the chance to collaborate with the startup on their next marketing campaign. “We are in a growth phase, and every idea is a potential development for our product,” concludes Luca Escoffier, cofounder of 2045Tech and CEO of Innoventually. “We were really struck by the quality of the submissions. The students truly understood the spirit of the product and created plans that showed dedication and interest. The final decision was difficult but the winners were able to go deep into detail, looking at possible partnerships with pertinent ideas and thoughtful analysis.” Professor Leone confirms his impression: “This collaboration was a success and I’m certain we’ll repeat it in future courses.”