Mumbai, July 10, 2012: Nissan Motor India (NMIPL) has announced the selection of 19 young management students from across India as Nissan Student Brand Managers (NSBM) 2012. The third season of the NSBM program garnered 2,467 registrations from 590 colleges across 25 Indian cities, showcasing the growing popularity of this unique student initiative to promote the Nissan’s brand identity in India.

This year, the program received an overwhelming response from all centres – Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Mumbai had the maximum number of registrations with 880 students, followed by New Delhi with 618 student applications. Chennai with 445 and Bangalore with 362 applications were the other two centres with a large number of applicants for the NSBM 2012 program.

The entries were judged on several aspects including uniqueness of the idea, relevance to the automobile industry, clarity or communication of ideas, innovative thinking and feasibility, while executing the Ideas.

Addressing the final shortlisted students, Nitish Tipnis, director – Sales & Marketing - Hover Automotive India, said: “The third season of NSBM has brought more innovation and creativity to the fore. The overwhelming response that we have received this year justifies the fact that India has a large pool of entrepreneurial talent which thrives on creative excellence. Through this initiative, we will tap this potential and propel it further to achieve meaningful results.”

Panelist Dr Nirmalya Kumar, marketing guru and faculty - London Business School, said: “It is very gratifying to see the talent that India has and it is encouraging to see a brand like Nissan taking them to the next level with a program such as NSBM.”

The range of activities for the NSBMs this year will vary from creating unique events of their own from setting up test-drive days at their respective colleges to creating a buzz about brand Nissan among the student community. This year, the campaign was open to second year management students across the country, including eastern India, where it was not thrown open last year. Some of the short-listed Brand Managers are from reputed B-School institutes such as IIM Bangalore, IIM Kolkata, IIM Chennai, FMS, MDI, IIT Bangalore and IIT Chennai.

The Nissan Student Brand Managers for 2012 are: