I never participated in Brand Equity so far because of the huge participation fee. This time I got a chance but I knew it would be tough to qualify for the finals in the quizzing capital of India ( it was high time Derek admitted the fact and he did so this time).

After a long waiting in the lawns of Green Park Hotel, we were ushered in for the prelims. It was after 7 years Derek was doing a prelim as his associate Andrew Scolt was sick. And it showed up in the way he did it. He literally rushed through the prelims. It would have been great if he had given some breathing space in between questions as the teams didn’t have time to do their second guesses.

30 question prelim was a combination of trivia, proper business questions, easy visuals ( we got all 5, I think most of them would have) and Derek’s usual multiple choices. The prelim was not tough but not easy too. It had the proper mix and some well framed questions.

The prelim was a high scoring affair with a top score of 24 and the lowest score of 12. The cut off was 20. The finalists are

1. Ashok Leyland – Philip Vivek
2. Citibank – Rajen Prabhu Swamy
3. TCS- Sidharth Srihari
4. Citibank – Ashwin Srinivasan
5. TCS – Devi Prasad JK
6. Sanmar – Ramkumar Deepesh – top scorers in prelim

The finals was surprisingly superb. No Cinthols and LIC questions. I think Derek’s team have done wonderful research except for the AV round of course. I was surprised to see Jimmy Wales photo and it got passed by 2 teams. Carrie Underwood came to the audience ( don’t ask me what was the question)

There were some wonderful dry questions like the Idli plate being in the standard micro wave oven kit for south India and Law firms question was awesome. Ram Kumar Answered with his usual calmness. That team were in ominous form and thoroughly deserved to win the quiz. But it went on to wire and it got to end with a wrong answer from JK..Hard luck guys. But well played. Citibank’s team of swamy &  rajen came second and JKs team came third ( there were 3 teams for the final 3 questions instead of usual 2 as two teams were tied for second place)

Derek was at his usual best with his wits and entertained the crowd to the fullest. It was worth the time spent. Word of caution – girls don’t go with your bosses and bosses don’t go with your female employees. Reason- ask your friends in Chennai who attended the quiz). Now for the prelim questions..

1. During the Dabhol project scam, which current minister appeared in the case in defense to Enron ?

P. Chidambaram

2. Which brand is named after Sir William Thompson, a physicist and Baron ? Multiple Choice
Kelvinator

3. Which beverage contains natural Antioxidants called Flavonoids?

Tea

4. Which brainteaser was developed by a school teacher  Tetsuya Miyamoto in Tokyo?

Kenken

5. Which Asian country has the highest ratio of engineers and scientists? Clue: it has the highest ratio of phds too. Multiple Choice

Israel

6. Luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet has made special edition watches to commemorate which cricketers centuries?
Sachin Tendulkar

7. Ichew is the Chinese language website of which company?
Wrigley

8. Which British PM is the grandson of financial baron and horse racing enthusiast Leonard Jerome?

Winston Churchill

9. Which film had to drop a word from the movie title due to the protest from Hair dressers association of Maharashtra?

Billu Barber

10. “Garments without Guilt” is the tagline for which countrys textiles to depict that they dont use child labour? Multiple Choice

Srilanka

11. L-class is a occasionally used in marketing. What does L depict ?

Luxury

12. In 1940s, this garment was nearly named Atome to depict that is the smallest piece of clothing? What it was named later

Bikini

13. Till April 1947, RBI was the central bank of which other country ( other than India and Pakistan)

Myanmar

14. In 1970s and 80s who was called the third brother in advertsing world?

Martin Sorrell

15. Election symbol of RJD?

Lantern

16. March 15th is celebrated as the world consumer rights day. Which US president was instrumental in bringing consumer rights?
JFK

17. Lauren Weisberger worked in Vogue, authored which book and later made in to movie?

The Devil wears prada

18.which state in India has a Transgender welfare board ?

Tamil Nadu

19. Guardsmark is a security services company in US. Which organizations old employees do they recruit ?

FBI

20. Sam walton once said most of everything what I have, I have ——— from someone

Copied

21. In 1770, Alexander pope wrote a poem called Sea Bubble in which two 4 letters were used and now famous business terms. ( He read the poem)

Bull Bear

22. In election 2009 , which helicopter services company has go the most orders?

Pawan Hans

23. In 1911, for the first time more Gasoline was sold than which petroleum derivative in US?

Kerosene

24. In which New York upmarket retailer would you buy the goods in the “little blue bag”?

Tiffany

25. What is the marketing term used for a newly introduced brand killing the market share of another brand of the same company?

Cannibalisation

26. Pic of Asin in Vogue Cover

27. Pic of Google Bus

28. Pic of Kanchipuram Silk Saree

29. Logo of Sankara Nethralaya ( Chennai’s famous Eye Hospital. Derek has come up with fight against darkness theme this time. Expect some questions on blindness and surrounding themes)

30. Logo of Levi Strauss  America’s Original Jeans ( Fill in the blank)

Forgive me for the spelling mistakes. I hope this helps for other center teams.

P.S: My team made 17 in the prelim and the cut off was 20. We made some really silly mistakes. We have to seriously work on breaking the jinx – the difference between 99 & 100.

Update:

For Bangalore Edition review & questions, click here ( Courtesy: Rohit Nair)

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