Classmate Spell Bee, a National Rage amongst School Kids

Classmate, India’s leading education & stationery brand by ITC, believes that each child is unique. Inspired by this belief, the company and Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM launched season 6 of ‘Classmate Spell Bee 2014’ in the beginning of 2014. The theme for this year is ‘Every child is unique and so is every word’ and centres around Classmate’s brand philosophy of celebrating uniqueness. Classmate Spell Bee provides an appropriate platform for students to identify their strengths and achieve recognition for their unique spelling skills. The innovatively crafted competition attempts to bring forth the most talented spellers from Indian schools as they showcase their mastery of words and spellings. The spelling extravaganza, has travelled to more than 750 schools in 27 cities and reached out to more than 2, 50,000 students from standards 5 to 9. Students from around India can still participate online at www.classmatespellbee.in in one of the most exhilarating experiences, crafted specially for them. The top 16 participants of the competition also get to showcase their skills on national television on The Discovery Channel, Discovery Kids and Discovery Tamil.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Chand Das, Chief Executive, ITC’s Education and Stationery Products Business said, “Classmate has always endeavoured to recognise, nurture & celebrate the uniqueness of every child. Classmate Spell Bee 2014 takes Classmate’s brand thought of celebrating uniqueness further as it gives students yet another opportunity to identify and showcase their distinctive talents and skills on a nationwide platform. The brand promises to support a child’s dreams with an equally unique & world class set of stationery products like notebooks, writing, drawing, art and math instruments.”

Mr. Hitesh Sharma, COO, Entertainment Network (India) Limited said, “Spell Bee has evolved over the past five seasons to become one of the most robust school level properties. The endeavour to educate children about the basics of the English language has only grown exponentially since the property’s inception. Already in our 6th season, we are expecting tremendous success and massive participation. This year the competition will garner participation from across 27 cities through our on ground efforts and through strong participation online as well. It gets tougher as participants from previous seasons re-enrol to make this championship fiercer. Like every year, the competition will be televised to encourage and prepare students for the upcoming season. We are hoping to see a scholarly cut-throat race between these young students.”

Mr. Abhishek Anand, Marketing Manager & Mr. Himavan Singh Dahiya, Brand Manager from the Marketing Team at ITC’s ESPB have leveraged this multi layered engagement platform that deploys radio, television, Digital & Social Media including a specially designed mobile app to drive engagement and participation, to build on Classmate’s brand thought and take it to the next level.

Classmate believes in encouraging children to excel in the field of their choice by ‘becoming the first’ instead of the being ‘the next somebody’, by helping them identify their inherent skills and interests to follow their heart’s own calling. Classmate Spell Bee serves to build this thought on ground, inspiring school students to identify and showcase their spelling skills by providing them with a unique platform to hone and showcase their language and spelling skills.

Gratification details of Classmate Spell Bee 2014:                                                                                            

The National Champion of Classmate Spell Bee 2014 will win a grand prize of Rs. 2, 00,000 apart from the opportunity to witness the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee with a parent in Washington D.C., U.S.A. in an all expenses paid trip. The 4 semi finalists will win a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 each. The grand prize for the winner of Classmate Spell Bee and those for the semi-finalists have been specifically designed to help encourage and enable students to follow their hearts true calling.

In the initial phase, an on-ground exercise where children were given spelling tests has garnered astounding participation. The spelling fever continues to spread as students progress to the gruelling city finale round and the best performing students will make it to the semi finals from there. The top 10 students from each city will then appear for an online test which will choose the best 16 spellers from across India. These students will then battle it out in the grand finale to win the title of Spell Bee Champion.

The competition this year is powered by The Times of India and is in association with Seven Seas, NECC and Air India. Times NIE are education partners on the property.

About Classmate, Education & Stationery Products Business, ITC Limited:

ITC made its entry to the education and stationery business with its Paperkraft brand in the office stationery segment in 2002; and later expanded into the popular student notebook segment with its Classmate brand in 2003. By 2007, Classmate became the largest Student Notebook brand in the country. Together, Classmate and Paperkraft offer a range of products in the Education & Stationery space to the quality seeking discerning consumer, providing unrivalled value in terms of product construction & price.

Classmate and Paperkraft have become a natural extension of consumers. Meticulous understanding of consumer needs helped create a relevant and comprehensive portfolio of stationery products created to the highest exacting standards of performance and safety satisfying the needs of different consumer sets.

Classmate’s portfolio today comprises of offerings spanning across notebooks, writing instruments including pens and pencils, scholastic products such as geometry boxes, scales, erasers and sharpeners, as well as Art Stationery such as Wax Crayons, Color Pencils and Sketch pens.

ITC is the manufacturer of India’s first Ozone treated environment friendly Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) pulp, paper and paperboard. It blends its knowledge of image processing, printing and conversion garnered from Packaging & Printing Business with its brand building and trade marketing & distribution strengths resident in its FMCG business to offer superior value products to consumers.

About Radio Mirchi:

Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL), India’s leading private FM radio broadcaster, popularly known as Radio Mirchi, operates across 32 cities in the country. Launched in 2001, Radio Mirchi has the highest listenership across the country and a track record of developing innovative content, thus expanding and retaining its audiences and advertisers through the years. Radio Mirchi has delighted listeners and the industry with its exciting properties like the Purani Jeans Film Festival and the Mirchi Music Awards.

Radio Mirchi’s continuous innovations across different platforms like Visual Radio or Mirchi Mobile have been instrumental in gaining leadership in the private FM Radio industry. Radio Mirchi made its international foray with the launch of the brand in the UAE. From 1st Feb, 2012, Radio Mirchi can be heard in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and is the first Indian radio brand to go international.