CHD-Princeton Student Innovation Bowl Winners Press Release

Michelle Ford
For Immediate Release:
CHD-Princeton Student Innovation Bowl Winners Selected
Innovative product ideas drive consumer purchase and long-term business growth. The iPhone 5 is merely the latest example. But where do great new ideas come from?
For Church & Dwight, unique and compelling product ideas now also come from Princeton students.
In December, the company announced Sunny Feng & Lawrence Yu as the $1000 First Prize winning idea team and Chukwunonso Okwelogu as the $500 Second Prize winner in the company’s first-ever student Innovation Bowl competition with Princeton University.
The program was piloted by Michael Muntean, Global Director of New Products, and Nikki Mamuric, New Products Global Marketing Manager, both at Church & Dwight.
"The Church & Dwight Innovation Team was pleased to receive such a variety of fresh, new idea submissions. The winning ideas were selected for their understanding of the brand, their in-depth consumer insights and their creativity, among other critical evaluation criteria," Mamuric noted.
The fun and challenging Innovation Bowl competition, open to all Princeton undergraduate and graduate students, was sponsored by Princeton Career Services and Advertise This. It was preceded by an on-campus two-hour innovation introduction session, presented by Rod McNealy ’72, where attendees learned key Innovation fundamentals, including: the difference between Incremental and Transformational Innovation, the Ideation Process and how to utilize innovative thinking wherever creativity is required.
"Currently, many skills that are critical for Consumer Product ideation are not part of the traditional Liberal Arts curriculum. That is why the Innovation Bowl is such a unique opportunity. Princeton students are able to quickly learn the basics and start building these real-world skills through a brief yet highly participatory campus program," Mamuric added.
Church & Dwight, a $2.8B consumer goods company in Princeton, NJ, has outpaced the S&P by more than 2x over the last 10 years and was named one of the “Hottest Growth Companies” by Business Week. Key brands include Arm & Hammer, Trojan, First Response, Nair, Spinbrush, OxiClean and Orajel.