Mosaic and M&S team up to bring Rio inspired T-shirt to market

A group of London students from Mosaic schools have teamed up to design a Rio-inspired t-shirt that is now on sale in Marks & Spencer (M&S) stores and online.

The winning team, drawn from four secondary schools and two other organisations across the capital, won a special competition earlier this year organised by M&S and Mosaic to win the chance to design and market a T-shirt aimed at 5-16 year olds.

Part of M&S’ ‘Spark Something Good’ initiative, the event saw students from King Solomon Academy, Pimlico Academy, Vulnerable Children Bracknell Forest Council Education Centre, Renaissance Foundation, Westminster Academy and City of Westminster College mixed into teams.

Each team followed the design process used by M&S, from initial concept, market research and commercial planning through to outlining social media and digital marketing plans.

After a tough contest, the winning design featuring an illustration of the Rio skyline, along with the hashtags #LETSGORIO and #VAMOSRIO was announced.

The event itself featured a motivational speech by entrepreneur and current star of BBC’s Dragons’ Den, Touker Suleyman, and ended with each team presenting their design and marketing strategy to a senior panel of judges that included Touker Suleyman; Mike Barry, M&S Plan A Director; and Maz Majid, M&S Clothing & Home Supply Chain Director.

Adam Elman, Head of Global Delivery for Plan A at M&S said: “At M&S we’re committed to working with the local communities we serve and it was great to welcome the pupils into our London office.  We were hugely impressed by both the quality of the ideas and the work ethic shown by all of the students. They had a tough brief with a very short deadline and all of the teams delivered a fantastic product idea and pitch.”

Jonathan Freeman, Managing Director of Mosaic, added: “This was an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic group of young people and they proved themselves to be talented, organised and determined. The winning design is superb but all those taking part acquitted themselves with style. We’d like to thank M&S for their energy and support in making this project happen.”