Creating a pilot creative contest for schools and colleges
“School visits are great, but what would really help is something that adds value for the student and connects them to industry”
THE PROBLEM
Part of being a lecturer involves touring schools and colleges, introducing the industry to those who may never have considered advertising as a career. But it was the conversation above with one teacher that made me consider that we could be doing something more. While there are many awards schemes and industry briefs for university students, there was very little for 16-18 year olds.
To test a solution, I ran a pilot called the Advance Awards, which would deliver a graduate style creative competition for A-Level students in the North-West.
DEVELOPING THE BRIEF
It was important that the competition didn’t just promote UCLan, but acted as a vehicle to introduce students to industry. For this we needed an industry partner who would create the brief and judge the entries. I approached Tom Richards of 21 GRAMS, who had previously set briefs for D&AD, and he partnered me with Eleanor Farish and Ava-Lien Shoshan, one of their junior teams, to develop the brief.
Working with Eva and Eleanor was a great experience. As recent graduates they had a real insight into what might help and motivate our student audience. They took the lead on writing the outline for the brief and came up with a great proposition - the Brand of You.
We now had a brief that would not only give entrants a problem to solve, but a solution that would help them with university applications and self promotion.With the brief in place, I could now plan a timeline for the scheme.
CALL FOR ENTRIES
The next job was to get expressions of interest from the partner colleges. Teacher buy-in was important. They would be the ones needing to support any students taking part, so it was important to communicate the benefits of the project to them.
For this I worked with our students to develop a direct mail piece; a mini print-making workshop in-a-box that allowed teachers and students to make their own posters to display in the classroom. By making the mailer an interactive classroom activity that would capture the attention of teachers and the curiosity of their students. An accompanying letter explained how taking part would help teachers achieve their goals by fulfilling some of the GATSBY career guidance benchmarks.
BRIEFING & WORKSHOP
With the colleges now engaged in the trial I began scheduling briefings for their students. These were delivered by myself with a presentation which introduced students to the world of advertising. For the competition briefing itself I handed over to a recording of Ava and Eleanor who introduced them to agency life and the details of the brief.
The briefing was supported by a workshop which gave students the chance to develop their personal proposition, giving them a springboard to solve the competitive brief. I also wrote a pack for Teachers to help them guide their students through the competition.
ENTRY AND JUDGING
I designed an entry portal which was built by UCLan’s digital team. As the brief was so open the portal had to support entries in a number of formats These were all acknowledged with a confirmation email and automatically collated in a database which could be anonymously shared with the judging team at 21GRAMS.
Once the winners were selected, prizes of Amazon vouchers were awarded to the successful entrants. The winning work was also displayed at our annual degree show and winners were encouraged to share their success in their personal statements and university applications.
The pilot scheme was successful on a number of fronts. It created a working model for college engagement that could be adapted by other courses. For the colleges, it allowed teachers to introduce their students to higher education and the creative industries in a hands-on way. Last but not least, the students taking part had the opportunity to develop their personal proposition and begin to think about themselves as professional creatives with an extra curricular experience to help them to stand out from the crowd.
I’m immensely grateful to both the University of Central Lancashire and 21 GRAMS for their support in helping me bring this project to life.